Harajuku Ginza Shinjuku Yaey!

I met up with my friend Athena, who lives in Saitama teaching English, yesterday for fun and frivolity in Tokyo. It was a nice escape from my normal routine, which has mostly consisted of hanging around the house or walking to the grocery store with Mom. I'm having a nice time here, but things are a lot slower when you're with your elderly family. I haven't gotten out much, except for the day when Mom and I went to downtown Tokyo to see the Imperial Palace and Diet Building, and when I went with Suzukoobachan to Tachikawa Station to shop.

Anyhow, we started in Harajuku, and were pretty much stuck there most of the day because I kept getting distracted on Takeshita Street (but that is a later minor detail).

We first met up at Snoopytown in Harajuku and decided to go forth and grab some lunch. We ate at Jonathan's, whose menu is a weird amalgamation of western-style foods mutated to make them palatable by the Japanese, yet rendering them into forms that may prove bizarre to the hapless traveler. I think we studied the menu for at least half an hour. We're both pretty indecisive, but I ended up with bibimbap and she got a club sandwich (which came out much much later than my food, surprisingly). She says my dish was small, but I actually had to work a little to finish it :3;;; Their drink selection was amazing-- hot coffee, cold coffee, hot teas, cold teas, sodas, juices, and Calpis. What the heck, meng. Veggie/fruit juice followed up with Calpis, hello yes.

After lunch we poked around the Uniqlo and marveled at the somewhat unfriendly touch-screen menu for their computerized shopping system. Not only was it unfriendly to use, but it seemed that anything we were remotely interested in browsing was out of stock. Lame. But the track jackets were adorable and they had cashmere sweaters in every color.

After more walking we ended up at Kiddy Land, which was full of cosplaying shop girls and sweaty fanboys with Naruto t-shirts. Weird American shoppers aside, Kiddy Land is stocked completely full of adorable things. It was hard to curb the urge to pet, squeeze, or poke about every single thing in the store.

After extracting ourselves from there, we headed to some super expensive Loli stores on the lowest floor of one of the large malls. The merchandise ranged from super-happiness-kawaii type things, like ice cream cone necklaces and bunny ear mufflers, to super-kill-myself-fack-you angst boots and faux Nazi-esque armbands. The shop girls were very cute. Every store had no-camera policies. Oh well :3

We headed down Takeshita Doori and we immediately got sucked into a wide array of shops. I had to majorly debate whether or not to get this one dress which, for $5, was an amazing find. I resisted temptation, though, but I did get a long-sleeved t-shirt detailed with lace (intended for young men, not women wth). For $3 I wasn't going to pass up something that would be useful for the chilly weather. I did feel a little silly, as it is olive green, like half the things in my wardrobe, but I needed another long sleeved shirt to get through the next few weeks. Athena bought one, too, as well as a gift for her friend.

Almost to the end of Takeshita we ducked into a puri-kura place for some fun! Unfortunately I was wearing a green t-shirt, which rendered my torso invisible to the camera. I was wearing a camisole underneath, which I had to hastily rip off before the machine started yammering at us in super-kawaii that it was going to start taking pictures. We managed to get some very non-fail pictures, but ran out of time decorating them. I was happy with the results, though.

By the time we extracted ourselves from the narrow, crowded Takeshita Doori, th sun was starting to dip and we had just enough time to speedwalk to the Meiji-Jingu, snap a few pictures of the wedding procession, and check out the multi-lingual wishes before a guard came and told us GATE CLOSING.

It was getting dark, so we hopped on the subway and headed into Ginza, where I was given the choice between super-happy-kawaii or dark-loli-gothy dinner. I picked the latter, so we went to the Alice in Wonderland-themed restaurant, 幻想の国のアリス (Fushigi no Kuni no Alice). All of the staff were dressed in some sort of costume, including Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts, and Mad Hatter (whose hat read, subversively, "420/69"). I was a little too self-conscious to ask anyone to take pictures of them, but I really should have. They were adorable. The 7-course dinner was fun, cute, and interesting, and we both got some delicious and very beautiful cocktails (I, of course, had to have the green one with gin in it). Since she footed the bill for it, I owe her an amazing vacation in Texas, should she ever decide to visit me. We spent a good amount of time there chatting and taking in the cute Halloween decor and the adorable costumes. The Queen of Hearts was particularly pretty, and the Cheshire Cat girl was just adorable, if not a little goofy. It was a lot of fun.

We strolled around Ginza just taking in the brightly lit buildings, and decided to try the Metropolitan Building in Shinjuku. They're open until like 10 or 11 or something and have a spectacular, free view of Tokyo from the observation deck on the 45th floor. Unfortunately, after all the trouble of figuring out to escape from the station and get over to the place, it ended up being closed for "an electrical facilities inspection." LAME. Dejected, but determined to visit at another time, we went into the more lively bits of Shinjuku.

The night was still somewhat young, so we decided to find a place to sit and chat for a little bit before we had to catch our trains back home. Sore and aching feet were relieved by a sit-down at the McDonald's near the station, which had a spectacular view of the area. After a few minutes we walked around the few stores that were open before heading back to the station. We made tentative plans to get together again on Sunday, and we have a definite date on the 4th for the Ghibli museum (which is just a few stops away on the train, in Mitaka).

On the way back to Obaachan's, I literally had to cram myself into the Takao-bound train as it was packed to the brim with people. When it reached Tachikawa, I (and another 20 people) sprinted up, over, and around to the platform next to us, where the Ome-bound train was waiting. I ran down the platform, looking for the least-crowded car. Finding that they were all about the same, I ducked into a random car about halfway down. I noticed that there was an entire bench completely empty, yet half the people in the car were still standing. Someone had gotten sick all over the floor in front of the bench, so nobody wanted to be near it. Since there was none on the seat and I was freaking tired, I plopped down on the bench anyway, despite the wrinkly noses of the Japanese still standing. A young and pimply Airman was sitting next to me, and he offered me a pack of Pocky. We talked until my stop, which was sort of nice because I might have fallen asleep otherwise. When I got back to Obaachan's, the tub was full of warm water so I got to soak after my shower, which was very nice indeed.

All in all, I had a wonderful day, and all thanks to the kindness and generosity of Athena. I just hope that one day I'll be able to repay her in a way that might come close to matching what she's done (and is continuing to do) for me. I don't have a lot of cash to throw around, and she's gone to great lengths to make sure that I have an enjoyable and memorable time while I'm here.

Debra will be coming in a couple weeks, and that will be exciting, as well. I haven't seen her in like 4 and a half years or something ridiculous like that, so I'm really looking forward to hanging out with her, too. Hah, maybe we can all get together sometime :3