Tokyo: Harajuku and Tokyo Underground

The next day I woke up at seven in the morning on my own after about six and a half hours of sleep. I took a shower, (a traditional Japanese shower, see, Family Visiting for more information), but I didn't take the bath afterwards. When I finished, I got dressed then headed downstairs where I had breakfast with Bre, the Australian exchange student who is staying with Ayami's family. She currently goes to high school in Japan as a senior, but is taking only her first year of Japanese.

My breakfast consisted of two pastries from the shop where Ayami works, with some peanut/honey butter. It was absolutely delicious, and for drink I had "ochya", or chilled tea. Afterwards, we both headed upstairs where we found Ayami and then got ready to go to Tokyo for the day.

This is the part that I love about the big city and going to Tokyo. When we were planning this out, Ayami had asked me what I wanted to do in Tokyo. My simple reply was "not be a tourist". Despite the fact that I look American (and proud of it), I wanted to go into Tokyo and experience it without a camera. I wanted to blend in, and really experience what people do in Tokyo. So, we did what most teenage girls do in Tokyo on a Sunday, we went shopping, particularly in the Harajuku district.

It took us about an hour to get ready, (not including the shower from earlier in the morning). We dressed in Japanese young adult style. The idea of Japanese fashion, from my point of view, is to cover as much of yourself as possible, while looking like you aren't really wearing much of anything. Short shorts, high heels, tank tops, lace covers. However, at the same time, full leggings are worn underneath the shorts, 3/4 length or long sleeve shirts underneath the tank tops. Heels involve lots of complicated straps and buckles, (but those are just for show, they are very easy to actually put on), and most shirts worn by themselves are extremely big, to encourage the idea that the person is very small. Accessories, such as chunky necklaces, big bowed headbands, "kawaii" (cute) barrettes and socks are also added on.

Make-up is also worn a lot, with focus on the eyes. Fake eyelashes, mascara, eye shadow, and eyeliner (top and bottom) is worn a lot in order to make the eyes look bigger. The Purikura that we did yesterday actually has a special ability attached. Here in the United States, our cameras can get rid of red eye. In Japan, Purikura can adjust the picture to make the eyes look bigger and more open. At the Hyaku Yen (100 Yen) store, you can even find "eye stickers", which can be used to stretch the skin around the eyes to open up the eyelid to give the idea of a more rounder eye. Here in the United States people believe that American young adult women are having problems with tanning. Japan wants everyone to see their eyes. It seems that every country has it's insecurities. (Or maybe it's just a female thing?)

The guys tend to dress really polished. Clean, pressed jeans, tight shirts (Japanese guys are also kind of small) jackets or hoodies. Their hair is usually a little long, but not extreme. Kind of like greasers from the 1960s, except Japanese guys don't really grease their hair back. And man purses. Yes, a majority of young Japanese adult men have man purses. They come in the form of usually a small bag that sits on the shoulder and straps around the body. Sometimes it's an designer bag, like Louis Vuitton or a fancy leather bag. The outside is usually plain though, obviously used more for purpose rather than style.

Food Note: For all of you next summer or next year who want to come to Japan and have high hopes for losing a bunch of weight, don't get your hopes up too much. I talked with my friend Ayami, and she said that it wasn't necessarily the idea that the Japanese eat better, but that Japanese people are just genetically smaller. In fact, the Japanese are pretty famous for their fried foods. "Tonkatsu" (pork cutlets) "tenpura" (fried vegetables and fish), are just a few of a number of Japanese foods that are bad for you. While it is true that the Japanese walk around more, don't expect to lose two size just by walking across Tokyo for one weekend. After talking with Ayami, I looked around and decided that she was right. No matter how many dinners I skip or vegetables I eat, I'm never going to be a size 1 because my bones aren't that small. It's a fact of life. That one girl on the train who disappeared from my view when she turned sideways... she is just really really skinny. (I bet she watches what she eats too, but that's not the complete point I'm trying to make here.)

And for those who are a little over the normal weight, don't worry about Japan. Japan has just as many "bigger" people as America, whether it's kids, teenage boys, adult women or elderly couples. Everyone has a little pudge everywhere. Except young adult guys. They are skinny. But then again, a majority of them are skinny in the United States too. I do have to admit though, I haven't seen any terribly obese people. Overweight, maybe, but no one who is really really obese.

Anyway, once we were all finished, Ayami's dad drove Ayami, Ayami's mom, Bre and I to the station located near Ayami's house. Ayami lives in Ibaraki, what I can describe as the suburbs of Tokyo. It was about a 40 minute train ride, with one train exchange, to Tokyo station. At Tokyo station, I put my backpack in a locker (I wasn't going to return to Ayami's house) and then we went and had lunch at a restaurant on the top floor of a fancy shopping center.

Lunch was a four course meal, that started out with shrimp, vegetables, and something else. (I tend to eat anything these days, and I stopped questioning what type of food I'm eating.) I also had a caesar salad. We then had our main meal, which mine consisted of pasta with Japanese eggplant sauce and squid. It was very tasty, and a small portion as well. After our meal, we each received a small serving of a cheese dessert with raspberry sauce on top. We finished that off with hot tea, and were extremely satisfied by the end of the meal. Cost: only $15.00 per person.

