One thing I have failed to mention until now is the location of our hostel. Unlike last time I came to Japan we are staying more on the out skirts of town. This is good and bad. Bad because we have to take a train to go pretty much anywhere and once we come back it can be quite the hassle to go back out again. But also very good because we see a side of Japan that gets missed by most people. Our neighborhood is pretty quite, mostly residential with a few local shops and dining. When we leave in the morning we get to see people starting their day, like the old man down the street who runs a bike shop from what looks like his garaged but is really his house. We also see all the little kids, like 6 and under, walking to the subway to go to school in their uniforms. The girl this morning was having trouble walking with a backpack, lunch pale and her hat continually falling off. It's very different than the US, as their are no school buses, so kids as young as first grade are expert train riders taking their place ride next to the businessmen in suits heading out in the morning. Bikes also seem to be very popular, all of them 50s style with a basket on the front. We routinely hear the ching ching of the bell telling us to move because they are coming through. In a city this crowded I guess bike riding is done out of necessity rather than a hobby. We stick out a little more here than in the rest of Tokyo but no one gives us trouble or stares to long. And after walking around the busy streets of the rest of Tokyo, it is nice to come back to a quiet place with empty streets.
Anyway back to the story. Early yesterday morning we left our hostel for Shinjuku. I had read in a magazine that there is a flea market on Sunday mornings as a temple in the area. After seeing all the kitschy shit for sale at Sensoji temple I thought the flea market might offer a better selection of authentic items. And I was not disappointed. From wall scrolls to miniature Buddhas, to photographs from turn of the century to new kimonos. They even had what looked like a radio from WWII. It was definitely different and I was able to pick up my first souvenir, a three piece painting of samurai attempting to arrest a demon looking kabuki guy, and they were not doing to well at it. From the broken English of the old man selling it I gathered it was Edo period artwork (1800s) but you can never tell. Either way it looks pretty neat and I plan to frame it when I get home. I was very tempted to buy presents for other people, particularly the fertility amulet of a monkey with a gigantic you know what. But I didn't think most people would appreciate that so the search for gifts continues.
After walking around Shinjuku for a little while longer we took the train over to Meiji Shrine. Meiji was the emperor who really opened Japan up to the rest of the world (Meiji Restoration)and began the process of westernizing their culture. He cut off his top knot, wore western style suits and brought in western business. Meiji and his wife had the shrine built in their honor. It's a huge park but other than the shrine there is not a whole lot more to it. So we left and headed to Harajuku. The best way to describe Harajuku is a mix of Georgetown, Dupont Circle and Greenwich Village. It's the place of cutting edge fashion, crazy cosplay and goth kids and the latest in eating. Coming across the bridge we saw all the kids dressed as their favorite anime characters, the guy giving out free hugs and the acoustic musicians. We popped into the Italian Tomato for some lunch of spaghetti and strawberry cake. We stopped into a few of the stores and found out a simple fact; we have the best fashion since in the world! One store was a used t-shirt store where we found Dare shirts, old US sports team shirts and basically everything else you find in a salvation army. The store was packed and for a moment I had the idea of coming back every year loaded with $1 shirts from salvation army and selling them.
After we got tired of Harajuku's crowds we walked down the street to Shibuya. On the way we saw a protest of some sort, we assume for the handicapped. In Shibuya we stopped at the Shibuya station which is the scene from Lost in Translation with the giant dinosaur walking on the screen that is the entire building front. I took some video and pictures of it just to show the mass chaos that happens at the intersection. While they have cross walks no one follows them at all and it turns into pandemonium as people walk every which way. Its quite the experience. Shibuya is also the stereotypical shot of Tokyo as it lights up quite a bit at night and still has tons of people. It's also the first place Justin and I got separated. After popping into an internet cafe to cool our heels I began to upload pictures. Justin came by and said he was done, or so I thought. I told him I would be 1 more minute while I finished uploading. When I was done I walked out to the street expecting to see Justin but he was no where in site. So I sat down figuring maybe he wondered off to look at something while he waited for me. 40 minutes later he comes up saying 'where the hell were you'. I asked him the same thing and then he told me what happened. After he left me he went back to his computer thinking I understood to come get him when I was done. Well just to give you an idea of this place it had floor to ceiling cubes for the PC terminals, with locks on the doors. They are the type of place you don't want to touch the keyboard for to long and definitely need to wash your hands afterwards. He said after waiting for me for 30 minutes he peeked over my cube wall to see if I was there. Seeing a white guys hand he assumed it was me, except the screen had porn all over it. He said he was shocked and disgusted with me so he decided to leave thinking 'if Chris wants to do that I am going home'. We had a good laugh about it, then kind of got sick thinking about what goes in that place. We have seen a lot of interesting uses for the internet cafes, from reading comics, to playing video games, to businessmen in for an afternoon nap. Strange places for sure, nothing quite comparable in the US but they have been our haven for long hot days.
After Shibuya we came back to the hotel and relaxed for a little bit. We didn't quite want to go all the way into the city again for dinner so we stopped at the 24 hour ramen shop around the corner from our hostel. You buy a ticket from a vending machine that shows what food you want, hand it to the waitress and she brings the food. It wasn't bad, but not exactly filling since it is, well, ramen. But it got me through the night as I came back to the hostel and fell asleep at the late hour of 9:30. I guess the time adjusting continues.
