Day 02 - Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Shibuya

Meiji Shrine, Harajuku

Departure for the Meiji Shrine means the first time on the "sardine-packed" trains. Well, of course we left during rush hour so we had to break up in a couple groups and get on for two stops. I'm telling you these trains were packed. Lynnette and I were standing there staring like there was NO WAY we would fit. I had my little backpack and that only took more space, so it was a tight squeeze :/ but we fit, amazingly. The space somehow appeared. It only took 12 minutes to get from Harajuku to Ikebukuro and in that time I learned to appreciate the little space I had and to actually enjoy the ride.

--BUT! I'm getting ahead of myself. At 6am we were all (the girls) awakened by Worada's phone alarm. It was like a freaking bomb alarm so we were all doubly confused. Even though we didn't need to meet Dr. Hara till 8:30 I got up then and got ready for the day; it's hard to sleep after that, besides being excited about my first legit day in Japan.

At about 7:15 I headed down to the hotel cafe for breakfast. Remember how my aunt joked about having an American breakfast? Well, in my opinion, bread with butter or jam was pretty close. Oh, and there was cabbage soup too. The bread was thicker and slightly bigger than normal loaves in the U.S., and the soup was delicious.

Following that, once everyone came down for breakfast, we met Dr. Hara and were debriefed on the day. Then off to Harajuku~
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Speaking of Harajuku, the famous fashion street is surprisingly just a block or two away from the Meiji Shrine. The walk up to the shrine was really peaceful, like a walk in the park but the trail was wider. As the path continued there were barrels lined up, which of course was another picture opportunity for everyone. I started to take pictures here, but after about... 12? I stopped. Everyone else was taking pictures of the same thing, so I figured it wouldn't hurt.

Before entering the shrine we had to stop at the cleansing fountain. The procedure was first to wash your left, then right hand and then take a sip and spit it out [not back in the fountain!!] It reminded me of doing wudu, so in a way I did feel cleansed. However, once again, before entering, there was a fortune stand :P So most of us spent 100 yen to receive a little fortune. I asked for one in Japanese, which had more calligraphy than I expected, but Dr. Hara said it came down to something like "watch your step, or be careful" .____. (I will post it later and attempt to re-translate it~) Yay, right? Guess that means no run-ins with bozos~ 9_9

We finally entered the shrine part and saw two wedding parties. There was already a couple taking wedding pictures earlier when we were at the fortune stand, but no one expected to actually see the wedding processions.

From the shrine, we headed to Harajuku St. and spent our lunch our checking out the street from end to end (not nearly enough time, but fortunately we were free to go back later). Oddly enough, there was a huge soccer shop right next to Harajuku St. I checked it for a Rinaldo jersey (for my bro), but they didn't have any. Almost bought the Honda jersey, but it wasn't on sale, so no jersey~

During our adventure on Harajuku St., Lynnette and I found a LOT of idol pix, but no legitly awesome ones of Tanaka. And no Big Bang ones either :/ Lots of Arashi, NEWS and AKB48 though. Lots.

 
Shibuya+

Our group headed to Shibuya, site of the famous Hachiko statue. It was lunch time so the place was surounded. Most of the group headed off with Dr. Hara to a kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi place), but Lynnette, Bobby, Rachel and I headed off on our own. We found a small place to eat off a side street. At first, we walked in, unaware that the machine outside the door was where we were supposed to order our food. The hostess kindly redirected us to the machine and we ordered some meat and rice bowls. The beef bowl I got was A-mazing. The meat was fantastic and tender and worth more than the 350 yen we paid for the meal!

After eating lunch we still had some time to wander around Shibuya before meeting with Dr. Hara again, so we went further into the city. We passed a couple arcades and finally decided to go in and check one out. The whole first floor was loaded with crane games and purikura booths. Nothing struck my fancy in the machines so I didn't try my luck, but Bobby and Rachel tried a few times (and by a few I mean, like 10 bucks worth at least). Funny thing was, it was obvious that some of the cranes didn't close all the way. They seemed pretty flimsy for grabbing things. Yet, despite all that, there was a student who came in after us that went to one machine and got the prize right away!! (skill I tell ya!) it was a huge pillow creature thing, and I remember this because he exchanged it for a different pillow in the machine.

