Harajuku and Shibuya!

こんにちわ！

Today went much better than yesterday I’m happy to say. Once again, I write this on Saturday to post on Sunday. I’ve got some studying to do tomorrow, so no going out for me.

So. I got up at a leisurely 10:30, typed up my last post, showered, breakfasted, and headed out with Kuzuhara-san, who was going to show me how to get to the bus station. I got on the #52 bus, paid my ¥210 (approx $2.10), and took off for Mitaka station. We were to meet at 2pm. I got to Shinjuku where I would transfer to another line (whose name I forget) and get to Harajuku station, only two stops away. I had to adjust my ticket when I got there because I hadn’t known how much it would cost when I first got it. Basically there are kiosks to buy tickets and you look at a map to find out how much it’ll cost to go to a specific station. When you enter the station then, you stick the ticket in a slot and get it again as you go through the thing (I don’t know how to describe it. Kinda like a toll gate for people?). at the other end when you’ve reached your destination, you exit through those toll things by sticking your ticket in again, only this time the machine eats it and you’re done. If you didn’t get the correct ticket price to begin with you have to go to a ticket adjustment kiosk and pay the difference and get a new ticket to exit the station with. Extremely efficient and easy to use, though most Japanese have cards they put money on and just pass over a sensor without taking them out of their wallets even, which is even easier. I may get one at some point.

I got there early and waited a little and the group was assembled. There were 11 of us total. Now, Harajuku is the fashion district. It’s a few streets in particular that are lined with the craziest stores I have ever seen. If ever you were to check out my flickr account it’s now. I’ll get those pics up as soon as I can. There was a huge forever 21 that had opened just a month ago and had a line to get in, there were Lolita shops with the most amazing dresses, there was a goth clothing shop that would make Hot Topic look like Aeropostale (I don’t have pics of that, there was a sign saying “no pictures” and then insulted me. Sorry I can’t type inappropriate messages in mixed company). It was just overwhelming.

Oh right, before we shopped we had a late lunch at a small restaurant nearby that was really pretty from the outside (again, flickr). I had yakisoba, which is soba that you cook yourself on the grill in the middle of the table (I think anyway. That’s what I did so I guess its just that). It was all very delicious. Then we split into groups, and shopped. I only got one shirt, but it was really cool and 40 bucks, so I didn’t want to get much more. It was all pretty expensive stuff. The funny thing is that the girls fashion scared me and I was traveling with 3 guys, so I never got a chance to check out the chick stuff specifically. As such, the shirt I got was from a store called Nudy Boy (lol), that was all mens clothing. It looks pretty sweet on me tho. All the stuff in that store was awesome, and all four of us got something there.

We then all met up at 6, and started walking to Shibuya. Shibuya is more comparable to New York than Harajuku is. When you see images of Tokyo and that one intersection where like a bajillion people are crossing the road, that’s in Shibuya. Andrew told me that something like 1000 people cross that intersection a minute. So it had giant department stores, karaoke bars every 10 feet, stores of every type imaginable, and all HUGE. It was overwhelming again. I unfortunately had limited time, as the last bus from Mitaka station to my house was at 9:30 and I did NOT want a repeat of the last night, especially as I did not know how to get from Mitaka station to my house by foot. So I accompanied the group to karaoke, we awkwardly figured out the songs, all sang at the same time and generally enjoyed ourselves. I’ll have to go again sometime, when I can enjoy myself more without worrying about trains.

Ended up no problem. I left at 8pm, found the train station easy, found the JR Yamanote line which goes to Shinjuku, got the appropriate priced ticket this time (¥290), and listened to Miike Snow on the way. Waited a bit for my bus and got home around 8:45-9. That’s about when I posted my last post btw, but I was too tired, and had other things to do while I was connected to the internet to write this post then, so I’m writing it now and will post tomorrow sometime. But yeah, I’ll check out Shibuya again sometime, when I have more time. Pics will appear sometime too.

さよなら！