Costumes, shopping, shabu

Shawn

One cuisine I haven’t eaten in a while (yes Mexican, but I don’t crave it) that I wanted was Chinese dim sum. Shawn took me at 11 AM to a pretty good dim sum place near where he lives. It was perfect for a Sunday where I just wanted to take it easy after all the late night partying we’ve done.

After dim sum, Shawn went back to his place while I ventured off the the area of Harajuku -- known for shopping and an area where youngsters dress up in odd outfits on Sundays. I had to see this part of the Japanese culture. I took the train to Harajuku station and conveniently just around the corner from the station there was an area where the dressed up teens hung out.

Japanese dress up

Too be honest, I was a little disappointed by the whole situation because it didn’t feel genuine. There were a ton of tourist around taking pictures like paparazzi. It seemed like the only reason people dressed up was to have their picture taken. The worst was that there were non-Japanese people hanging around the area dressed up too -- there was a couple dressed in goth and a two girls who looked like they were from remote mountains in Switzerland. Why were they here? This isn’t their cultural thing. They’re just were wannabes. I refused to take pictures of them for that would only fuel their lameness.

Prayer at the Meiji Jingu Shrine

After taking a few pictures, I took a longer than expected walk to the Meiji Jingu Shrine. It was a really nice, large shrine but there were a lot of tourists there. By this time, I’m also getting a little bored seeing temples and shrines. There was a traditional Japanese wedding taking place at the shrine which made it a little more interesting.

That's a train

I walked back towards the station and shopped on and around Takeshita Street. The stores here are more for the trendy, urban type, which interests me more than the glamor shops. My primary gift to buy was a shirt for a girl’s birthday back in Philippines. I generally don’t like shopping for others because I’m indecisive and uncreative when buying gifts. Luckily though, I found a small boutique that had a nice women’s shirt for only 500 yen ($5 USD). It was medium sized, but my friend said she wears small. Eh, she can grow into it.

Shibuya at night

Shawn mentioned that I should at least walk around Shibuya area to check it out. Shibuya is another area that is concentrated on shopping but has more upscale stores than Harajuku. Since I’m a computer geek and didn’t really care to buy any clothes, I tried to look for the Apple Store supposedly in the area. Because the addressing system in Japan is so bad, I wasn’t able to find it. I ended up going to a big FrancFranc type store called Loft.

Loft sold a lot of household items but the design of things and the quality of the goods weren’t as nice as FrancFranc. Regardless, I bought a travel soapbox and a dentist pick. After Loft, I walked around a little more and then went back to the station to meet Shawn and Taeko at Ebisu station.

Shabu + Taeko = Happy Taeko

We met up and Shawn decided to go eat at a shabu-shabu place in Shibuya. Back on the train, Shawn, Taeko and I went to Shibuya. The shabu-shabu restaurant was off the main area in a small alleyway that no tourist would likely find. Inside was nice in a retro way. The shabu-shabu was all you can eat and I ate quite a bit along with some sake. Compared to the shabu-shabu I’m used to eating in the US, the shabu-shabu in Japan is a lot more fatty and the goma sauce is a lot thinner.

After a large dinner and a high energy weekend, I went back to Shawn’s and just relaxed.

- jason