Japan Day 7: Tokyo
January 7.
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Waking up in a city and not having to leave that city is actually kind of nice. I'm well accommodated to Japan time now, but I am waking up very early in the morning, and Viv, working for an airline, time doesn't exist for her, so we're up and ready to go fairly early in the morning. First thing Viv needs is a coffee and there's a Starbucks next door, for me, I can just grab a coke at any old vending machine in the city.
Two things: 1) Mountain Dew in Japan is not very good. It's a different formula from what they sell here at home, so it's just something different and I'm not the biggest fan of it. Coke is the same in Japan as home, so stick to good old trusty rusty coke. 2) Vending machines are everywhere and are awesome. They're a great and easy way to unload coins, and they're also an easy way to make change from a ¥1000 bill if you're going to need it for a bus or train.
Viv and I's plan for today is to start in the neighborhood of Shinjuku where we are, loop down to the Meiji Jingu shrine, cut across to Harajuku, down to Shibuya, and then make things up from there. For the most part where we're up so early in the morning and Shinjuku is more of a late night spot, this is a good time to walk through and snap some photos and see if there's places we want to head back to later.
Meiji Jingu Shrine is in a huge park that acts as the pivot between Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Shibuya. The park area is absolutely gorgeous, the shrine is very large, and where it's still close to the new year, lots of visitors are still coming in to the shrine. Viv and I each picked up an amulet or Omamori for good luck in the coming year, and both of ours were related to our respective jobs: hers for safe travels, and mine for safe driving and prevention from accidents. Before heading out of the area, we picked up some Okonomiyaki, which was super super tasty, and so cheap ($4!).
Harajuku is next on our list and it's fashion central in Japan. Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne are both known to love this neighborhood, but it's been the raddest place to find fashion trends since the late 70's. I knew I wanted to pick up something in Harajuku, and I know there are some cool punk/goth stores in the area, but walking down the stairs to the basement shop Yellow House, I found my calling: Baba.
Baba runs the shop and some people know her as the Mother of J-Rock, but at the time of walking into the shop, I knew her as the lady who called me "A Mt. Fuji of a man," because I'm 6'0, 250lbs, and that she sells clothes for little Japanese J-Rockers. Her shop is covered to the nines in photos of her with J-Rockers and celebrities, but she's limited in clothes for guys like me who need to, "Stop eating hamburger!" I bought two items from her for a little bit more than I was expecting to spend, only $330. I know, trying to stick to a relative budget, but YOLO. Dropping a future photo in here so you can see the J-Rock style she hooked me up with.
Lots of street food options all throughout this whole area, and the one that really stook out to me and I couldn't say no to was the Rainbow Grilled Cheese. Literally just a grilled cheese, but food colored to make it rainbow colors, turning a simple $2 sandwich into a $5 novelty. We stopped at the Wendy's First Kitchen (this is just the name Wendy's has in Japan, it's not actually their first kitchen), and Vivian made the joke "We made it! This is where they invented the 4 for $4."We also grabbed a Galaxy Donut at the Samsung store, before going to Snoopy Town.
Snoopy Town is a basement level store dedicated to selling everything Snoopy you could ever want, and my sister Heidi wanted literally anything from here. Being her cool older brother Joe, I picked her up a "Joe Cool" Snoopy sweatshirt and some chopsticks. It was in this store that I was contemplating buying a smaller day bag to bring around instead of my big green boy, but I won't make that jump for four more days.
Shibuya is one of the most used areas in films, as it's known for the intersection known as the Shibuya Scramble, which is the crazy 8-way intersection with the big electronic signs everywhere. Arguably it's the Time's Square of Japan, and with that it's good to know that during this year's New Year's celebration, they banned drinking on the streets of Shibuya, because so many foreigners were trying to make it the new hit place to be, they ruined it for everyone.
We stopped in the Starbucks by the scramble to try to take the best overhead photos of the intersection that we could, and we crossed the street ourselves on two different occasions. I picked up the new Uverworld CD for my friend Denny, which was SO EXPENSIVE. It was $36 for a CD! I also bought something like $50 in Kit Kats for my spouse, because that's all she wanted from me in Japan, was as many Kit Kat flavors I could get. Today was a big shopping day, and I honestly have nowhere to put any of this stuff, so I'll have to ship a box home tomorrow.
After a quick pow-wow back at the hotel to rest up and charge our batteries, we headed back down towards Tokyo Tower and Shinbashi to meet with her college friend Scott who knows a really good katsu and curry restaurant. This is the first time in Japan I'll be sitting at a table with someone who actually knows some Japanese and can order off the menu for us. It was super rad having a meal with Scott, and he told us stories about his cat, and pet stories are the best.
Following dinner, Viv really wanted to go see the big boy Gundam, and I'm not at all against seeing the big boy Gundam again, so we took a train over the rainbow bridge back over to Odaiba. The second time over here was pretty rad, because seeing all the lights on the Gundam at night made it worth the time alone. This time I also picked up a few kits, knowing I'd be shipping a box home, I figured I might as well pack it to the brim.
After the Gundam Base run, it was time to call it a night, we trained back to Shinjuku and said goodnight.
Waking up in a city and not having to leave that city is actually kind of nice. I'm well accommodated to Japan time now, but I am waking up very early in the morning, and Viv, working for an airline, time doesn't exist for her, so we're up and ready to go fairly early in the morning. First thing Viv needs is a coffee and there's a Starbucks next door, for me, I can just grab a coke at any old vending machine in the city.
Two things: 1) Mountain Dew in Japan is not very good. It's a different formula from what they sell here at home, so it's just something different and I'm not the biggest fan of it. Coke is the same in Japan as home, so stick to good old trusty rusty coke. 2) Vending machines are everywhere and are awesome. They're a great and easy way to unload coins, and they're also an easy way to make change from a ¥1000 bill if you're going to need it for a bus or train.
Viv and I's plan for today is to start in the neighborhood of Shinjuku where we are, loop down to the Meiji Jingu shrine, cut across to Harajuku, down to Shibuya, and then make things up from there. For the most part where we're up so early in the morning and Shinjuku is more of a late night spot, this is a good time to walk through and snap some photos and see if there's places we want to head back to later.
Meiji Jingu Shrine is in a huge park that acts as the pivot between Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Shibuya. The park area is absolutely gorgeous, the shrine is very large, and where it's still close to the new year, lots of visitors are still coming in to the shrine. Viv and I each picked up an amulet or Omamori for good luck in the coming year, and both of ours were related to our respective jobs: hers for safe travels, and mine for safe driving and prevention from accidents. Before heading out of the area, we picked up some Okonomiyaki, which was super super tasty, and so cheap ($4!).
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| Meiji Jingu Shrine, Tokyo. |
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| Okonomiyaki, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Tokyo. |
Harajuku is next on our list and it's fashion central in Japan. Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne are both known to love this neighborhood, but it's been the raddest place to find fashion trends since the late 70's. I knew I wanted to pick up something in Harajuku, and I know there are some cool punk/goth stores in the area, but walking down the stairs to the basement shop Yellow House, I found my calling: Baba.
 |
| Harajuku, dive right in! Tokyo. |
Baba runs the shop and some people know her as the Mother of J-Rock, but at the time of walking into the shop, I knew her as the lady who called me "A Mt. Fuji of a man," because I'm 6'0, 250lbs, and that she sells clothes for little Japanese J-Rockers. Her shop is covered to the nines in photos of her with J-Rockers and celebrities, but she's limited in clothes for guys like me who need to, "Stop eating hamburger!" I bought two items from her for a little bit more than I was expecting to spend, only $330. I know, trying to stick to a relative budget, but YOLO. Dropping a future photo in here so you can see the J-Rock style she hooked me up with.
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| Vivian, Me, and Baba! Yellow House, Harajuku, Tokyo. |
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| The Outfit & Gundam Head. |
Lots of street food options all throughout this whole area, and the one that really stook out to me and I couldn't say no to was the Rainbow Grilled Cheese. Literally just a grilled cheese, but food colored to make it rainbow colors, turning a simple $2 sandwich into a $5 novelty. We stopped at the Wendy's First Kitchen (this is just the name Wendy's has in Japan, it's not actually their first kitchen), and Vivian made the joke "We made it! This is where they invented the 4 for $4."We also grabbed a Galaxy Donut at the Samsung store, before going to Snoopy Town.
 |
| Rainbow Grilled Cheese. |
Snoopy Town is a basement level store dedicated to selling everything Snoopy you could ever want, and my sister Heidi wanted literally anything from here. Being her cool older brother Joe, I picked her up a "Joe Cool" Snoopy sweatshirt and some chopsticks. It was in this store that I was contemplating buying a smaller day bag to bring around instead of my big green boy, but I won't make that jump for four more days.
Shibuya is one of the most used areas in films, as it's known for the intersection known as the Shibuya Scramble, which is the crazy 8-way intersection with the big electronic signs everywhere. Arguably it's the Time's Square of Japan, and with that it's good to know that during this year's New Year's celebration, they banned drinking on the streets of Shibuya, because so many foreigners were trying to make it the new hit place to be, they ruined it for everyone.
 |
| Shibuya Scramble, from the Starbucks 2nd floor window. Tokyo. |
We stopped in the Starbucks by the scramble to try to take the best overhead photos of the intersection that we could, and we crossed the street ourselves on two different occasions. I picked up the new Uverworld CD for my friend Denny, which was SO EXPENSIVE. It was $36 for a CD! I also bought something like $50 in Kit Kats for my spouse, because that's all she wanted from me in Japan, was as many Kit Kat flavors I could get. Today was a big shopping day, and I honestly have nowhere to put any of this stuff, so I'll have to ship a box home tomorrow.
After a quick pow-wow back at the hotel to rest up and charge our batteries, we headed back down towards Tokyo Tower and Shinbashi to meet with her college friend Scott who knows a really good katsu and curry restaurant. This is the first time in Japan I'll be sitting at a table with someone who actually knows some Japanese and can order off the menu for us. It was super rad having a meal with Scott, and he told us stories about his cat, and pet stories are the best.
 |
| Katsu and Asahi Beer! |
Following dinner, Viv really wanted to go see the big boy Gundam, and I'm not at all against seeing the big boy Gundam again, so we took a train over the rainbow bridge back over to Odaiba. The second time over here was pretty rad, because seeing all the lights on the Gundam at night made it worth the time alone. This time I also picked up a few kits, knowing I'd be shipping a box home, I figured I might as well pack it to the brim.
 |
| Unicorn Gundam at Night. |
After the Gundam Base run, it was time to call it a night, we trained back to Shinjuku and said goodnight.
January 7 by numbers:
- Photos: 216
- Miles walked: 14.8
- Steps: 27603
- Total Calories Burned: 4892
- Bowls of Ramen: 0
-Joe
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