Japan Week 3
Author: Teri
Okay, so back to Japan for a bit. (I very much need a paper journal as well as this one since I can’t even remember what I did, but let’s give it a go).
On Sunday after I left you, Sammysam got me onto base for the Sunday brunch. I’ve decided that breakfast buffets are pretty much the best thing ever.
Afterwards, we headed down to Tokyo to go to Harajuku, which is a big shopping district. It reminded me a little of Kensington in Calgary or Queen St. in Toronot but with more tourism on one hand and way more people on the other. The stores were crazy; from goth loli to Japanese cowboys, 8 level toy stores, tourist shops selling everything from 50 yen trinkets and 1000000 yen furniture, stores just for chopsticks, some building I was scared of called ‘A Bathing Ape in Lukewarm Water’ and unique food.
The best part was watching the people go by and seeing what they were wearing though. Japanese street fashion consists of short shorts or shirts that are just long enough to be skirts, with tights or leggings and the most interesting assortment of shoes you can imagine. I couldn’t live there because I wouldn’t want to spend all my money on footwear.
On Tuesday I visited Yokohama with Alli for the afternoon. Unfortunately it was raining, making it not worth it to pay for the observation tower and the ferris wheel. I hadn’t done research into indoor things to see in the area, so we ended up just doing a little shopping and looking around the mall before heading back to Yokosuka. It was a little disappointing, but these things happen.
On Wednesday I headed over to Asakusa to see one of the most famous and touristy temples in Japan. As usual, this one had been rebuilt since the 70s, but was faithfully reconstructed and beautiful. Leading up to the temple grounds were row upon row of shops selling all kinds of garbage and junk food 
The only ones that I spent any amount of time in were the more established ceramics places. Japan has very nice tableware. I also bought myself a fried pastry shaped like a fish with red bean paste. Yum!
Once I’d seen enough, I meandered to a subway and went to Odaiba. Odaiba is an island connected to Tokyo where the main attraction is the shopping. It lights up real pretty at night though, so I decided to stay for a while and see that. The island also holds the Haneda airport and a couple good museums. I took the monorail over and that in itself was an adventure as it goes over The Rainbow Bridge.
Once I found the museums, it was getting a little late to go in and I was hungry so I wandered back over to the main mall area … and was completely flabbergasted to discover that inside it’s arranged like an Italian fresco, complete with domed night skies and columned stores.
It was, however, still a mall and an expensive one at that, so I bought myself onigiri and bao at the 7/11 and continued on. Just outside the mall is a giant ferris wheel that was reasonably priced but again it had started drizzling and I decided not to go up by myself in the rain.
When I walked a little further, I found the Toyota showcase where with the press of a button, you can move a giant conveyor belt to bring a different car to eye level. They are also in the process of producing mechs. I really should get a photo gallery up and running to show you.
I’m going to bake cookies now and this post is already long enough so I’ll do another one to finish off my time in Tokyo later.
