Oki-na Gaijin, Chisai-na Kuni (Big Foreigner, Small Country) #6

March 25 - Shibuya, Harajuku and Akihabara

After breakfast, Colleen and I headed to some intense shopping. I'm finding that my Japanese has come back quite a bit over the past few days and dealing with people in stores and restaurants has been great practice.



The first place we went to was Shibuya 109 - I think it's named that because there are 109 different little stores in it! It's a teen girl's shopping dream of both cheap and expensive clothes and accessories. Unfortunately for Colleen, she's gaijin-sized and so, didn't fit most of the the clothes.


Then, onto the busy streets of Shibuya. There are very fancy stores like Louis Vuitton, Prada, and more but Colleen was more interested in great deals.


We stopped at Wendy's as Colleen was missing North American food and ended up with a shrimp burger. Hmmm.

We then went to Takeshite Dori - and this was the kind of shopping that Colleen loved. Crowded, noisy, tons of stores - it was a great Tokyo experience! I even bought a couple things.

Unfortunately there were no dressed up girls at Harajuku Station when we got there but Colleen still enjoyed the experience immensely.


We headed towards the Meiji Shrine but, unfortunately, a bird shared a little joy with Colleen's head so after a quick wash of the hair, it was back on the train.

We headed for that bastion of consumer electronics, Akihabara. I thought I'd lost my subway ticket so I had to pay ¥160 but luckily I found it in my cell phone and was promptly reimbursed.


Akihabara was almost as good as last time and almost as crowded. We went to the Tokyo Anime Centre which was OK but the highlight (for Colleen) was the store.


We then had a nice coffee break where the people watching was excellent, a stop at Yodobashi Camera, and then back to the station.


I think the highlight was when we had our photo taken with some girls dressed up on the street.


Back at Kinshicho station, Yoichi and Keiko met us and we walked into Kinshicho park to look at the Sakura. This time of year is very special in Japan. The cherry blossoms, or sakura, are in bloom and the even of their blooming is called Hanami. Hanami means flower viewing.

We then headed to Yoichi's sister's house which was bitter-sweet. It was great to see his sister and her husband after so many years but is was sad because she has liver cancer. She was up today, though, and we had a very nice visit. Her husband's nick name is Ando-san which means Mr. Ando because when he speaks English, he always says "ando" between words.


We all then went the an Izakaya which is a traditional Japanese bar restaurant. The variety of food that I'd never had before was amazing! I really liked this Japanese version of what looked like a corn dog - it was made from pork and you dipped it in raw egg - oishi (delicious)! There was lots more oshinko (pickled stuff), too. To finish off, we had the biggest o-nigiri (rice ball) I've ever seen in my life! It was like a whole extra meal!

After saying goodbye to Yoichi's sister and Ando-san, we headed home. That was good for Colleen as the smoke in the bar - between the cooking and the fact that almost everyone was smoking in a small place - really bothered her eyes.

All in all, another great day.

Oki-na Gaijin, Chisai-na Kuni (Big Foreigner, Small Country) #3

March 22 - First full day in Tokyo! Haircut, Good Eats, Electronics, and Karaoke


Started off with a hair cut as I remembered the excellent scalp and shoulder massages that you get from a Japanese hair stylist. Yoichi arranged a hair style for all of us so we went en masse to the stylist.

It started off with a wash and conditioning. The chair I sat in electronically reclined for the wash. Cool! Then off to another chair for the cut. The girl was very careful - almost examined each section of my head - as she cut my hair. Pretty impressive, considering I’m balding - about 5 or 6 times as long as I usually spend in the barber chair at home!

She then washed my hair again and did the massage. It was the most awesome head and neck massage that I've ever had. I was truly in heaven! I’ve no idea what it cost us as Yoichi insisted on paying.


Lunch was Yaki-Niku - Korean Barbecue! A very nice meal but I was quite full after we finished. I was glad that I had skipped breakfast.


The restaurant was at Kinshicho station which has really grown.

After lunch, we headed to the Electronics town at Akihabara. It was tricky buying the train tickets as the place names on the map where you buy tickets are in kanji - Chinese characters. Although Yoichi is no longer a fan of the trains or the subway, I think it is a great system. We only had to go three stops but it only cost a paltry ¥150.


As we left the station in Akihabara, many young women dressed as maids or girls of the future were hawking different stores or products. It was a real carnival atmosphere as there were bright neon lights, loud music, and people everywhere. For the first time since leaving the airport, I saw other gaijin!


After wandering around for awhile, we ended up in Yodobashi Camera store which carries a lot more besides cameras. There are seven floors of electronics including cameras, video, TVs, computers, and a whole lot more. While the prices don’t seem any cheaper than Canada - maybe a little more, actually - there is the latest technology factor. I ended up getting - receiving, actually, a video and still camera courtesy of Yoichi.

The Japanese system of gift giving is pretty wild. In anticipation, I had brought over a number of presents because I knew that Yoichi would buy gifts and pay for things as I spent time with him. The art of trying to pay for even simple things like subway tickets is very tricky.

After a short nap in the early evening, it was time to step out into Tokyo’s entertainment - the night club - but first we had sushi. This was real sushi - no California rolls or Dynamite rolls - just fish, fresh and raw on wonderful rice. There was sushi that I recognized like tuna, salmon and egg but there were lots or fish I didn’t recognize as well as some spices or flavours that were quite odd. As usual, Yoichi just ordered dish after dish and I was absolutely stuffed at the end of dinner. We then met up with a bunch of Yoichi’ friends and headed to the Star Karaoke bar.

As with many Karaoke bars this one was small - think someone’s bigger living room - with lots of low seating, six or seven tables, two flat screens to see the lyrics, snacks, booze and six Filipino women to meet your needs such as talking, lighting cigarettes, offering food, mixing drinks and even dancing. It’s all pretty innocent and quite common in many countries.

In a karaoke bar, customers sing along to music with the assistance of lyrics on a screen, usually with some arty videos in the background. Lots of English songs are now available to sing in stark contrast to when I first visited when there were only 6 songs (Country Roads, Love Me Tender, and a few more).

I sang quite a few songs and was very well received but I’m not sure if it was because of my singing or the fact that I was someone kind of different. All of the singers were excellent and I even enjoyed the traditional Japanese songs (enka).

Unfortunately, one of the strange sushi pieces I ate disagreed with me during the first part of being in the bar. I sang and slowly sipped my chu-hi (Japanese vodka and fruit juice) until my stomach settled. I was probably a little jet lagged as well but was thrilled to be in such god company. By the time we left (about 2:30 AM) I was more than ready to pack it in. Overall, an excellent day!