Roppongi – our future stomping grounds

On Sunday 4/10, I spent some time in Roppongi. Lifehouse international church is located there and Jenny was hoping that I could check it out since I was here over a weekend. So I planned my day around that objective. Since I had extra time in the morning, I decided to try and figure out the subway and train system on my own.

Taxis are super expensive, like $30+ per trip, so I wanted to figure out the trains. Trips are usually around $2 via the subways and I like how subways are much more individual-driven instead of figuring out where to find a taxi and then attempt to tell them where to go. On the way down to Roppongi, I successfully purchased individual subway tickets for the two trains that I needed to ride. This even included getting a second ticket for the JR line at a fare-adjustment machine. The machines had options for English so that was nice but I still had to figure out the right station and get on the right platform to go the right direction. It was pretty intimidating but I didn’t mess any of it up. The way home was another story…

I took the train down to the area and first found Roppongi CrossFit and joined the noon class to get a good workout in.  Soo many burpees but I was killing it that morning. This was the largest of the 4 CrossFit boxes that I visited but also the second workout of the week with no barbell work.   🙁   It was definitely challenging but I hope that’s not a theme in Tokyo due to smaller spaces.

After workout, I needed to cool down for a bit so I did some walking and I ended up sitting at this nice little park and people watching while I talked with Jenny. It had a bunch of fountains with families and little dogs walking by.

I also saw a bunch of sweet cars from this park. Roppongi is a pretty high-class area and this park was across the street from a luxury car detailing shop.  While walking around I also found my future car at the Lambo dealership.  🙂

I also passed a couple cool buildings. The first one pictured is the Tokyo Art Center and the second one is just a cool entry.

So I grabbed some lunch at a pasta shop (I was really happy to have some “normal” food) and then set out to find Lifehouse church.  This place was impossible to find!  I wandered around all over looking for it, staring at my phone GPS like an idiot. Turns out I had to take a alley-like road off the main drag to find the entrance. I found it with like 5 minutes to spare and it was dark in that auditorium. They had people with little glow-stick things directing people to their seats.  I wasn’t supposed to take pictures but I snapped one anyways just give a glimpse. If we thought Mercy Vineyard was a young church, this place is even more so! It was probably because I went to the 3:30 service but it was like a dance club and I felt like the oldest person there.  I also felt like one of the tallest people there but that was kind of nice.

On the way home, I somehow purchased the wrong ticket for where I wanted to go and I got rejected at the automatic gate. It has little doors that fling out to stop you and a nice buzzer. AND all the people behind you have to stop the flow. So that wasn’t fun and in my frustration I decided to just buy whatever card/train pass the automatic machine was selling. I got lucky and bought the PASMO card, which you charge with as much cash as you want and the gates automatically deduct the fare based on where you enter and where you exit the subway system. This became my new best friend.

With this new tool I felt liberated and invincible. Riding the rail system became so much easier and between this Google Maps ability to give directions via public transportation, I started using the trains all the time.