Tokyo Adventures Continued...

(Sunday & early Monday)

Saturday morning we woke up and headed straight to the Meiji Shrine (明治神宮) in the Shibuya area. The shrine is was constructed in 1920 and is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. When Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and Empress Shōken in 1914, the Japanese people wished to pay their respects to the two influential Japanese figures and hence, built this shrine (thank you wikipedia :p). We got to the opening gate and had to walk down a few long dirt roads surrounded by trees to reach the shrine. We were in luck because it was a national holiday in Japan and so they were having traditional music performances in the main forum throughout the day. We were able to see music performed by a group of Japanese women dressed in kimonos.

As we were walking out of the shrine and approaching Takeshita-dōri in the Harajuku area (a famous shopping street catering to youth fashions selling gothic lolita, rockabilly, hip hop and punk outfits), we saw a few interesting characters. Apparently on Sundays, some of the Japanese youth dress up in what we might call "crazy" outfits and spend the day in the area socializing and shopping. This trend has led to harajuku fashion making a name for itself. Many prominent designers and fashion ideals have sprung from Harajuku and incorporated themselves in to other fashions throughout the world. I got a few pictures, but if you want to see what harajuku fashion is all about click HERE.






We walked...or tried to at least...down Takeshita-dōri and to say it was crowded is an understatement! I am not sure I've ever been down a street that packed, and it may have had something to do with it being a holiday. People were standing in lines to get into stores. Some stores were handing out tickets (like we do on Black Friday) in order to get in. Shopping. Madness.

After somehow making it all the way through the Takeshita-dōri, we got out onto the main road to try to find the Oriental Bazzar (a 4 story shop that has all kinds of traditional Japanese stuff for souvenirs and such). On our way, we passed a kabob shop that smelled too good for our hungry stomachs to pass up, so we decided to try it. Most people were getting the gyros to go, but we went to sit down at one of the 6 seats this tiny restaurant had. Our server was a Persian who was from Cali, so he spoke perfect English and told us that Brittany Spears had eaten in the exact chairs we were sitting in last December. We knew he wasn't lying when we saw a picture and an article on it posted on the wall in front of us. Awesome? Haha.

We made it to the Oriental Bazzar and got some cool stuff and then moved onto the next thing on our list: the Shibuya area's "scramble crossing." For 30 seconds, all traffic stops and pedestrians can walk any direction. It is one of the busiest intersections of the world, with millions passing through each day.

For dinner that night, we stopped at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant near our hostel. We didn't really know how much the food was going to cost, or what was on the menu, or how to order anything in Japanese...but we decided it was worth a shot! We ended up sitting next to two guys who were speaking English. One was from Barca (yay!) and the other was from France. They helped us out a bit, but they didn't really know too much of how to do it either. So we made it work by pointing to some food the Japanese people sitting next to us were eating, and using our fingers to order how many we wanted. We ended up getting Yakitori (grilled chicken kabobs) and a soup that was cooked over an open flame on our table. Everything was delicious and only ended up costing us about $10 each (which was a relief since Japan can be very expensive).

We had had a great meal, and after getting back to the hostel, showering, etc, we went to bed in order to get up at 4:30am the next morning to get to the Tsukiji Fish Market (築地市場) during prime hours!

----------------------------------------

(Early Monday)

Rach's alarm goes off at 4:30am. I'm slightly annoyed because I'm really tired, I had forgotten where I was and someone was tugging at my feet! Then I came to realize that Rachel was trying to wake me up and it was already time to get up for the market. After that initial feeling of "what the heck am I doing up at this hour?!," I was really excited to get to the fish market! We were lucky it was open, because its usually closed on national holidays and the long weekend we spent in Tokyo was "golden week" where they have like 4 national holidays in a row...but for some reason the market was open for a limited time (or so the schedule said) and so we HAD to make sure we got there early to see it.

After a rather frustrating episode on the subway, we finally made it to the market around 6:30am. The market was bustling with small and large trucks, guys in rain boots on what can only be described as ...well here is a picture because its hard to explain - but it was a challenge not to be run over by SOMETHING as we made our way through the packing area and into the area where the fish were being sold. There were all kinds of fish and seafood - from the tiniest shrimp about an 1/8th the size of your fingernail to the huge tuna which perhaps were as big as Rachel in some cases. The aisles were narrow and there were a few other tourists there, but mostly it seemed to be the workers and whole-sale buyers from all over the city wanting to get their hands on the freshest, and best samples of seafood brought in from all over the world. I was pretty much in heaven.

Speaking of heaven, after seeing the area of the market that sells the seafood, we wandered around the market grounds to find the area where there are shops and sushi restaurants. There is no doubt that some of the freshest sushi in the world is served up at these small establishments on the market grounds, and I was determined to get myself some raw fish! After shopping around a bit, Rach and I settled in at a small restaurant. To my surprise and delight, Rachel was actually very

interested in trying all sorts of different types of sushi that I had ordered. If you don't know Rachel or don't know her well, this is HUGE haha. As a person who has stayed away from seafood most of her life, diving into raw fish was a big accomplishment. I was a proud friend watching her

bite curiously and cautiously (lol) into each one. The winner of the sushi this particular morning? Unagi. The eel was so so good and if you haven't had the chance to try it, I highly suggest you do!

Thats all for now - Rach will update you on the rest of Monday (seeing as it was a 19 hour or so day for us).