High fashion in Harajuku

I woke up at Raum having only made it through 5 drinks last night and no time for one in the morning.  Also a correction, what I had called a memosa was an oj and vodka.  I smelled like cigarettes even though I was in the non-smoking section.  I hadn`t realized until I layed down the the pad was pretty inundated with the smell.  Other bad things to find out was the bathroom was a mess, as you could expect from a place with all you can drink booze.  Finally the shower cost an extra 5 bucks to use, and I had to wait to use it as they only had 1 available.  So unless I really want to drink a lot later on, maybe won`t be staying there again.

I started heading towards Shinjuku park, but found out it wasn`t open yet.  I stopped for breakfast at a small cafe and got a coffee and a sandwich that was Pastrami, Camembert cheese, and Shiso leaves.  It was really good and I`m not sure how to describe the Shiso leaves.  They have a fresh flavor, not too unlike mint but milder.

After that I continued on to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.  It has free observation decks, and luckily I was there 5 minutes before they opened, so the line was fairly short and I got in it.  I found out they were doing bag checks before the elevator, and the nice lady was like ok unzip that pocked, ok all clothes, unzip that one, ok worn underwear and toothbrush stuff on top, you`re good.

The view at the top was absolutely fantastic and was only the view from one of the towers.  So it gives a view of potentially half of Tokyo.  Mt Fuji would be visible in the distance, but it was too cloudy to see it.  I hung around for about 40 minutes or so taking pictures and looking at the guides on what buildings were what.  They also had a gift shop with mostly kitschy things, and from there I left.  When I got down to the first floor the line was much much longer, about 60 people back and moving slow.

The building also had some of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics 2020 stuff on display.  It has their mascots, the Olympic flag, and the previous torches from Rio.

I started heading south to Yoyogi park.  Its a fairly large park and I took the entrance that goes to Meiji Jinja shrine.  The shrine honoring Emperor Meiji who effectively westernized Japan by banning Samurai and bringing in western technology and culture.

Before I got to the shrine, some lady walks up to me and is like here, you want?  And gives me a shiny buddha thing.  And I`m like ok thanks.  Then she`s like here, and opens up a bad with names and an amount and she`s like "donation" and there`s a little explanation that its for money for the shrine.  And I`m like oh no, here`s your thing back, and she took it and walked off.  That`s my story.

After getting through the park I was entering Shibuya. While Shinjuku is the nightlife area of Tokyo, Shibuya is a fashion hub and also home to the busiest street crossing in the world known as the "Shibuya Scramble".  Its an all way crossing and there`s always last minute people trying to dart across.  For anyone who`s seen Lost in Translation, this is where Charlotte is walking across and there`s the pink dinosaur on the video screen.  The screens just had commercials when I was there.

Before going here I texted Sarah and told her to tune into the livestream, because there`s a camera set up that streams it and she could see me and try to screenshot me.  She saw me once she thinks :) but couldn`t find me again.  Honestly its like where`s waldo, and its not an HD stream, so its pretty tough.  We gave up after 4 tries.

Continuing to wander I found the Mandarake store.  It`s the largest seller/buyer of used manga in Tokyo, and thus probably the world, but they also have lots of other antique Japanese toys and stuff.  Like monsters from 60`s 70`s movies, and random collectibles.  The weird thing here was you go down 3 flights of stairs to get there and its in the huge underground cellar.  Not something I was expecting.

Around this time I was getting munchy, so first I grabbed a Strawberry Tiramisu crepe, which was awesome.  Next I got a pork skewer from a stand.  There are a lot more stand an eat and window service food places here than in Kyoto.

A short ways further on I found another thing on my todo list: The Hachiko statue.  Hachiko is a Shibuya icon and for those familiar with the "Frye`s Dog" are familiar with Hachiko, because that episode was based on him.  Hachiko was a dog who would wait at Shibuya Station every day in the evening for his owner to get off the train.  One day his owner died of a brain aneurysm and obviously didn`t come back.  Now homeless, Hachiko would wander the area, but always return to the train station each day to wait for his owner, until his own death.  More on the wiki page including a picture of Helen Keller touching the same statue.

