Shinjuku is supposed to be the transport hub of Tokyo, and we did indeed arrive here on our first night. We didn't get to explore the area very much as we were starving as we came out from the metro in the morning and headed to the first sushi place we could find. It was one of those places with a conveyor belt from which you pick up the sushi that arrives in front of you and pay for your stack of colour coded plates at the end. Genius concept- why don't they do this for all sorts of finger food in the rest of the world? (or maybe they already do, in which case I'm either an ignorant fool or I've been blinded my whole life...)
When we went back out it was as if the clouds had exploded and while the guys were trying to be real men getting soaked in "a few drops of rain" I was very happy about being able to hide under my umbrella (which was used as a shield for sunlight as well during this trip). We decided to walk towards Harajuku. Michael, using the compass app on his phone to point us into the southern direction, was guiding the way and I followed like an entire flock of sheep. We got distracted on the way and peeked into the odd toy store and Lawson or 7/11 shop to load up on coffee. On one of the coffee-missions at a Lawson store I asked the clerk to help me with the ticket machine (which is all in Kanji/Japanese letters) so that I could try reserving places for us to visit the Studio Ghibli Museum because you need to book this in advance before arriving at the door. Trying every single time slot for our entire stay in Tokyo we were not even able to get a spot for *one* person to enter the museum. Chika (one of the girls I met in the onsen in Kawaguchiko) told me later that you need to book this a month in advance to be guaranteed a spot, so now I know what to do straight after booking my ticket to Japan next time!
After getting the directions wrong, finding street maps eventually and getting completely soaked in the rain (I was no longer the only person with an umbrella :p ) we were slowly approaching Harajuku and Takeshita street! This is where the cosplay girls and boys hang out. I watched a documentary once showing how young Japanese students bring their crazy outfits to school and change into them in the bathrooms once the school day is over, put their uniforms in their bags and head to Harajuku to show off their "wicked style" (ref: Harajuku Girls by Gwen Stefani). Coming here during the weekend we were hoping to see heaps of stylish youth, but there were way more tourists than school girls with cosplay outfits. The heavy rain maaaay have had to do with it, in addition to the school holiday. But we still merged into the crowd and had a blast walking down Takeshita street. We ate stuffed crepes (strawberry cheesecake/brownie/apple cinnamon.. mm mm mmmm!) and bought mystery boxes, browsed through the shops with Harajuku teen fashion and had a great time even in soaked trainers. At the bottom of the street I found a Birkenstock shop and bought a pair of flip flops to escape from said trainers for a while. Then we went back to the Harajuku train station, having another stuffed crepe and pearl milk tea on the way, where we got tickets to go two stops south to Shibuya.
Shibuya is where the Tokyo nightlife is at. If you ever see Tokyo on the news and they screen this super busy junction with crowds of people crossing in all directions then it's probably the Shibuya crossing. We had ramen noodles for dinner and continued walking around in the rain. Shibuya is also the definition of "neon jungle". Photos of this phenomenon doesn't do it justice, all I can say is NEON.EVERYWHERE. and you might be able to understand.... the whole place is just one big illuminated blob and at one point you can't even tell if it's afternoon or evening. The Black Eyed Peas' music video for "Just Can't Get Enough" finally became real to me as I walked down one of the narrower (which is still by no means "narrow" by my standards at least) streets and smaller junctions.
It started raining again like nobody's business so we found shelter under a shop entrance where the guys were window shopping for suits and spent quite a while browsing to the point where I was not sure whether they were still inside or I'd missed them walking on to another shop in the pouring rain. So once they managed to leave we found a super narrow bar at a street corner. There was a wide selection of bottled beers and I tried a lemon beer which was actually quite refreshing. It seemed like the bar was taking advantage of its corner position with windows looking down at the Shibuya crowd so we decided to go upstairs and do some people watching. Meanwhile we were trying to organise a meetup with a guy from Couchsurfing who was also visiting Tokyo. One drink let do another and this time I tried a bottle of sparkling sake which was also surprisingly good!
We met up with a Canadian guy not long after and decided to try the infamous Asian pastime that is KARAOKE! Our expectations of what this was going to be like were quite different from the reality that we were soon to discover. You go to the reception of a karaoke parlour and book a room for you and your group of friends, then they take your drink orders (which seemed to be unlimited at the place we went to) and show you your room that you can stay in for a designated amount of time. We tried it for 30 minutes and thought it felt a bit weird sitting on a couch and singing among ourselves- it was almost like putting on singstar at home. Our drinks arrived, we had a few mouthfuls and left the cigarette-scented room ten minutes before our time had ran out. Oh well, at least we gave it a shot! So we left the karaoke building, spent the rest of the night at different bars and had a good time :)
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It started raining again like nobody's business so we found shelter under a shop entrance where the guys were window shopping for suits and spent quite a while browsing to the point where I was not sure whether they were still inside or I'd missed them walking on to another shop in the pouring rain. So once they managed to leave we found a super narrow bar at a street corner. There was a wide selection of bottled beers and I tried a lemon beer which was actually quite refreshing. It seemed like the bar was taking advantage of its corner position with windows looking down at the Shibuya crowd so we decided to go upstairs and do some people watching. Meanwhile we were trying to organise a meetup with a guy from Couchsurfing who was also visiting Tokyo. One drink let do another and this time I tried a bottle of sparkling sake which was also surprisingly good!
We met up with a Canadian guy not long after and decided to try the infamous Asian pastime that is KARAOKE! Our expectations of what this was going to be like were quite different from the reality that we were soon to discover. You go to the reception of a karaoke parlour and book a room for you and your group of friends, then they take your drink orders (which seemed to be unlimited at the place we went to) and show you your room that you can stay in for a designated amount of time. We tried it for 30 minutes and thought it felt a bit weird sitting on a couch and singing among ourselves- it was almost like putting on singstar at home. Our drinks arrived, we had a few mouthfuls and left the cigarette-scented room ten minutes before our time had ran out. Oh well, at least we gave it a shot! So we left the karaoke building, spent the rest of the night at different bars and had a good time :)
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