brain crabs

Jon and I struck out on a little adventure by ourselves today. It was the first time we had been left unattended in Tokyo. Armed with detailed directions from Scott, we set out to find Omote-Sando, a neighborhood full of upscale shopping (but aren’t they all??), droves of pedestrians and the hip kids. Almost immediately after stepping out of the subway station, we encountered the Fruits. (I am not sure what these kids call themselves, but pictures of them fill a monthly magazine of that name..). I’m not sure I should even begin to describe this without supporting photographic evidence. Whoa. These kids are goth-punk-cutesy-anime-babydoll crazy–like pink hair, thigh high vinyl boots, plaid bondage pants, and dayglow knee socks– all on one person. Stay tuned for the pictures, though….they’ll explain it all.
In sharp contrast to the preening school girl parade was the breathtaking Meiji Shrine. Built for the last emperor of Japan who was considered a god (the Americans forced the Japanese to drop the deity bit after the second World War), the structure is situated in a park, that is actually more of an enchanted forest. It appears out of nowhere in the middle of a frantic Tokyo neighborhood, but once you are in the park all of the bustle of the city is gone. You wind your way deeper into the park on crunchy gravel pathes. Few people speak above murmurs and huge wooden gates mark the way. Suddenly you are at the entrance to the the temple. Stepping inside sort of enlightens you about the finer points of Buddhism. Everything melts away in this space. Nothing seems very important, yet everything is sacred. Again, the pictures will help on this one, and the place definately looks exactly the way you imagine it should; the way all the books depict it.
Leaving the shrine for the real world was jarring. We decided that we needed food. We found a sushi bar with a conveyor belt. It was fabulous, like there was a man in the back cleaning each grain of rice individually. I am sure sushi back in Philadelphia is going to taste pretty awful after what we’ve had here. When we had eaten all we wanted from the sushi bar, a waiter came around and tallied up our bill based on how many plates we had and what colors they were.
(Jon)
Strolling around Omote-Sando after our meal we found the X-Box cafe, a promotional enterprise that’s been featured in a couple magazines. The X-Box is one of those home video game consoles and they’ve just released a new version. So, in Omote-Sando, they’ve taken over this moderately large retail space, put in some seating, a cafe counter, a bank of freestanding game booths, and some sofas in front of huge plasma screens for people who just want to spend the whole afternoon playing video games in that spectacular white plastic and glass space. I was tickled when the tiny Japanese lady in the corporate outfit explained the controls and the wonders of the new X-Box to me. They weren’t even concerned that we didn’t buy any food or that we took pictures. I guess the whole point of that place is to spread the word. They didn’t even charge you for the time spent playing their video games or ask you to take a hike if you’d been there for a while.
We exited the cafe in somewhat of a daze and wandered back the way we came. Having noticed a tattoo shop earlier in the day, we were interested in looking into the possibility of getting fantastic Japanese tattoos in Japan. The place turned out to be not quite so hot. Neither the artist’s portfolio nor the facilities were very impressive. We gave it a pass and hopped the subway back to the apartment.
A little later that evening, we went out with Marcia to a place called Tokyo Hands in the Shibuya neighborhood. We mentioned the Ginza area in previous posts and how impressive that was but Shibuya is like five or six Ginzas. I mean, I’m no bumpkin. I can go to New York, London, or San Francisco and not be phased by the intensity of the place. That is, I can deal with cities just fine. I’m a city person! But in Shibuya, for the first time in my life, I felt really small in a city. There, the night was as bright as the day. I’d walk down the street and, approaching an alleyway, I’d think, “When I turn my head and look down that alley, there can’t possibly be tens of thousands of people and hundreds of bright storefronts. It’s just a narrow alleyway.” But, to my cognitive dismay, I’d look down the alleyway and there’d be tens of thousands of people and hundreds of bright storefronts. I mean, walking through Shibuya, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t process what I was seeing as reality.
Arriving at Tokyo Hands and getting inside out of the madness wasn’t any relief at all. Tokyo Hands is seven floors of AC Moore, Radio Shack, Home Depot and Sharper Image all smooshed together into one gianormous complex. We were over stimulated after a floor and a half of this madness. I mean, who sells personal massage items and lumber in the same store??? It was all a bit much.
(Bec again)
For dinner we went to a near by food court in the basement of a department store, however food court is a deceptive term. It is called Food Show, and that’s a little more appropriate. The shops were serving amazing little sweets, Italian food, meats on sticks and these really tasty red bean filled cakes (I got one shaped like a koi fish and ate it while it was still warm… it was pure oral bliss). We got a variety of small dishes to take home, like kim-chee (which I hate myself for loving), the ubiquitous sushi and octopus balls (ask Jon… I find the idea too upsetting to talk about).
I was nearly falling asleep in my dinner, so I decided to crash around 10:00 pm. We’ve had this really odd jet lag since we’ve been in Japan. We wake up around 7:30 am and are exhausted like walking dead by 6:00 pm. I’m hoping it will diminish soon. It makes me hateful and there are sooooooo many people here to hate.
Tomorrow’s plans include another temple and the street where they make the plastic food. (Wait for it.. you’ll love it)

This entry was posted by jon on Monday, December 12th, 2005 at 8:43 am and is filed under personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.