I don't know a word of Japanese! - A COMPLETED TR!

[DreamSweetsLove]

Hey BecBennet! The cake thingy is called baumkuhen, it's a European (German?) type of cake cooked with a spit allowing you to cook it in even layers over a heat source. It's a popular snack and and sometimes given as a gift at weddings because of the ring shape.

Looking forward to more pictures of your trip! Maybe it's better to add at the end because it's easier to find the update even if it's from earlier in your stay.

 

[BecBennett]

OK, I'll add the photos at the end.

 

[BecBennett]

We were up early-ish this morning, and headed out of CST around 9:30am. We caught the train the Harajuku station because I wanted to check out the parks.

We first walked towards the Meiji Shrine. It still amazes us how there can be these massively wide open parks in Tokyo. Everything is so built up, but they still have these parks dotted all over the place.

We stopped and read about the sake and wine barrels and took some photos. Good thing I took photos, because I’ve already forgotten what they’re there for…

DH noticed the first bit of trash on the ground that we’d seen since arriving in Japan. It was a half finished bottle of green tea (or something) he picked it up and announced that he was going to put it in the bin. It was only after he started carrying it around that I pointed out he had just picked up some random bottle off the ground, that contained an unknown yellowish liquid…

He wasn’t happy when he realised what he’d done, and even less so when he remembered how difficult it was to find a bin in Japan… Luckily we found some restrooms soon enough, and he was able to throw away his unkown liquid and wash and sanitise his hands…

We headed into Meiji Shrine and had a good look around.

It had started proper raining by now so we tried our best to stay under cover. We caught site of a bride and groom getting some wedding photos done.

We also decided to buy one of the wooden ema cards and wrote our wish on it, and then added it to the display.

It was still raining, but we didn’t want to spend the whole day edging around the side of the Meiji Shrine, so we headed off again, hoping that the dense tree cover would shield us from most of the rain. The trees did a pretty good job, but when the skies really opened up we found ourselves trying to shelter under the foot wide cover of a park map, looking longingly at all the smart people who had already purchased umbrellas…

After about 10-15 minutes the rain had died down enough that we felt we could venture out again, and soon found ourselves in front of a small building which according to the maps was like a sporting club.

We took our shoes off at the door and went in to have a look around. There looked to be an award ceremony happening in one room, and in another we found a group of people practising (or competing) with Japanese Longbows.

This was amazing to watch. The skill that this takes, and the patience, and everything! It’s sort of hard to describe, check out Japanese longbow on youtube if you want to see more.

After watching for a little while we headed back out. Just after putting our shoes on to leave a man came up to us and informed us that unfortunately we couldn’t go in, it was a members club only… Too bad someone hadn’t told us that half an hour ago… I’m not sure how accurate that was, as plenty of people had seen us go in and be in there.

 

[DreamSweetsLove]

Love the Meiji shrine area! You were lucky to get to see the long bow being used!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Fantastic pictures Bec. Looks like a must-do on the list.

 

[battymum]

Lovely! What camera do you use, your pictures are beautiful

 

[BecBennett]

Thanks Most photos were taken with my Nikon D60, but all food shots were taken using our panasonic tough something or other...

 

[BecBennett]

We then continued further along and came to the Treasure House. This sounded exciting so we paid the 500Y entry fee each and went in to have a look.

Photos aren’t allowed inside, but it was pretty disappointing. There was a large carriage which was probably the most impressive thing, and other then that there was some pottery like items, and books, scrolls, paintings etc. Not what I’d call treasure…

We didn’t pay the extra 500Y to get inside the inner garden, but it may have been worth it more then the treasure house. We’ll never know I guess…

We headed out of the park into the built up area to find ourselves something for lunch. We went into a random building (again) and went into a place (whose name I didn’t write down) where you cook your own meal on a grill built into the table. We did a lot of pointing and nodding at the menu and were told that the all you can eat salad bar was included in the meal we had ordered.