From the arcade, we walked a bit more and found Big Bang posters plastered all over the place. That was exciting, and led us to a Mandarake (totally unrelated) store which I saw on an episode of Kat-tun. Mandarake had a surplus of anime and manga related merchandise, which is always overwhelming. Take the aisle in a bookstore and turn it into a full, multi-floor store. That's alot. I bought a QP manga by Hiroshi Takashi (Crows, Worst artist) which was originally 600 yen, but on sale for 100! :D

We then returned to Hachiko and with most of the group headed back to the hotel. It was about 2-3 in the afternoon and we were free for the rest of the evening. Before heading back out we checked the toilets in the bathroom on our floor. They had buttons, so we had to test them! Of course they don't work when you're not sitting on them :/ (which we confirmed just in case) ~Anyway, since he only spent a short time in Harajuku earlier, we decided to head back.

On our return to Harajuku we went around the famous fashion street. A couple stores down there was a donut shop (should have got something!!) and right next to it a tamagotchi store FULL of pink tamagotchi things, not just the keychain games. Outside the store was this really odd looking tamagotchi face on the wall, about as tall as a person. There was a coin slot and directions that said put the money in, turn the dial and stick your hand in its mouth. We put Rachel up to the task, which wouldn't have looked as ridiculous if something happened.... but... nothing really did. After about a minute this blank fortune popped out of a slot. We couldn't figure out what to do with it, but continued on our adventure.

Around another corner was the residential section of Harajuku, complete with schools and a pet store! There was an extremely hyper puppy on display, but his price was O___O waaaay more than we pay in the States. Continuing around the city we found the Harajuku Police Station. In front of the doors was a policeman mascot, saluting. We decided to take pictures with him, and when the first (Rachel again?) went up to take the picture, the policeman on duty came out and asked if we needed help. Instead we asked him if he wanted to get in on the picture :3 He happily obliged and saluted proudly in the pictures.

By the time we reached the Tamagotchi store again it was closed, so the mystery blank fortune was still unsolved. However, dinner time was rolling around so we returned to Shibuya with the intention of hitting up another beefbowl (ushidon) place. When we got there, we noticed that there was another restaurant on the 6th floor called Tokyo Dining. Hungry, we headed up there, once again, not expecting a surprise. It was actually a pretty fancy place, but they let us stay cause we could read the Japanese menu. Rachel and I ordered a pizza (with no sauce, some seaweed and fish = delicious!!!) in an effort to save some monies, because fancy places are generally expensive. The food was yummy though :)

With a full stomach and less money we checked out the Shibuya night life. It was then that we noticed how quite the city still was. Music floated peacefully out of stores and complimented the serene and busy city. [P.S. there was a song that kept playing with lyrics that we believe said "kimi ni aitakute" BUT it for SURE was NOT Gackt. I saw the video for it on the plane back and it was sung by a duo, but I didn't write it down =.=;] This music eventually brought us to Tower Records, where I'm pretty sure Lynnette almost died of excitement. Right at the entrance was a HUGE Big Bang display for their new Japanese album. There was even a room-space entirely dedicated to them, with costumes from their performances and huge wall mounts (one wall was even signed by them and fans). There was also 6 other floors of music, and of course we checked the international one for more kpop groups. First, we actually stopped on the Jpop floor to see if Kat-tun had anything new, which they did. When we got there, there was a lady signing the display next to Kat-tun, ...I guess she was famous but I didn't even notice that until I was at the Kat-tun display (oops!). As far as Kpop went, I didn't see any BEAST albums :( so I didn't get anything.

By now we were all tireddddddddd; the trains were crowded when we returned to Ikebukuro. Before turning in, we stopped at a Family Mart and got a little ice cream. They had Handel's and similar brands in little cups which was more than enough. Green Tea ice cream is quite good for the record.