Sorry I didn't post yesterday. My introspection time was quite good, though, so we'll see what I can do today.
It may be brief--things haven't cleared up 100%--but I made it a point to take a lot of photos, so maybe that will compensate.
Let's see...
I may just skip straight to this weekend, guys, I'm really sorry about this--I'm really flighty and forgetful right now.
So let's start with Friday instead of Thursday. I can't remember Thursday at all right now, except for my classes. Oh wait. I made dinner and ate with several friends. A lot of fun, but nothing really useful to or interesting to you, I'm sure. So, Friday.
On Friday, I went to a place that I discovered is an awesome way to save money.
It's a place--a chain restaurant--called Kappa Sushi. I hadn't seen a friend of mine for several days, so when she asked me to eat dinner with her and said the place was pretty cheap, I jumped at the chance. All of the dishes, save a few, are 105 yen a piece. Each dish is two pieces of sushi. If you're careful and not terribly hungry, you can easily keep a meal under 700 yen, which is really not bad.
Also, as a pro-tip, it is perfectly acceptable to eat sushi with your hands, which is really nice. Sushi is the one food that I cannot eat with chopsticks, for whatever reason, so when I discovered that people can eat sushi with their hands, well... Yes. That's what I do now. Apparently it's how professional food-tasters eat sushi, so I felt very fancy while I ate dinner.
After that, my friend and I went to Starbucks (I could read the instructions on the billboard, hurrah!), where she bought me a frappuchino in exchange for an artwork commission that I have yet to do, but will do soon. We sat in Starbucks for an hour or so, talking about a lot of nothing, and it was very nice.
That was what I recall of Friday.
Saturday and Sunday were sweet, sweet Harajuku. I went two different times with three different people. Initially, I was just going to go on Sunday, but an acquaintance of mine that I had not seen since the first time I went to Yokohama invited me to go look at things with her, and we decided that Harajuku would be a good place to go.
This was the first thing that I saw off of the station. Tamagotchis.
Oh, childhood.
Here's my big tip for Harajuku: Stick to Takeshita Street for main purchases if you're going to go shopping. Besides the fact that that's where all the notorious fringe fashion is, articles of clothing do not go over 13,000 yen at most. Usually, the clothes range anywhere from 2,000-5,000, which, considering location, is really cheap.
That street. Photo courtesy of a friend.
Of course, Takashita Street is very very busy, considering that's where both the cheap and the fringe clothing are.
And I do mean busy.
Takeshita street is good for things like punk, goth, visual kei, lolita, and discounted items. As I like the punk-rock fashions in Japan, there were a couple articles of clothing that I found and bought for myself. I'm a little on the taller side, though, so I have a very difficult time with girls' clothes [and shoes] here, so I stick primarily with boys' attire. However, if you're a girl and smaller, there are a lot of girl clothes available, too. Here's what I got:
The vest and shirt are two separate, detailed pieces, and all of it is quite comfortable, now that my boots have broken in a bit better.
The two-piece was 1,000 yen discounted, so it cost about 3,000 instead of 4,000. The quality is good, and since they are two entirely separate pieces, I did not mind. The boots were 4,000, and they seem very sturdy. What's more, if you go at the right time, you can find things like jackets and coats on sale for about half off. I'm sure the same applies to summer clothes in the winter. I will investigate when winter comes around.
So, what do you do in Harajuku with the money you save? Harajuku is famous for crepes, and for very good reason. They were the best crepes I have ever had. If you fancy sweet foods, I highly recommend trying a crepe from Harajuku. On both Saturday and Sunday, I bought myself crepes, and they were absolutely delicious.
This fellow was making them from the dough. I found the photo to be charming.
This was my first crepe. It was tiramisu flavoured.
With cream cheese, too. Goodness.
Sunday's crepes involved strawberries and bananas and chocolate. You cannot go wrong with that elaborate combination.
My friend had ice cream, caramel, and cinnamon in hers.
If you're careful and buy basic ones, they are not terribly expensive--around 350 yen. Mine were very elaborate, though, so they were a little more expensive. However, if you find you can spare the money, go eat a crepe in Harajuku.
After crepes, both times, we went to Meiji Jingu, which is one of the more famous shrines in Tokyo. It really is a place beyond words, so I'm just going to upload a few photos for you all, all right? See you at the bottom.
Main Entrance
A really long road that you walked down to head towards the shrine.
The reflections are raindrops. I accidentally had my flash on, but I really like this photo.
View from the bridge.
Washing station. you have to wash your hands and rinse your mouth before you're allowed to pray or make a wish at the main shrine.
Walking up to the entrance to the shrine proper.
Entrance to the shrine proper.
A view from the side.
The actual shrine.
Another shot of the entrance, but from the inside.
Bonsai. All of them are real.
It was incredible to contrast the shrine from the main part of the city. You could even see the difference in the streets. There's a bridge to cross over a road between the shrine and the city.
Cityscape versus forest. It is really interesting to see both of these side by side like this.
On the side of the trees is the station, which is surprisingly charming for the location and size.
I find it precious and lovely.
After Meiji Jingu both times, I headed back home. Saturday night, I went straight to bed and woke up at 2:30 in the morning so that I could watch the Russia versus Czech Republic Euro game. The time difference between Japan and Europe is really inconvenient for a European-soccer loving lifestyle. I've had to be picking and choosing the games I've wanted to watch, rather than watch them all, like I would normally do back home.
So I've decided to follow and watch Russia, while also keeping tabs on Spain and Germany. It's been lovely, but I really would rather just watch all of the games.
Sunday night after coming home... I stayed in my room and fought with my internet. The server had apparently done something wrong, and so IT had to come down and see about fixing it. For the longest time, I either had absolutely no internet at all, or I only had half of my internet [it's very technical and boring to explain--basically, I only had Skype and messenger services], and it was really frustrating and tense for a while, as a couple of my classes are internet-reliant. Finally by Monday night, I had my internet back, and all was well.
But, I haven't been doing much this week--it's been really rough for me. Yesterday I went grocery shopping--looked for my sales, as per usual, and I actually found ground beef on sale this week! I bought myself some, and intend to have tacos some time in the near future. Today I went back to the sushi restaurant with some people because I really needed to get out and about, and then I helped a girl switch rooms, because her old one is going under construction to have a door added.
But this week, I've kept largely to myself and have done nothing of consequence, so Harajuku and cheap dining were really all I had to tell you all about. I'm sorry.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures, though.
Maybe I'll give you a song, too? How's that?
Here you go:
Enjoy it, okay? It's an end theme for a really good anime, but I like the song just by itself, too. Their voices are beautiful and fantastically complimentary. A little slow, but very well put-together.
I'll talk to you guys next week--sorry for being so brief and rushed this time around. I'll be back in full-swing next week. I think this weekend involves cinema and PokéMon Centres, so I'm very excited to tell you all about it next Wednesday.
'Til then.
-RD
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