The meal we had ordered came out like this:

Not sure what it is..? Horse? Whale? Dog? You tell me… I think one of the red meats was beef…

Then you cook your meat in a grill built into the table

I cooked everything for a really long time, because I didn't know what it was

DH also got a soup

We then headed back towards the train station and I bought an umbrella from a stand near the entrance (yay! Our first holiday purchase that wasn’t food or transport related!) and started following the flow of people who seemed to be heading towards some music. Intrigued we followed along and found ourselves in the middle of Brazil Day in Yoyogi park. We sort of regretted not coming here before eating lunch, as it looked like there where a lot more options here for lunch, and it all smelled great.

We marvelled at how something like this wouldn’t happen in Australia. It was a festival with live music, booze, food and lots of people – you don’t get that in Australia unless you’ve first bought tickets and signed a document saying you won’t sue if something bad happens!

We then headed back across the pedestrian bridge to see if we could spot any Harajuku girls (or boys) it was Saturday, not Sunday, but I hoped we might see some anyway.

No Harajuku girls, but we saw a few people enjoying their weekends either playing music, a sport, or even just blowing bubbles.

This bubble string thingy is awesome! If you know where I can buy one let me know!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I've seen that bubbly string thing at outdoor festivals in Melbourne....live music, booze, food and lots of people, no need to sign a waiver.....

You could try a magic shop. The people that usually play with those string bubble things are either on stilts or have red noses or both.


Nice food porn. Pity there was no photography allowed in the Treasure House.

 

[BecBennett]

I've seen that bubbly string thing at outdoor festivals in Melbourne....live music, booze, food and lots of people, no need to sign a waiver.....

Really?? I mean we have festivals here with live music, food and lots of people, but booze needs to be kept to pubs and clubs and can't be taken onto the street Maybe NSW is just the rough state

Booze + Idiots = Drunken Idiots... Not there though

 

[PrincessInOz]

No booze in the street at NYE.

But most of the other street or garden festivals....if the vendors come....will serve wine by the glass.

 

[BecBennett]

We then caught the train back to Shibuya, we wanted to see what the busiest crossing in the world is like.

While at the station I spotted a lady wearing these shoes, and thought they were funky enough to take a photo of.

To be honest I think it looks worse then what it is… I worked in Wynyrd station in Sydney city before, and it might have been the enclosed spaces, but it seemed just as busy as this crossing… We also made our way across the road, just to experience it first hand.

We walked the streets of Shibuya having a bit of a look at everything. So many lights, so many people!

We ended up in another arcade and decided to have a go at virtual darts. This is fun, and I want one of these machines in my house. Darts are fun, but when you’re not that great they can do a fair bit of damage to the surrounding walls… These have rubber ends, not metal spikes so you don’t do as much damage! (I know it’s not really virtual darts, but I’m choosing to call it that, because it sounds more fun.)

I kicked **** at virtual darts. We played 3 games and I beat DH in all of them! Look at me! That’s my winning face!

I had a creaming soda flavoured icy pole – tasted like it was fizzy too,

and DH had a few drinks. He discovered on a toilet break that there was an arcade game in the bathroom as well! He giggled as he told me about it, and then downed another drink so he could go back for another go. Basically as you urinate into the trough there’s a screen on the back of it. On the screen is an anime newsreader (she may not be reading the news, we don’t speak Japanese, DH had no idea what she was saying, but was pretty sure she was supposed to be a newsreader). If you hit a certain spot in the trough the newsreaders skirt starts blowing in the wind. The longer you hit that certain spot for the harder the wind gets. Boys and their toys…

I still don't get how to play a Pachinko machine...

We wandered the streets of Shibuya for a bit longer. I bought some kit kat balls from a 7eleven. I haven’t seen these here, but they were pretty awesome. I also bought some chips from KFC to snack on while we walked around.

If that makes you feel dizzy it's because I've turned the photo upside down so the kit kat bag was the right way up.

We headed back to Shinjuku and back to our room at CST. DH needed to make a few work calls, and I called home for a bit of a chat.

A few hours later we decided that we’d head in the opposite direction to what we had usually been heading in. Well there wasn’t much there.

We decided we wanted something easy for dinner so just grabbed some McDonalds. No photos, which I’m sure you’re all disappointed about, but it’s exactly the same as Australian McDonalds (not the same as US McDonalds).

