Day 8: Harajuku
The day started with all of us once up and about bright and early to again to pack up for yet another change in hotel. And everything was going find till I realized that I couldn’t find my laptop; I must had forgotten it somewhere, at a previous hotel, due to the constant moving.
The thing was, it wasn’t even my laptop in the first place; my had work lent it to me to post about cell phones while on the road, which was something I suggested. But for a variety of reasons… the constant moving from hotel to hotel, how some places had internet, some didn’t, plus the computer itself was so slow that it was useless… I simply couldn’t do any work, and dragging it around (it was old, and therefore big and heavy) had become a real headache. Needless to say, I shocked and mortified by the notion of losing company hardware less than a month into my new job (never mind that I would probably have to pay full price for a eight year old machine that would cost like $10 on Craigslist).
So I was pretty mortified when I joined the others in the lobby. And when I explained my dilemma, Joe pointed something out to be on the ground… my laptop bag! I had put it there to enjoy a massage chair, and it had been there all night! And totally exposed! Again, Japan was totally insane; I dare anyone to leave anything value alone in a high traffic area anywhere in NYC for fifteen minutes. And once more, they have some fucking hellacious anti-theft laws in Japan.
Also, in the lobby was this super cute illustration letting everyone know that tea was available…
Hide met up with us once again (whom I promptly gave the biggest hug, to give thanks to “his people”), we all walked with all our stuff (which was started to become increasingly heavier and bulkier due to all the stuff we kept picking up as visited places. The new places was not that far away from the the previous spot, but thankfully was much, much nicer and upscale. Here’s Hide checking us in, with the entire front desk staff being girls in pink space uniforms…
Same thing as before; check in wasn’t for like five hours, so we asked them to keep our stuff in some corner, nice and safe, while we spend the day exploring. And this time, to make sure that I did not get lost at all, I took like a picture literally every five feet on the way to the train station. Maybe excess, but I just didn’t want to take any chances.
I’m obviously not going to show all of these, but just a few, like this shot of the building from a little ways afar…
Again, it was so nice that it was some nice big building that was visible from a distance, whereas the previous place was literally hidden in some back alley. Oh, and here’s an outdoor mini arcade about a block away (again, arcades are everywhere in Japan). And I wasn’t surprised by this point that nothing appeared to be vandalized….
There was also a pet store nearby…
The main point of entry from the main drag was this Mister Donut….
… BTW, I had a ton of traditional Japanese food, all of it simply delicious. I also had some Japanese takes on American foods, and most of it…. not so hot! Donuts for example. The ones are Mister Donut were pretty bland. But their mascot is a lion with a cruller for a main. How fucking genius is that? Makes total sense if you think about it!
Yet more daytime shots of Shinjuku during another hustling and bustling mid-afternoon…
Along the way we stopped by this glasses shop that has stations up front where you can get your glasses cleaned with some heavy duty solvents, and totally free of charge! I little bath and I managed to get three years of caked on crap hidden in my frames. Mostly blood from a GWAR shows from a few Halloweens ago.
Back on the JR (that’s the above ground trains that run throughout Tokyo btw) we went….
Here’s a cute don’t be a dick sign at the station….
And here’s yet another Nintendo ad, which again was everywhere. This one I’m assuming is touting the Wii’s Virtual Console…
Anyway, the five of us ventured to Harajuku, which I was dying to check out due to everything being closed when I went two night before. Though mostly it was because, once again, not video games I was hoping to nab the most during my trip by stylish threads.
Right across the street from the station was a Snoopy Town….
And around the corner, some panda themed bakery….
Don’t know what these were, but ain’t they just friggin’ cute?
Just walking down the street…
Yet another neat/quasi-futuristic looking building…
We eventually came across Harajuku Street, which was this small back street filled with all sorts of designer clothing stores…
Instead of just posting stickers, at least one person decided to plaster water colors on the wall…
Love the design, but the shirt it was on was a bit much, like $40 American. And I was expecting to pay a lot for clothing, which is why I had to be selective…
At one point we passed by a creepy looking underground store that had dirty suits hanging on the wall, Naturally, I was sent in ahead to investigate….
Again, I’m a super big fan of Asia’s urban architecture…
Some more art on the street….
Random, Engrish-y shirt in some shop…
This place allowed dogs!
And this was the sign to some… sex shop for pets?
Eventually, I finally found one of the things I was most looking forward to entire trip (and yes, I know I’ve said that like a dozen times already… but there was a LOT I was looking forward to in Japan…. but this one was really up there): the BEAMS T shirt shop (which I had previously throughout was in Shibuya and kinda wasted everyone’s time with my wild goose-chase)….
Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed so I could only nab that last one inside. But trust me, if you love designer shirts, then Beams is the hallowed halls that one most visit before passing on. Unfortunately everything is pretty pricey… like around $50 American a pop…. and they didn’t have any Rez shirts on-hand, but that was to be expected (those were commissioned years ago), but still, it was absolutely amazing. If I didn’t have my party with me, I could have easily spent four hours there.
