Day 4 - Lolis

Our fourth day of this Japanese Odyssey was set to be a day of high teen fashion dedicated to shopping. We would start at a loli shopping street and make our pilgrimage to their Mecca.

At 7am we were out of bed and at the breakfast nook of our hotel, a restaurant on the bottom floor. Food was included with the price of the room. There is a choice between western style which consists of some kind of sausage, bread, jelly, and milk, and Japanese style, which is tomago, rice, fish, two kinds of soup, and some stuff which I think you are supposed to put on the rice, I think this because that is what

I saw the Japanese folks do so I copied them. We ate and headed out the door to our first destination.

Harajuku

There we were, standing at the gateway to the world renowned Takeshita Dori street, the place to go for all of your loli needs.

My first glimpse of the fabled McHotdog. It would be days before I could taste it.

We arrived before the stores opened so we took an unplanned side trip to kill time around the block and came across a little garden pond.

A nice little turtle. Fish.

And a cherry blossom tree tucked away.

Continuing on..

"A mere 3 minute walk" back to where we started. Well then, that sounds easy enough. We rounded the corner and instead of the empty street we left earlier we were faced with the masses of Japanese girls that we would be up against for the rest of the day

Oy.

We went through the crowds and she made her way to the Harajuku Closet Child. She shopped and shopped and I stood and watched.

Random view from the balcony of the store overlooking what we found to be an incredibly popular item amongst the young Japanese of Tokyo.

Crepes. Yup. Everywhere along the street and elsewhere that we found in Tokyo, crepes are a very popular item, there sure are enough people out there talking about it. I have no idea why but we adapted to the culture quite quickly and bought right into it by buying ourselves a couple of them. They were soft and tasty.

We stopped at Daiso (one of the biggest 100 yen stores) picked up some trinkets and some wraps for my toes (I predicted my feet to be destroyed with all this walking we were doing), and finished exploring the street.

Yay shopping.

At the end of the road we started our voyage to Shibuya and made a couple side stops.

Milk, which was featured by America's Next Top Model, and way out of our price range, and down the street from that is..

Condommania, which is about the size of a cubicle on the inside but it has a catchy looking outside.

Up the street we stopped at Kiddy Land, half a dozen floors of every possible Japanese toy imaginable, and these..

Fascinating.

They also had the import food row, for all of the rare and exotic foods not found in Japan.

Heh. Nothing like seeing all those cheap East Coast Pretzels on their fancy import rack, must be how they feel when they see their cheap Japanese beer being sold here at a premium.

I bought my first thing in Japan, a bubble wrap simulator.

Outside of the store we saw yet another crepe store and continued up the street.



We found a riceball place and stopped in.

The remaining portions of an octopus ball that I had. Quite tasty and also warmed up.

Along the way..


Many of dozens and dozens of vending machines we passed on our walk. The girl that is featured on all of the Coke Zero ads (and they are everywhere) is Namie Amuro, just in case you were wondering.

As we kept walking the neon grew in frequency and in the distance I could see the famed Shibuya Crossing, or at least see the masses of people scrambling across it. After stopping at a Barbie clothing store for humans we waited at the edge of the street and prepared to make our way across the street.

Woo. The video does not quite convey the craziness that is the Shibuya Crossings. Hundreds of people crossing every possible direction, all going at the same time. As sad as it may sound it was actually a bunch of fun to cross the street with them all.

From there we saw the final destination of today's trip, the place where all teen girls must voyage to once in their lives in order to be made complete.

Shibuya 109.

Imagine yourself in a 9 story dance club with blasting techno music and excited young people, but instead of dance floors you have 100s of stores. For a girl it would be one of the most amazing shopping places on Earth, for me it was a mind numbing "cultural" experience.

Out we went back onto the streets. We found a Sega arcade and stopped in.

Played some House of the Dead EX, which is a strange zombie love mini game compilation.

I know how to handle a gun.

We also saw a Typing of the Dead arcade cabinet, which I never knew existed outside of the home PC market, and even that I thought was a joke. It's a zombie shooting game mixed with a typing tutor.She played some more UFO catcher machines (won nothing).

We also had our first run in with the insanity that are Tokyo arcade photo booths. Unlike the little ones that you find on the boardwalk or at your local mall, the Japanese booths are taken to a whole new level. An entire floor of an arcade will be dedicated to them with girls arriving with entire suitcases filled with outfits to put on. They have clothing and wig rentals available as well. From what I gathered it's an insanity of flashing lights, music, post picture editing and doodling, and from what you see on that photo, no boys allowed unless they have a date. Wild stuff.

