Go! Go! Valentine Queen! (Day 4)

Getting sick of me yet? Mwahahaha…I’m just getting started.

Today we headed back to Shibuya for some perusing of the local vendors.


This is Hachiko, a statue of a dog. It’s been outside Shibuya station since 1948 to commemorate a loyal dog who would return to the station every day for 11 years after his master died to await his master’s return from work. One of the Nana’s in Nana is nicknamed Hachi (that’s basically how I know this stuff…) Also, this is another popular meeting spot for Japanese teens.

We continued to wander…







Eventually we got hungry and discovered an underground Indian buffet place – turns out it was basically the best ever and had wonderful nan bread. I gotta say though that it was a bit strange hearing East Indian people speaking Japanese to one another.


Mmmm…nan.



More wandering after lunch…













The building in the above pictures is Shibuya 109, which has 8 floors and you just spiral up or down and there are a million shops there. Lots of the fancier stores have neat clothes...but in sizes I could never wear. I can pour my body into some of the larges here, but like Jean says, I don’t think it’s supposed to be worn that way. Hmm… Me and Jean mostly bypass stores like that.

This movie is just a quick view at Shibuya on a dreary Wednesday morning…


There were lots of great little shops along the way and I started my souvenir buying. We stumbled across this place called Sweets Paradise that allows you cram as much dessert in your face as possible for 90 minutes. I thought it sounded awesome, but Jean insisted she was too full from Indian Buffet. Boo.

Before I even came to Tokyo, I had heard of this intersection where all the lights turn red for cars and pedestrians flood the intersection from all directions…well, I sort of showed you a mini-video of it the other day, but here are some day shots of that very intersection. A sky view would be so coolie!









After that we went up to Harajuku again where my eye caught this display of pictures from Ryuhei’s (my favorite Japanese man ever) new movie Akumu Tantei...it was strange because it was in the entrance to this hat store. I'm looking everywhere for him.

Genius at work: I think that if I wore a shirt with his face on it until I left, somehow someone would see me that knew him and would tell him. I get quite a few stares from people, so I'm sure I would reach him somehow. I won't do it, but I'm positive it would work. This is my ultimate plan…if I were a nerd who thought of such things.




Local drink machine…blue means cold and red means hot


Local random statue


Local random Vivienne Westwood sign! I rove Vivienne.
It was near this sign that a different sign told me this gem: “Caviar is not a food. It is a dream…a way of living.” Hm…really…


This is the Harajuku station…I don’t know if I told you already, but this is the oldest train station in Tokyo…and the cutest! So many Harajuku girls and boys.

Me and Jean had a nice chat tonight about random things, so that was good. We were going to see Akumu Tantei tonight (Ryu's new movie), but Jean was pooped and we couldn't find a theatre close by that was playing it. We are going to go next week Wednesday. Wednesday is ladies night, where tickets are only 1000 yen. That’s a far better price than 1800 yen for Nana (18 bucks!)

You know...you might like it here. Tokyo is full, but no one makes a big deal about it. It is sometimes hard to walk with so many people, but nobody gets rude and mutters under their breath or gets upset, they just deal with it. It's also really nice that when you walk into a store, they don't harrass you AT ALL. They just say welcome and leave you alone entirely (save for that freaky store in Harajuku.)

Tomorrow we are going to a presentation at Sophia University to hear about Japanese sexuality and relationships and then we are going for ramen and then tattoos! Later yet we are meeting a group of about 17-18 people in Shinjuku for a huge dinner. Apparently it is 3500 yen, but you can drink all you want!

shimasu!