４月３日 Day 10: Harajuku

I have officially come to terms with the fact that I am spoiled. Today, a few friends and I went to find food around Heiwadai (our new hometown) and ended up at this sushi boat place. The sushi was NOT good. The fish wasn't as fresh and you could tell that it had gone around the carousel a few times. The only redeeming factor about the place is its price. I had 8 pieces of sushi for less than ¥400. Yum? Can't even compare it to the food I ate at Restaurant Omae!

Funny story of the meal: You see that screen above the sushi? That's how you order things you can't see on the track. It's touch screen and it cues up the sushi that you want. When we finished, we assumed we had to use that screen to pay too-- unfortunately, that wasn't the case. My gaijin friends asked a waitress to come over to us and had NO idea what to say to her. I was the most fluent Japanese person at the table and was charged with the task of asking her how to pay for our meal. After trying to ask, "How do you pay?" over and over, I showed her some money and she still didn't understand. I changed my question to, "How do you buy?" She immediately responded, "I count the dishes and give you a receipt." I understood and we paid. My friends said to me, "Wow-- I don't know what we would have done without you."

Sheesh!

After that, we headed to Harajuku to shop and people watch.

Here's Takeshita-dori, the most populous street in Harajuku. It's full of shops, crepes, young girls and effeminate guys.

It's Saturday, so you know it's crowded.

I thought it was really funny how they just got Forever 21 here. Cheap crappily-made clothes at a Korean-owned store; it's like a whole new universe for them. There's even a line to get inside!!

We saw AI, this super famous J Pop star outside of H&M (which also just got to Japan). I know her songs really well so I was stoked like no joke that we randomly saw her!

Today was a funny sort of day. We walked to Shibuya after shopping in Harajuku and went into all these Western shops like H&M and TopShop. Sort of defeats the purpose of shopping in Japan, right?? Then we ate at this ¥270/plate place. Oooh it was good. I didn't feel like I got completely ripped off either! I had yakitori (DELICIOUS) and salmon sashimi (meh). I also got to know some of the other girls at my dorm really well. This British girl Harriet took us all around Harajuku and had her friend Natasha (a Scot) join us for dinner in Shibuya. They're both so nice and they answered a lot of our newbie questions.

This adventure really made me appreciate Tokyo at night. All the neon signs and fashionable people walking around make me feel so rejuvenated and happy.

Bleh, I'm tired. I have to go to some penis/fertility festival in Kawasaki tomorrow at 8am, so I'm off to sleep! This should be interesting...