Woke up feeling much better after a good 8 hours of sleep. Had a nice relaxing morning drinking coffee, listening to NPR over the net, and working on my Day 1 blog post while Teman and Sayaka slept in. I think this is going to be my modus operandi while stay at their place. They are not big coffee drinkers so instead of having a coffee machine, they use these interesting single use coffee filters you unfold and place over your cup….
After a nice relaxing morning we walked over to Fujimamas for brunch. Their brunch menu is very western - the only difference is the Japanese level prices. Being a cheap skate, I skipped the $6 coffee but my 2 egg breakfast was quite good. On the way back we passed Kiddyland, a toy store filled with the incredibly cute, where they had someone dressed up as what appeared to be a 4ft tall daikon who was entertaining a group of kids - I really regretted not bringing my camera. We also passed a Shakey’s Pizza which brought back some memories for me however I don’t really remember Shakey’s offering pizza that included mayonaise or an egg cracked in the middle when I was growing up…
After brunch I grabbed an atlas and headed out for a couple of hours. The way the neighborhoods around Teman’s place are laid out the major streets cut virtual islands of mixed residential and shopping areas that are the size of several city blocks. These islands are then crisscrossed with winding side streets only large enough for a single car to go down. Without an atlas it would be very easy to get lost.
I headed out and hit the main streets to get a better idea of the boarders of Teman’s neighborhood to help get my orientation, circling around until I reached Omotesando close to where we had brunch again. I have to pause and say, even though I live in a decent sized american city, I have never seen so many people. The streets were just packed, so much so that one of the parking garages had a cadre of 4 attendants to try and direct pedestrian traffic so that cars could make it in off the street.
I headed down Omotesando towards Harajuku station and Meiji Shrine. Harajuku is where the school kids dress up all crazy and let people take pictures of them. Most were dressed up in goth fashion somewhat like what we see at home except often with some cute touches (one girl had what appeared to be a dead teddy bear that had X X ‘s for eyes) There was also a definite subset that reminded me of strawberry shortcake. There was one that really stood out - a homely guy who had to be in his 30s dressed up as maid, complete with short skirt and all. < shudder > The place was a zoo so I didn’t fight my way through to take any pictures.
The entrance to Meiji is right next to Harajuku. You walk through a gigantic torii and walk down a wide gravel path cut through a pleasant woods. Along the way you run into the looming wall of sake barrels from across japan ready to be presented as shrine offerings. The shrine itself is an impressive structure with nice woodwork surrounded by more torii at each entrance.
Right next to the Meiji shrine woods lies Yoyogi park, a huge park filled with people doing all the things you would expect on a nice Sunday afternoon - biking, picnicking, throwing the frisbee around, or forming a drum circle. The sidewalk outside Yoyogi was, to me, the more interesting part since here you could find band after band lined up right next to each other blaring out music as long as their generators would allow. Metal bands seemed to be the most popular, but there was a wide range from funk to pop-ish girl groups. I messed around taking a couple of short movies with my camera to show what it was like - I need to practice since they didn’t turn out too good.
Video #2 - walking past a couple rock bands - please right click and do a “save as” (80MB).
Once I got back we all went out for dinner at a soup curry place that was both delicious and cheap. Curry broth with veggies, hard boiled egg, potato, and “bacon” (thin sliced ham cut into squares) with rice on the side. mmmmm. We then hit the local grocery store - 4 levels, lots of people, tiny isles, and lots of interesting things to look at. I love the way that every individual piece of fruit or vegetable is loving wrapped separately. Meat was crazy expensive - the nice marbled stuff thinly sliced was ¥1200 for 100 grams, steaks ¥1600 per 100g - ouch.
