Day 8 (13 September)
Hmm, what should we do today? I know! Let's go to the beer museum! Specifcally the Beer Museum Yebisu in Ebisu. The train station, and then the town, were named after the beer. Off we went!

Multiple guide books claimed that there was a moving walkway to transport visitors to the Yebisu Garden Place, where the museum resides. Having found nothing but regular exits, we consulted a map and headed off to walk there. After walking for quite some time, we decided further directions might just be necessary. Having been the one to suggest the day's activities, I named myself navigator and actually figured out where we were on the map! Additionally, I had seen a sign a few blocks back for the post office, which happened to be one of the few landmarks on our only map that covered Ebisu. To the beer!

The museum itself was somewhat small, with very little English. Aside from stopping every three seconds to take pictures, we traversed the entire exhibit fairly quickly. Now, this may sound like a bit of a disappointment after all the effort to get there, but its hard to be disappointed when entering a beer tasting room with more varieties of Sapporo and Yebisu than you've ever dreamed of. For some reason, they also had Guiness on tap. Boring. We sampled three varieties of Yebisu, of which I preferred the lager. Matt liked all three, but also preferred the lager.

After drinking our fill, the gift shop called to us. We answered by getting some souvenir glasses.

The much touted gardens were nothing special, so we followed the signs back to the subway. Lo and behold, it was the fabled walkway! How did we miss such a giant structure? Well, it is quite easy when it connects to one subway station, but not the other. As previously mentioned, many transfer stations involve swiping out of one and then into another. Ebisu took it step further by having two stations that only connect through the outside world. Obviously.

Back at the hotel, Matt and I decided to further explore Takashimaya, specifically for the purpose of Matt showing me a Hermes tie he discovered while I was at my ikebana class. He was practically drooling over the tie, which was knitted silk and quadruple sided. Each end was a different color on the front and back, for a total of four colors. He chose a color combination not sold in the US, and made his dream of owning one of Hermes' legendary ties come true.

An ecstatic Matt and I soon left Takashimaya for Maruzen, in search of reading material and snack. I found Tokyo and Kyoto guide books, which we left with despite their outrageous prices. As you may have guessed, the ones we brought with us were no longer welcome companions.

The day ended with dinner at Sense, a Chinese restaurant in the hotel, where we had duck served three ways. There was also a some amazing Korean beef and a chicken salad, but nothing else came close to the duck. The chef came out and cut up the half duck at our table, then our waiter very carefully made 6 wraps with Chinese crepes. He even rewrapped one that looked perfect to my untrained eye, but quite obviously horrible to him.

Matt promptly fell asleep, while I remained awake and read through the entire Kyoto guide. Today, we'll plan Kyoto. And off we go!