Yeah, that's right.

After our delicious lunch, we all headed back to Tokyo station where we took a train to Akihabara station. From Akihabara (the electronics and anime section of Tokyo) we took another train to the Harajuku district, which is within the Shibuya district that we had gone the day before.

Map Note: You might want to wiki-this or something so that it makes sense. Shibuya is a district in Tokyo is that known for Japanese fashion. Within Shibuya, there are famous sections, the one that I went to yesterday was known as Shibuya. (Think of going to Kansas City, Kansas). Another famous section in Shibuya is Harajuku. Within Harajuku, we went to the most famous street, Takeshita Dori, which is about 400 meters long, with shops side to side selling trendy clothes for a relatively cheap price. (Remember, nothing in Japan is really cheap.)

So, we walked down Takeshita Dori, and entered a few shops. Takeshita Dori is very busy on Sunday, and most sales are also on that day. Some stores had everything 50% off, while others had many signs in the front, but then in the back of the store, the more recent and modern stuff was full price. Average prices were about $25.00 for shorts, t-shirts and shoes, $35.00 for jeans and jackets. Minor accessories were about $5.00 each. At one store, I made my purchase of the weekend, a pair of high heeled sandals for about $20.00. I can't wait to show them off in Southern Maryland.

After Takeshita Dori, we walked around a little more and stopped at a few stores, but didn't buy anything. We then took a train to Ginza, the fancy section of Tokyo. It's filled with famous company stores such as Yamaha Music Group, Sony Electronics and Zara, a really famous Japanese clothes store. We walked up the street and saw the previous Prime Minister's older brother talking to a group of people, while another lady across the street yelled about "crazy liberals". I guess even in Japan you have people on opposite sides in politics. (who am I kidding, that happens everywhere).

Culture Note: I got the lowdown from one of my guy friends a little while back about the Japanese government system, so I'm going to explain what I know about it. The Japanese government is called a Diet. (I don't know why.) A president has to run at least every five years, but usually it happens more often than that because the Japanese equivalent to the Senate gets to decide when to hold elections. Therefore an election usually happens when the "Senate" changes parties. Imagine in the United States, every time the Republicans got in charge, we had another election- which would mean that most likely our president would become a Republican. Then the Democrats got in charge a year later, and then they would decide to have another election. I can see the upsides to this ideology, the people have more of a control over what type of party is in charge of the government, (compared to waiting for four years), but at the same time, for someone who doesn't watch politics a lot, (it's really messy) I probably would wake up one morning and find out that we have a new Commander in Chief from my neighbor.

We went into the Yamaha Music building, where we went up to the seventh floor and saw Ayami's aunt play the Marimba, (traditional Japanese xylophone). I thought this was going to be a long event, but it turned out that her aunt only played on song, so we left after about fifteen minutes. It was really cool though, because the Yamaha Music building is also where they teach music to students. I guess it's on par with Juilliard.

After the Yamaha Music building, we walked into a couple stores. Unlike Harajuku, which was a crowded street with small shops lining the sides, Ginza stores were massive, sometimes four or five stories tall. There were popular brands, such as Forever 21 and H & M, but there were also some Japanese stores as well. It was all very expensive, so I didn't buy anything.

Afterwards, we walked to a small coffee shop and had a small break. I had hot tea, made from real tea leaves and some vanilla wafers. We sat for about twenty minutes and looked on the computer that was in the shop for directions to some book stores in Tokyo. We finally found a really big one, so once we finished our tea and coffee, we headed over in that direction.

When we finally made it to the book store, we walked in and split up to find some books. Ayami came with me and we looked on the computer to see if they had "The Outsiders" in Japanese. Unfortunately, they didn't, so instead I looked at kids books to help me with my kanji and reading comprehension. I have learned that I learn best when I read. I think that's why I can describe things rather well, it's because I read a lot when I was younger. Of course, it also means that I have a runaway imagination as well. I ended up getting a fourth grade book, and I'm already having some trouble with it. I think I may still be third grade level. But I'll work through it.

So, that was the one disappointment of the day. I think that "The Outsiders" is a lost cause. If it wasn't in the biggest book store in Tokyo, where will I find it?

Oh, there were autographed pictures of celebrities as well. I didn't get a look at the price tag, but there were some people like Madonna, Angelina Jolie and Sean Connery. Pretty fancy.

We then headed back to Tokyo Station, where we went back to the same building where we had lunch and we had an early dinner, consisting of "Tonkatsu", or pork cutlets. It was very tasty, but we had only eaten lunch about five hours earlier, and a snack in between so I wasn't that hungry. From our table though, we could see outside and see the Emperor's Castle. Yes, there is still an Emperor of Japan, but he is more a figure head, similar to the Queen of England.

We hurried back to the station so that I could find my train, and when we did, I said good-bye to everyone, before going through the gates and upstairs to the platform. The train ride back was very fast, and I was in Maibara before I knew it. It was downpouring in Nagahama, but I managed to fall asleep almost as soon as I fell onto the bed.

I really really liked Tokyo.

And I think I'm going back.