12 December 2007

Tokyo Day 3

As usual, the video scrapbook's buried beneath all of the rambling.

We left the onsen bright and early, and decided to do a brief, walking self-tour of Odaiba, following the train line. I was really curious about the Sega Joypolis that we saw on our way into Odaiba, but of course it was closed.

Sega, Sega!














From what I could observe, Odaiba is a very quiet town. At least, on a Sunday morning. It was almost like the opening scene of 28 Days Later. The town seemed so empty. Even the roads were eerily empty. But, then we came across this long line of sports cars. There had to be about 20 of those Lotus cars. It's a car club! How cute.

















Odaiba also features a mini replica of the Statue of Liberty, a very odd sight to see in Japan.



















We headed back into the bustling part of Tokyo to investigate why Gwen Stefani is so enamored with those Harajuku Girls. We started with the Meiji shrine, because it was still too early to do anything else. The shrine was quite beautiful, and there had to be at least five weddings that day.

After the shrine, we weaved our way through Harajuku and Shibuya. With the exception of Daiso, a 100 yen chain store, we didn't do much shopping. I have to say that if you're looking to buy trendy shoes and clothes on the cheap, you can't beat Seoul. Well, perhaps China would offer some deals, but I've never been there, so I have no idea. There were lots of interesting fashion items, but I thought the prices were too high for such zaniness. Daiso was also quite a disappointment. I was much more impressed by the Daly City Daiso.

Speaking of fashion, I did not take very many photos of the Tokyo street fashions. Sometimes I am struck with these odd notions of privacy and intrusiveness, so I felt bad about treating the youth of Tokyo like some tourist attraction. Though, I suppose that if you're going to dress like a punked out little shepherdess with hot pink hair, then you're probably asking people to gawk at you. Cyndi and I did buy a couple of Japanese fashion magazines, so perhaps I'll showcase a few photos from them in a future post.

After Yoyogi park and our face time with the infamous Domokun, I seemed to have stopped taking photos. Our last night in Tokyo was spent in Shinjuku, which is famous for that huge pedestrian four-way crosswalk. Shinjuku was probably my least favorite neighborhood. It seemed to consist mostly of bars and restaurants. We stayed at the Hotel Rose Garden Shinjuku. The room was small, but I understand that's typical of hotels in Tokyo. I recommend dishing out the extra $80 or so and staying somewhere a little nicer. The Shinjuku Prince looked pretty decent, at least from the outside.

Maybe my opinion of Shinjuku is also tainted by the fact that I did not get to eat any kobe steak. Perhaps it was because I do not know the kanji for kobe steak, but I could not find an establishment that sold such steak. Bummer.

Instead, we had to settle for some sushi.
By the way, does this dude remind you of anyone that we know?






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

whats that dude eating, Velveeta Rolls?

Anonymous said...

He's obviously sitting in Miyake and having a Michelle Wie Roll