Advertisement
Published: June 25th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Second day the four of us decided to hit a few locale's... first up was Shibuya. The crowds here never get old! They checked out the massive CD/DVD/Book shop right at the main intersection, and I grabbed a coffee and scone from the Starbucks inside (ya I'm weak for Starbucks...) From there we hit the 109-2 building, the "mens" fashion tower but only about half is men's, rest is women's (109-1 is ALL women's) After making through the Hello Kitty and Barbie shops we checked out the psychotic fashions that are all the rage in Japan these days. Rod took some good pics I'll have to steal some from him. Pablo picked up a shirt and after grabbing lunch we hit the 109-1 building, where Yoshiko managed to find something she liked too (and on sale!)
From there we hit Harajuku and the massive Meiji-Jingu shrine there. I've never gone before, it's a long walk and usually too tired / shrined out to go see it. Glad I went this time, impressive architecture and we were lucky enough to get to witness a traditional Shinto Wedding Ceremony that was taking place (in the summer there can be 30 of these
Hachiko
Famous Meeting Spot - statue is dedicated to a dog that would visit the station every day for years waiting for his master to return (his master had passed away earlier) a day!) Very beautiful. Not sure exactly what was going on but they started at one side of the Shrine and walked in a procession to another area that was off limits to the public. Inside the Shrine itself no pictures were allowed unfortunately. After a long walk back (and stopping for ice cream along the way) we headed into Harajuku, the home of even crazier fashions then Shibuya's 109 Buildings. Where Shibuya is a lot of large big name companies, Harajuku has a lot of smaller shops, and slightly more eclectic tastes.
After heading back to the Ryokan we rested up for a couple of hours then after enjoying some of that Japanese vodka with Yoshiko again, Pablo, Rod, and me decided to head to Roppongi. Roppongi is the nightlife district for the foreigners (Gaijin), which is good and bad. Good in that it's pretty foreigner friendly, bad in that it's TOO friendly. Creepy Jamacian guys will follow you for half a block trying to "Be your friend" and get you into whatever bar or other establishments they're working for. Rod knew enough German to make it sound like he didn't speak English, definitly confused them at least
a bit. We managed to find a British Pub out of the heart of Roppongi where we could actually sit and enjoy some beer. At one point we went down a side street with massively expensive cars, blinged out Hummers, and guys in suits watching our every move. great stuff. After taking one of the last trains back to the Ryokan (trains stop around midnight or so) we finally called it a night.
Ok screw trying to upload videos on this internet link... look at the wedding procession photos and imagine their legs moving. There's your video, enjoy!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.206s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 48; dbt: 0.1222s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb