Tokyo Journal: Shibuya
Yesterday, as I was hanging in Harajuku it occurred to me that I was starting to look kind of haggard and even though I had been showering twice a day I was suffering from some serious b.o. See, I made the fatal mistake of not packing deodorant before I left, mostly because I hardly use it at home. But with all this tremendous amount of walking that I’m doing on a daily basis going up and down hills and over bridges and up and down stairs in and out of the metro I was working up some serious sweat. So I headed over to Family Mart to try and find razors, shaving cream and deodorant. I found razors and shaving cream alright, because that was pretty easy. But everything else in the little isle looked like hairspray or just generic axe body spray. There were no brands I recognized. So I had to stop a guy and ask him. “Shoshuzai ga arimaska?” And he pulled out a little spray can of deodorant. Thank God, because I needed it so bad.
When I got back to the hostel and shaved I completely mangled my face. I hate disposable razors. They are absolutely the shittiest thing to shave with ever. But because I refuse to check luggage anymore I have to deal with the fact that I can’t pack my own razor. Yes, I traveled to three foreign countries for a month with only a backpack. I’m going to get a tote bag at the Kaminarimon sometime before I head out. I found a shop that has some cute ones that I really like, and that will be uber functional.
I spent the night at the Hostel bar talking to a whole group of ALT teachers who just completed their training and are waiting to go to their school assignments. Most all of them who I spoke with were very fluent in Japanese and as such had been placed in elementary schools to teach very young children English. We wound up closing down the bar again and sharing in the buying of multiple pitchers. As it should be at a hostel bar.
Today I went out with all intentions of going to Shinjuku. But the lack of going to the NHK yesterday when I had been right next to it was bugging me. So I changed my mind up and went to Shibuya instead.
Shibuya is a bustling meeting point for people. It is skyscrapers all around and all of them filled with department stores of all sorts. As I came out of the station as Shibuya I saw the poster for the live action Paradise Kiss movie. I squeed a little inside, and the shojo fan in me melted a little. It sucks that it’s not coming out until May.
Perhaps the most famous thing in Shibuya is the statue of Hachiko, the loyal dog who waited for his owner every day even after his owner had died. Today Hachiko had a little ribbon around him. I’m not sure what that was about. There is also a really wonderful rainbow Hachiko wall on the JR station. And as if there wasn’t enough Hachiko in Shibuya, they named the local bus after him as well. It was really quite cute.
While I definitely wanted to get up to NHK there were a zillion bookstores around so I figured I would hit a few of them. The first that I went to was Tsutaya. Tsutaya is 7 floors, the top one of which is new manga. Well, meaning that it’s not used manga. I found an entire set of Akira, which I would have blown 2 days worth of money on, but instead I bought volume 1 for 1000 Yen. Again, for reference, that’s about $10.00. I also found a Where’s Waldo book in Japanese, but I didn’t buy it. It’s just as difficult, language withstanding. I went to Book Off after that and they were having a manga sale, with tankobon going for 150-200 yen. While I didn’t roll in on that offer I did shell out another 200 yen for the Mameshiba gachapon machine and got an edamame bean driving a boat. After that I popped into Mandarake and bought absolutely nothing. But they did have an amazing wall of kaiju statues. Sadly photography was prohibited so I didn’t get a shot of them. It was seriously cool.
The bad thing about Japanese bookstores is that they are arranged in ways that are almost indecipherable. Manga tends to be arranged by publisher, so if you’re not sure who published the book then you just have to wander around hoping for the best. Thankfully I’m a patient person. The good thing about Japanese bookstores is that my language skills are so poor right now that I have less of a desire to buy things I can’t read. If I had gone through my Rosetta Stone like a good boy I probably would be in some serious trouble right now blowing through all my money at the bookstores.
After all that I climbed the hill to NHK. Sadly, it was not as cool as I was hoping. Even the official gift store was closed until September. I did get some shots of the building, but it’s just a building. Though they did have a new mascot for BS News. He’s a little blue guy. So I wandered the side streets and found a little shop that did sell NHK videos along with some of the official mascot gear. Though there was a really awesome surfing Domo-kun key ring, I went the cheaper route. I got a couple of little Domo-kun key ring/cell phone dongles for around five bucks.
The other day when I hung out with Alice and Sean we got into a conversation about Japanese Curry. Sean loves it, Alice hates it. I wasn’t sure, since I hadn’t tried it myself. So I was trying to decide between going to GoGo Curry or CoCoIchiban Curry. GoGo Curry has a fucking angry gorilla on the logo. It looks like he’s ready to kill. CoCo Curry on the other hand has Mr. CoCo in an orange sequined blazer and a great big happy face. How can you go wrong with a guy in a sequined blazer? So I popped down at the curry bar and got a bowl of the curry soup with a side of rice. As I suspected it’s the exact same thing as the box of Golden Curry Hot that you can buy at the grocery store. Sorry Alice, but I make this a couple times a month and I totally love it. I’m with Sean on this one. Golden Curry is the bomb. The soup I got had a breaded chicken cutlet, cabbage leaves, carrot, potato and asparagus. Was it worth 880 Yen? I’d have paid 600 for it, especially since it was just lunch counter food, but it was a big bowl…
After my CoCoCurry I went to Tokyu Hands. The guidebook said it was full of bizarre things, but not as weird as Don Quijote. I totally disagree. It’s just a department store. They did have a nice little hobby section. And again I found myself debating buying that Takara Tomy Shinkansen train. Though they had a 1/195 scale there. Instead I got a Ginza Line Asakusa Station key ring and a passport wallet. I’ve been wanting to get a passport wallet for a while now, because I keep it in my pocket like all the time and it’s starting to warp from sweat and temperature changes. I got a cute little orange one with airplanes on it.
The weirdest th
ing I saw at Tokyu Hands though were those strange beach walking “animals” from that TED video. I can’t remember what that guy’s name was, but Nick and I watched it back at his place. This guy created these amazing insect like walkers that would react to water and run away, and when the terrain got too difficult it would shutter itself back onto the sand like a crab. The entire thing was made of pipes and bottles and hoses. Tokyu Hands had mini versions of these things for sale. Again I was tempted, but resisted easily. They also had paper cutout scenes of Tokyo. They’re basically postcards that have pop-out pieces that you can then assemble into several different things: sushi, the Tokyo Tower, a street scene in Akihabara, vending machines, and the Kaminarimon gate. Again, didn’t buy it.
Then again, I take back what I just said about the beach walkers being the weirdest thing. No in fact the weirdest thing I saw was the “head refresher.” It looks like a plastic set of shark teeth on a rubber band that you apparently run over your head somehow. I don’t see how this would feel good either with or without hair. I imagine the teeth getting stuck in your hair and pulling, or if bald, having hundreds of tiny teeth poking into your scalp. How could this possibly be a good thing?
As my money was rapidly dwindling I decided that going to the bars in Shinjuku was just not going to happen today. So I headed back to Asakusa with what money I had left and stopped into Starbucks to see if they still had the Sakura Frappuccino, and they DID! So I got it. And it was quite tasty. It had a flavor somewhere between floral and fruity, but it was very mild. Though it was quite sweet. And I swear they put white chocolate both in and on it. Well, pink chocolate.