DAY 3 - JAPAN - TOKYO - City walk 1

good morning

It was around 6:30am when we woke up. We were still lying in a bed (if I could call it "bed") when, after half an hour the whole room start shaking left - right, fast then slow for less then 1 minute. We were watching each other like 'what a f**k is going on' and Maria smiled and said: "Somebody is banging or what? Is this really happening on our 1st day here!!??" We were absolutely shocked with a thought about earthquake here.. in Japan! If this happens on Zante I would not give big matter but here... When I opened the door of our room we saw other hotel guests out and we asked them if this is like, normal thing here or we should be worried. The answer was: "No, this is happening always once in a month, do not worry". And we did not... I mean, not that much. Of course I opened TV to check "breaking news" but we could not find the right channel. When we finished our Japanese coffee with toy as gift we decided to go out and do the 1st sightseeing. We wanted to go to 'that' place where all Japanese youngers are hanging out and to see their extravagant and unusual outfit. So, that means we should go to Harajuku and then Meiji park. We asked at the reception about the card for metro and got the answer that we should get "Suica" card for 500 yens and after to top up the credit on. Also, we had to go from Minami Senji station to Akihabara stop then to change to JR and go to Harajuku with that JR train. On the way to the metro station we saw one girl that we asked yesterday for a hotel direction. She said :"Hi" and we started conversation. Her name is Fira and she is from Belgium, very lovely person. She gave us few tips about our route today and we also arrange to speak with here later and maybe go out late afternoon. 

So far, so good .. Forget about morning "alarm" and lets enjoy this cloudy day. At least it was enough warm to walk without jacket. We found a small shop, asked for the public transportation card and we could not understand the lady from the shop 'cause she did not speak any English. She was really patient and tried to explain us (in Japanese hehe) that the card cost 2000 yins but we could not get an answer is there any credit on. One nice man helped us. Yes, we got 1500 yins credit on to spend on a public bus or train. Ride was just ok and we spotted very funny sign above priority seats (look the picture below).  

"Please switch off your mobile phone when you are near the priority seats."

 Akihabara station

+18

Took us less than one hour in total to get to our "final destination" - Harajuku station. Ticket price 160 yins per a ride (320 from Minami  Senju to Harajuku). There, we discovered real Tokyo. Big buildings, busy streets, fashion and hippie, nice local restaurants and big luxury diners. We took a shopping road as our 1st option. The city of future has everything that you can imagine. Near the main road, on every 300 meters there are wifi stands. 

wifi corner

porno graffitti in Chinese Language Center

After we checked few shops and found many crazy things but we just bought the face masks, funny of course to play a bit Asian way. From all that fancy shops like Luis Vuitton, Armani etc we also saw shop for pet accessory but not the regular pet accessory shop - the posh one! There is a big nice sofa to make a photo of your nice dressed dog or to buy some expensive "clothes" for your pet. Probably with nice silk or other natural fabric. The shop that we really like was the sticker shop. With nice - funny - urban - comic stickers. But the smallest sticker cost about 300 yins. 

Sticker shop

We wanted to go to see Meiji temple and park but before that we got lost in Takeshita street (funny name though). Thats the place you can just stay and enjoy. Avoid weekend 'cause today was really crowdy. 

Here are some moments we faced there.. 

Pancakes 

Tokyo street style for youngers 

more of their outfits 

PR from local clothes shop

sales %  % %

Meiji park with temple was something totally different. Nice, peaceful place with greenery and "horny" crows :) (aaaaaah - aaaaah sound in a background). Ok I will leave it as a joke and get back to this seriously :) 

Meiji Temple is located in Shibuya, is the Shinto Shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperior Meiji and his wife Shoken. 

entrance

Barrels of Sake Wrapped in Straw

Wedding in Meiji temple

Lake and fishes

turtle

At night we walk to Sinjuku - Ku area, place I liked a lot. With coffee in one hand and camera in the other. All day we were caring umbrellas for no need. But we trusted our hotel receptionist when he said it is going to be rainy. Sinjuku is like Time square in New York.

by night

University building

It was around 8pm when we took a ride home from JR metro station to Minami Senju (again changing 2 trains, same ticket price). We were thinking what should we get us for dinner. Sushi!! We got nice pack of sushi for 450 yins and said, we gonna eat in our hotel. Sushi on the bed and yes, Pyrros was right when he said : "There are two things you do on the bed - eat and sleep" :) 

Todays budget was around 12 dollars per person and that means - Tokyo ain't that expensive ;)

Nom, nom