(Day 4) I Want Shabu-Shabu

Good Morning Tokyo; and a late one it was. Completely unmotivated to get out of bed early, we didn’t. We found ourselves without a real solid itinerary for the day, so we headed to Tokyo’s downtown area of Shinjuku in hopes of finding something interesting…which we always did because Tokyo is a city full of wonder where everything is a novelty. It wasn’t rainy, but it was certainly cloudy and gray.







Finding a fairly sparse collection of people, we gathered our courage (not that much is needed during the daytime) and headed into Tokyo’s seedy red-light district, Kabuki-chou.



Doesn’t look much different from anywhere else, does it? Well, it was seedy for Japan, anyways. There were many host clubs (clubs where women pay men to lavish them with attention), hostess clubs (same as host clubs but switched), love hotels, and yakuza clothing stores. And a few McDonalds’. We gawked at the awkward encounters between the promotional men trying to get other men into their clubs. We emerged from kabuki-chou successfully and realized that some lunch was in order. I had a hankering for tonkatsu and there was a tonkatsu place in front of us. A perfect match.




Oh my…so delicious. I could have done without the raw egg on top though.

After lunch I wanted Mother to experience another very Japanese activity, that of purikura. If you’ve seen my Facebook, you know what I mean. Here is our first attempt:





Oh fun.

I had to show Mother more of fabulous Shinjuku, so we shopped at bit at Muji before heading to Isetan to explore the luxurious food halls where a cantaloupe sells for $10 without a ribbon; with is $25.





Since we were like jamming a lot of stuff into one day, I decided that Tachikawa would be our next stop. Tachikawa is where I stayed last time I was in Tokyo but it is a bit of a ride away. So, on the train we went.

I’m sure you’ve heard about how Japanese fall asleep on trains, but it is really amazing to me. Honestly, someone can get on the train at one stop and fall asleep before the next stop two minutes away. Some fall asleep while standing. Some of them like to lean on my shoulder. In any case, it is a sight to see.



After shopping at my favourite Tachikawa store, Granduo, we left for Kichijoji without actually leaving Tachikawa station. I’ll come back.

I love love love Kichijoji (not to mention the fact that part of my favourite drama of the moment ‘Ryuusei no Kizuna’ is filmed there as well as a past favourite, ‘Last Friends’.) This night in particular, we were to meet my host-student from August (and cute friend!) Mayuko. Since we had some time to kill, we shopped down Sun Road and strolled through Inokashira Park before getting horrendously lost (again. Am I sensing a theme here?)





There is a store that is all-around cool store so I like to shop there, and it is called ‘Loft’. What makes the Kichijoji store special though, is that I think it was used in the filming of ‘Last Friends’! So I took a picture of it.



Kichijoji has been given the official designation as ‘the city with the most bicycles’ by yours truly. I know this because they kept whizzing past me every few seconds and then I stumbled upon what looked like a bike repository.



And more:



And yet more:



You see, it isn’t merely the fact that they cruise on the sidewalks within a hair-width of you and ring their annoying bells to let you know they are coming. No, it’s not JUST that. It’s the brakes. The evil bike brakes from hell. As anyone who has been to Japan and seen (or heard, for that matter) bicyclists will tell you, the sound of those brakes are akin to the screech of cat being caught under a vehicle tire. Next time I got to Japan, I’m sneaking some WD-40 into my suitcase and I will have my revenge. HA HA HA HA! It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

Our free time concluded with a lovely evening stroll in Inokashira Park where the bike brakes were replaced with excessively loud crickets. Noises unlike any cricket I’d ever heard before, but more tolerable than the bikes.





Got lost leaving Inokashira Park and I made a successful attempt to get directions from the sweet girl working at Family Mart. Hooray for my pittance Japanese! We made it just in time to meet Mayuko in front of Parco. Hooray! I was so happy to see her! This was our night to indulge in some delicious cuisine known as shabu-shabu. We went to the cheapest-known shabu-shabu place I know of (and I know of only 1), Nabezo. All you can eat for 90 minutes for $17.95!


Here is lovely Mayuko as our model for tonight, holding up the delicious gyuu-niku, pre-shabu-ing.



Shabu-shabu is an activity-based meal wherein you have a giant pot of broth and throw in lots of different vegetables (mostly root vegetables) and tofu and then take meat and swish it in the boiling broth, dip it in a sauce and devour.


Mother shows us how it’s done.

After dinner we went our separate ways and boarded the train for semi-long ride back to Ikebukuro.

Tomorrow, DISNEY!! Yay!