Stupid Gaijin - Part 2 (3/8/08)

OK so I'm fairly confident I was just a regular stupid gaijin today. Took me ages to wake up this morning, which makes sense as it took me ages to fall asleep last night. Thank goodness for drugs to assist with such things. I was starting to nod off last night when I heard a rustling sound that didn't stop. I turned on the light to find a massive black cockroach perched on one of my bags! Tried to squash it but the book I used was too stiff and didn't quite make sufficient contact with the intruder. It scurried off and after waiting for it to reemerge for a while I gave up and went back to bed (with my sheet up to my ears).

After a tasty breakfast down at a nearby cafe (super thick toast, egg, bacon, salad with dressing, coffee) I ventured into the Tokyo subway network to get to Harajuku. The information lady at my hotel told me everything I needed to know so it was quite easy really to buy the ticket and find the right train. After walking around for half an hour or so I decided to go and get some old school culture before checking out the new school punks, and set off into the Meiji Temple grounds. It was also a nice respite from the hot hot sun being surrounded by all the trees. I eventually came across the temple gardens, and thought paying 500Y to check them out wasn't too exorbitant. The gardens however weren't exactly mindblowing so perhaps it was. There were fellow tourists everywhere, and I ended up making friends with a Korean mother and son at the well. We took photos for each other, and then it seemed like the mother was trying to set me up with the son. We walked around together for a while, exchanging pleasantries before parting ways once we left the garden.

Oh and while I was in the garden I also made friends with a little butterfly who seemed quite fond of me.


By this stage I was ready to check out what Harajuku is now known for, and followed my ears. Bands were set up at regular intervals along a fairly long stretch of footpath, with Japanese punk the order of the day.

I'm not sure how they organise themselves, as it wouldn't really work if two bands are playing too close to each other. There were also blankets set up with people selling random crap, old clothes/toys/books etc. Nothing particularly cool, just normal old flea markety stuff. Also lots of street vendors selling food, all versions of the same stuff - octopus balls (just like in cooking mama!), noodles with cabbage, some sort of meat on a stick. I had the noodles with cabbage, was quite tasty. Wish I'd tried the octopus balls though, but no regrets about steering clear of the meat on a stick.


Here was a big stadium I walked past, and there were heaps of people hanging around a big yard out the front, with photos on blankets. I think that a singer was performing at the stadium in the afternoon, and the people were comparing/selling/showing off photos of the singer? I don't know, it was a bit weird. I also walked past these people obviously doing something for a tv show which seemed to add weight to my idea that there was some sort of popular singer performing there.

Went back into the main shop area after this, battling the oppressive heat and hordes of people. Was determined to find a cool shirt for my sister, which strangely enough proved to be a bit of a difficult task. Found lots of cool shirts in one big shopping centre before realising it was the Harajuku equivalent to The Colonnade or something and couldn't afford anything. Ended up have a win though, in one last shop I checked out before heading back on the train.


The must eat thing in Harajuku is apparently the Harajuku Crepe, which is a big crepe filled with cream and other tasty stuff. There's a pretty big selection to choose from, and every stall had a line of people waiting to get one. It was so hot though that eating a big pile of cream was the last thing I wanted to do so I just bought another bottle of water and continued on my way.

After heading back to the hotel and having a bit of a rest from the long hot day I ventured out again for dinner and discovered my meat identification skills were even worse than the previous day. I have no idea what I ate for dinner, but it was tasty so who cares? Well, actually I guess I do care but I doubt it was whale or cat or anything.

I walked past my hotel after dinner to go and get some snacks for a convenience store and noticed a couple enjoying what seemed to be steak and salad in the hotel restaurant. It confuses me why people would do such a thing. It costs about 5 times as much as a delicious meal at any of the other restaurants in the area, and surely you are going to have a better meal if you eat the local food? Mind you, having said that I was actually tempted to try a pizza for dinner, as there seems to be quite a few places that make them and I was curious to see what a montrosity it would be. Bento won out in the end though. Mmmm tasty selection of things I can't identify..