After dinner Karaoke was calling our names. There was a Big Echo Karaoke shop? Kiosk? Bar? Yeah Karaoke Bar that sounds right – Near where we grabbed dinner, so we went in to ask how it works. Basically there are two options, with drinks included or without drinks, and you can book by the half hour or hour. Originally we booked in for half an hour, with drinks included.

We were shown to our private room (which stank of cigarettes, but that’s to be expected) and left there. Luckily it didn’t take too long to find the little computer, and then find the English button, and then work out how to get it going. Well it probably took 15 minutes, because we were barely through the 2nd song before the phone on our wall started ringing to let us know our half hour was up. So we extended for another half hour. (that's me singing)

There were a heap of Disney songs on their list, and plenty of songs to choose from. I recorded a few of our songs, but don’t worry I won’t scar you with our vocal skills.

We ended up spending heaps of time here. It was so much fun. This was easily the latest time we made it back to the hotel our whole trip. Some time around 2am, but not before grabbing some more Maccas from one of the 24 hour ones. It was at this point I asked DH how come he didn't just bring me back some McDonalds when he couldn't find me anything to eat.

He looked at me pretty sheepishly and admitted he thought about it, but decided against it for some reason

 

[PrincessInOz]

Those shoes!!!


I couldn't get past those shoes!!!



(Until I got to the icy pole and kit kat)


Did you get yourself a pair of those shoes?

 

[BecBennett]

No I didn't, but it's a bit of a shoe shoppers paradise!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I think I might have been tempted to get the shoe just to frame it up in the house somewhere.

So.....did you get any other shoes???

 

[BecBennett]

I really didn't do any shopping at all!

It's too expensive, I'll save my shopping for online or in the States

 

[BecBennett]

Sorry I haven't updated in ages! I have completely lost all motivation to do anything!!!

 

[battymum]

Hmmm

 

[BecBennett]

We decided to sleep in again – one of us was nursing a hangover…

When we finally got up and ready it was lunch time, we decided to head back to the Isetan and get a bit of a selection for lunch.

There’s not really anywhere to sit inside Isetan, so we took our stash and headed back to CST.

Here's what we bought:

Spring rolls - each filled with something different - prawn, vegies, fish, cheese, pork etc. There was also a sweet one which was filled with a custard like substance - probably my favourite

I was hoping these would be pork mince, but they were some sort of paste, maybe quince a bit disappointing...

But really cute

Two different types of sushi wrapped in either vine leaves or proscuito.

Dumplings - I think they were all vegie

Pork belly - I'm not a fan of eating animal fat, and these were very fatty - but oh so good!! DH still talks about them

Again I bought cute things, thinking for some reason to enjoy eating them, more paste inside, only took a bite to taste then put them down

Cakey goodness filled with custard and cream and strawberry jam. So light and tasty!!

Inside photo.

After we had our fill we decided to head back to Harajuku. It was Sunday, so we headed off with fingers crossed that we might see some Harajuku girls today.

It was looking promising when we headed towards the park and saw the rockabilly and greasers all dancing and singing.

We also snapped a photo of these girls with the greasers. I’m pretty sure they were American and just trying to fit in, but they were the only people in the park that were dressed up. Everyone else was just wearing normal park outing clothes.

It was amazing to see how many more people there were at the park on Sunday compared to Saturday. It was full. Brazil Day was still in full swing and there were hoards of people playing their music, dancing and playing sports. I think there were more tourists here then locals.

If we were here for longer it would have been nice to try and spend a full day just hanging around the park. Doing very little.

We then tried to make our way to Take****a St. I had forgotten about it yesterday, but really wanted to see it and maybe do some shopping, because we really had done next to none.

After spiralling for a little bit we finally found it and made our way along it. Husbands are not for shopping . While DH is happy to window shop with me when we’re on holidays, he’s no fun when I try and go in anywhere . He wasn’t too bad on this trip, but still we really only went into one store, and it was really a souvenir like shop. There were lots of funny shirts and I’m sure a few fake brand names about. We didn’t end up buying anything again, because the shirts only came in small, medium and large and most of the guys we’d be buying for start at Xlarge and go up from there.

Yeah disboards - try and bleep that!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Love the food porn and the street name porn.