Crepes and Shibuya... great job!
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2009
1
4
17
Trip End
Jul 05, 2009
Shibuya, Kanto, Japan
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
So after we went to the Yahoo Cafe, we wandered around, looking in the shops in our hotel. My mom specifically requested a handkerchief like the one I have from last year (it`s blue and has orange and black koi fish on it) and I continued my quest to find one. In the traditional shop, they had a cute little bath set with a hand towel that was white and had little orange kois and blue waves on it and I`m considering giving that to her because none of the handkerchiefs I`ve looked at have both 1) had fish on them and 2) looked good. But there are lots of nice flower ones and so maybe she`ll give in and let me get her something more feminine. We went into the mall, but there are nothing worth getting. Sean didn`t like the frocks because they looked grandma-style and he doesn`t understand them. And then we finally went to the arcade and we shot zombies and played air hockey twice over. I tied Sean the first time and then I BEAT him, much to his dismay. BWAHAHAHAA. All of these things were done with intermittent visits back at the room to see if the maids had left us. But alas, they had not.
We left to go to Shibuya at around three in the afternoon. Before we went, we got crepes, which are always put in strange and really inconvenient paper things to make them fast food-ish. (By the way, those aren`t our pictures. I stole them from google.) I got strawberry and Sean got banana-chocolate because everyone here loves bananas and corn. In all seriousness, you see these two things everywhere. Corn comes on salads, breads, and really commonly, it seems, on pizza. And banana flavoured chocolates, pastries, and cremes are everywhere.
But I digress, Shibuya really isn`t that far via the JR. The ride was around twelve minutes and we made it there while the light was still at least attempting to shine (the rainy season is on its way and so the sky is full of dreary-looking clouds just about 24/7). Our first stop was Shibuya 109, the girls` building, which was flooded with people each wearing their own distinct (and sometimes strange) fashion. I dragged Sean around in there, but he was pleased to read the shirts (written overwhelmingly in bad English) and we had a good amount of fun. From there, we found the boys` (and half girls`) building. We took a picture of a really good shirt that has a picture of it around here somewhere. It reads: "If I wasn`t hard, I wouldn`t be alive. If I couldn`t ever be gentle, I wouldn`t deserve to be alive." We also encountered an employee who was trying to talk with us when we took an interest in a James Bond shirt (reading "THE BIGGEST BOND OF THEM ALL" and which had Jame Bond flying away on the back with a jet pack). Unfortunately for him, he scared us off. We attempted to communicate back and forth, but the only thing we effectively said was that we couldn`t speak one another`s language very well. But when Sean told me `great job` kiddingly and gave me a thumbs-up on my Japanese-speaking ability, the guy, for some reason or another, understood that a little too well and thought it was just hilarious. In his defense, we also thought it was pretty funny, but not funny enough to stick around, for we fled moments later when he wasn`t looking.
After that, we were somewhat at a loss of where to go. I bought a belt and that was pretty much all I needed in life. So we checked the map, wandered in an attempt to find Tokyu Hands and Parco, got lost in seedy back-alleys, and then circled back to the same map to look again. Though I`m not entirely sure how, as I wasn`t paying well enough attention, Sean managed to lead us both to Tokyu Hands, where we spent about an hour of fun before we got distracted, bored, and tired, and we left. Tokyu Hands, for some reason or another, is referred to as a CREATIVE LIFE store. The first two or three floors are strictly home-improvement oriented, but after that there is, though admittedly oddly placed, a PARTY floor. Beyond that are others dedicated to the bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen. The party floor was our favorite because we didn`t understand much of the others. Samples in the others were useless as you couldn`t actually sample the product. The samples simply showed you how these back, leg, and face massagers looked outside of the box and that you weren`t actually getting a picture of the product, or worse, something entirely unpredictable such as a waffle or a space monster. But anyway, on the party floor, we got to take a good look at what Japan really had to offer. (Just kidding, obviously.) There was a $525 brain-damaged dinosaur that moved about on its own with a crippled leg. There was a string of band members you could buy to accompany a collection of CDs where the band would play along whenever the music came on. They had a squishy breast that, according to the illustrations, offered such fun as washing it, throwing it at great speeds, and squeezing it quite viciously. And they had tons of costumes, brain-teasers, a really strange LIFE board game that led you through a beaten mountain path and a black hole, 3D planet puzzles, and much, much more! I actually considered getting some of the food-making kits they were selling which helped you out in making pasta, fun-shaped sushi, mickey mouse cookies. There were many times yesterday when I thought of buying ENTIRE STORE SECTIONS for Lou because they were Disney related, but when I paused to regain my senses I would realize that this would not be possible and it would also leave me stranded and destitute. I am, however, going to attempt to find a few hardy consolation prizes instead.
So that`s pretty much my story. We left after reaching the bedroom floor. There was a frog there that stared us down and so we quickly took the stairs to throw him off. My feet and Sean`s back hurt and so we only made one stop, at an arcade, before returning. I could not win a plushie on my first or second try at the claw machine and so we strategized how this could be possible all of the way home. The end.
Comments
stupid bananas
I agree with the banana flavor being one of the worst flavors. It doesnt even taste like bananas
From Kat
You`re a good man, Lou.