Next to Shibuya is the area known as Harajuku.  This area gets some crazy Avant Garde youth fashion and also has many high end fashion shops all in a very small area.  I don`t think I got any good pictures of people because I didn`t stop them to ask, and wasn`t in a good position to to creeper pictures without them noticing.  There was nothing toooo too crazy, but I did spot a guy who was full Yohji Yamamoto, which is a very drapy, all black, very Japanese look.  Lots of platformed or chunky shoes.  A lot of girls wore oversized sweaters so the sleeves cover the hands but with low cutoffs so they could be tucked into hiked up wide pants.

I went in the Bape store so I could post about what trash it is.  James if you`re reading this, Bape is trash.  They`ve coasted for 20 years on a single design and everyone says their stitching and cloth quality has gone downhill over the years.

I also went into the Japan Blue store.  Japan makes the best denim in the world, or so sayeth the experts and Japan Blue is on the cheaper end of Japanese and raw Japanese Denim.  I tried on an expensive shirt, I liked it a lot, but didn`t quite love it...the fit was a little too tapered (aka my gut is an American gut).

Also I stumbled upon a Knot watch shop.  This is where Rick had wanted me to buy him a watch he wanted, and I was considering it as well.  They have a really nice shop, and their watches are very nice.  Unfortunately both the model he wanted and the one I wanted were no longer made, so didn`t snag anything.  However, I had a long conversation with the guy running the shop.  He was from South Korea and had lived in Japan 3 years.  His English was great.  He started our long political discussion with "So what do you think of North Korea".  To which was like "What?"  And then he said "What do you think about Kim Jong Un".  What does anyone think about Kim Jong Un...at any rate he was pretty up to speed with American politics as well, so we talked about South Korea and the US and whatnot.  Very fun.

Everyday complaint, feet were dying.  I stopped at a starbucks and just got a cheapo drip coffee and sat for a bit.  When I left it was getting dark and I needed to get back to Shinjuku still.  Made it back to Shinjuku, with my left foot getting some sharp pains so I said screw it, sitting again.  Went in McDonalds and THIS time enunciated and got the Teriaki chicken sandwich set.  It was pretty darn ok.

So after that back to wandering and time killing.  I found another Taito arcade building and tried and failed a couple times at a claw machine.  Then I found one of my signature games: Jurassic Park.  Sarah and I have cleared it many times at Dave and Busters, and sure enough made it through about half on one coin, then stopped.  Interesting differences I noticed, the Japanese version has slight auto-aim, adds a music track, and when you finally lose give you a discounted rate to continue playing.

I picked up a new usb cable at book off since my other one is falling apart, and then to kill more time I decided to see a movie.  They weren`t showing Us, which I was hoping to see, but they had Black K Klansman showing.  I got a ticket for 9:40.  Some old usher guy got grumpy twice at me.  First I thought he told me to move because I was sitting by a window.  Then I went inside and put down my backpack and sat on it and he walked up and is like no no.  So its just no sitting, gotta stand.  Ok.

The movie.  It was very good, I highly recommend it.  However, I got an experience I wasn`t expecting.  Not to spoil too much but at the end for several minutes it shows incidents from the Charlottesville KKK march, brutal fights, and the car ramming that killed a person.  Watching this in a foreign theater and with the events leading to it, I just felt a wave of emotion and extreme shame.  If I had watched it in an American theater, there would`ve maybe been a "yeah that was awful moment", but surrounded by outsiders looking at this completely different world was really terrible.

After the movie it was about midnight and I walked a block to the Popeye I`m currently at.  I unfortunately had to register again because my Osaka one doesn`t work here.  But got through it fine.  I got it for 10 hours but I`ll probably wake up a little before 8.  I need to be at the Ghibli Museum at 12 and I`d prefer to get there early.  The train only takes like 20 minutes to get there.

Also I forgot to mention I went to Golden Gai.  Its an area crammed with mini bars.  It appears to have been killed bh tourists like me though.  People everywhere, but just taking pictures.  The bars charge an entrance fee of 8-10 bucks, then its 5 bucks for any drink while there. I can see it being a good time with someone else.