Before we went home we stopped for some ramen. They way many ramen places work in Japan (Tokyo at least) is that you put your money into a machine, select what you want from a large list, push the button, and you get a ticket printed. The ticket is then handed to the server and it's passed on to the cook, a few minutes later you get your food and you eat happily.


Best ramen I have ever had, ever, anywhere.

Afterwards we found a puppy store and looked around, went back to Ueno, climbed the hill to our hotel, and passed out.

Day5

Day 11 - Tokyo nightlife, for a few hours

Our two day whirlwind tour of Kyoto was over, after an uneventful morning at the hotel (as in not blowing out the power again) we grabbed our bags and went to Kyoto Station to get the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We needed a little breakfast to start our day.

Oh my goodness! Could it really be time to partake in the legendary McHotDog Japanese breakfast meal?

Yes it was! I wonder what wonders awaited under that wrapping.


Oh. Well then. Breakfast of Champions?

Mustard, ketchup, and relish underneath.

I had a conversation a few days later about the McHotDog with some Japanese collegues.

"We had the McHotDog a few days ago"
"Oh yes! That is the new breakfast at McDonalds."
"It was strange for us to have a hot dog for breakfast, is that normal here?"
"Yes, of course"
"Back at home we have them for lunch or maybe dinner"
"Oh really, that is strange"

Perhaps there was some jet lag involved when someone introduced the hot dog to either our country or theirs, 12 hour difference in both time and hot dogs.

With a few hours to kill before our train we explored the station some more.


The station goes up, and keeps going up for 10 floors. It's a monster.



And once you get to the top you can come back down again through a huge department store. On the bottom floor of the department store, as is standard with these Japanese institutions, you will find a complete food market.


One of our favorite bits was this all tempura station. Everything fried in that wonderful Japanese invention of tempura batter. I'm convinced that you could put a shoe in that stuff and it would taste good once it's cooked up.

But it was time to go. We found our way out of the stores and made our way to the gate. Once through the ticket machines we stopped for some more food.

Train station ramen. It hit the spot.

It was time to go, our 1 PM Nozomi Shinkansen to Tokyo was about to arrive and it was time for us to head back.


Mt. Fuji finally decided to come out in all of it's glory.


Malt liquor and rice balls, Nozomi meal of champions.

Tokyo Station. I think we go straight.




When we made it back to Ueno we stopped at a Freshness Burger for a quick bite to eat. I had a standard cheeseburger, which was just OK. I noticed after I had gotten the food that they had something called a Freshness Burger, which is something I will try next time I am in Japan. Someday...

This is the point in the story where things get a little dull. For the next few hours we sat around reading, doing laundry, and resting. Our dirty clothes pile had become a mountain, we had hardly done nothing since the moment we got to Japan, and by now the feet were destroyed.

But as I just said, that only lasted for a few hours.

It was Shibuya time! At night too. Coming out of the station we did the touristy thing and found Hachiko. We had to do it. From there we went out for a few hours, the subways stop at midnight and the cabs cost $75 bucks, so we had to get back sooner than later. Shibuya at night is amazing. seeing it must be like how some people feel the first time they see Times Square at night for the first time, except by now I no longer care about Times Square. Shibuya at night is something everyone must see when in Japan. With all of the neon, huge TV screens, moving images across the sides of buildings, its everything you'll ever need for that quintessential Tokyo neon experience. Anyway, time for food and drinks.

We stopped at Alcatraz ER, the medical themed resturant. The lobby was pretty creepy. Dark music, an ominious voice warning you about entering, the mummy corpse thing above, blood on the walls, the mood was being set for one hell of a creepy meal. We pushed the button and entered, and that's where the mood changed. Once you are inside you are treated to non stop disco music mixed in with Madonna and Michael Jacksoon. All of a sudden the mood goes from creepy to kooky. It was a bit of a let down.

You are then taken to your cell. Each table is behind bars and you are attended to by a nurse.



The drinks are fun and the food isn't bad. We had something called Russian Roulette Poppers. Five come out on a tray. One is ultra spicy. The catch is that they don't tell you which one it is. Oh what a surprise that is.

With that finished we headed across the street..




To the Christon Cafe. "The most premier restaurant in 100 years. Restaurant with the image of a church"
Unlike Alcatraz which promised one thing and gave you instead a strange 70s music trip, the Christon Cafe was laid back and the music was jazzy. The whole place is decked out in gothic Christian imagery.

We sat in a red lined booth, Jesus watched over us as we ate from one end of the table. The food was quite good, we had a shrimp pizza and garlic toast, drinks were a Blue Velvet (made with beer) and a sangria.

From there we headed out back to the streets, stopped at another Sega arcade, played more UFO catcher machines, and got on one of the last trains to Ueno.

When we hit the bed we fell asleep. Another packed day was ahead of us.

Day 12