cat cafe, and lots of people. japan you devil you

June 4, 2013

So as mentioned earlier, we decided that today we would take a mid-day break and come back to our apartment and chill out for a bit before going out again, in the hopes that we would finally be able to stay up past 9:00pm. So right now it’s about 2:30pm and we have relaxing for a bit, had some delicious Cheese Curry Noodles we bought at the grocery store yesterday for our lunch, and now Ben is taking a nap because it just kills him that I am using the laptop and he can’t.

This morning we headed out on our adventures a little later than the two previous days; we left our apartment at around 8:30am and took the subway back to Asakusa. That is where the rickshaw drivers leave from and we definitely needed a ride on a rickshaw. We briefly considered doing a little river cruise, but it looked like an old people thing to do, plus Ben said he would probably fall asleep (also an old people thing to do…) But of course we were still out and about too early and the rickshaw guys weren’t there yet, so we took the subway to Ueno and walked around in the park there. We considered going into the zoo there because they have a panda, but there were hoards of school children on their way to the zoo and that put an end to that. 

But we did find a little lake and sat for a bit in the shade before going to look for food on our way back to the subway station. I thought we should opt for one street past the main street in the hopes that we would find a little sandwich place (they usually have hot dogs with weird toppings too), however no such luck. Instead it seemed as though we had wandered into some sort of red light district; I am basing this on the names of the “clubs” and the pictures of half naked women. To be fair, there were also restaurants, but no sandwich shops. It was actually a surprisingly non-seedy area and there were many people on the street walking and riding their bikes. We ended up just going to McDonalds again at Ben’s insistence; they were still serving breakfast so we couldn’t buy their current “special” item, which is a Mega Fries that is basically the size of 2 or 3 large fries (I’m sure we will buy them before this trip is over).

After our late breakfast, we took the subway back to Asakusa and conveniently found the rickshaw drivers right at the top of the subway exit. Out driver ended up being the guy who was busy rustling up all the business, so he was very outgoing and talkative. We paid for a 10 minute ride to the Tokyo Skytree, however the ride ended up being closer to 20 minutes because he would pause and point out different buildings and sights and talk about the history of the area. Plus he did a little artistic photo shoot of us in the rickshaw. 

All in all, it was a totally awesome and entertaining experience; Ben took some video footage of the beginning of our ride which I’m sure will be up on his YouTube channel as soon as we get home.

We ended our rickshaw ride at the Tokyo Skytree, which is a 634 metre tall broadcasting tower that just last month celebrated its 1^st anniversary, so it’s a pretty popular tourist attraction in Japan. We didn’t end up going up the tower because of the horrendous line, but its 5 lowest floors are pretty much a shopping mall so we wandered around there for a little while and Ben finally got up the nerve to try the bum washing function on pretty much every toilet here. He said it wasn’t an unpleasant experience and it mostly just leaves you with a wet bum.

And that pretty much brings us to now; after the Skytree we took the subway home, and it was conveniently on the same line that goes right to our apartment. This afternoon we plan on visiting the Shibuya area where there is a nice garden and I also sourced out a store that may have some souvenir possibilities and a cat café. Also nearby is Harajuku where the Cosplay people like to hang out, so there could be some interesting sights.

We headed back out at about 3:30pm; Ben had fallen asleep and was really startled and disoriented when I woke him up, so it took him a little while to get it together. We caught the Ginza subway line all the way to Shibuya Station and found Shibuya Crossing, which is a crazy busy intersection and is seen in lots of movies that are filmed in Tokyo. We wandered around the area for a bit; there were lots of shops and restaurants. At one point this random black guy came up to Ben and started talking to him about his store and basically led us right to it. To be polite we took a look around but everything was pretty expensive and we weren’t really interested. Along the way a random girl came up to me and asked if I lived in Japan and if she could put highlights in my hair. I said I was just visiting and didn’t think I would have time; I guess she was looking for blonde hair…? Then we went to a store called Tokyu Hnads, which was a department store that had pretty much everything. I found it online mentioned in a blog and thought the prices would be a little cheaper than they were because I was mostly looking for little gifts to bring home for people, but I didn’t end up buying anything. Pretty much the only souvenirs I’ve picked up so far is sunscreen, ointment, an umbrella, and a really stupid looking sunburn that will hopefully turn into a really stupid looking tan that I will be trying to get rid of all summer.

Moving along…since we were headed in the correct direction, we decided to continue our wandering up to Yoyogi Park. Once again, when we got there we couldn’t remember what specifically we were looking for (also, Ben had created a Google map for the last time he was planning on going to Japan, so this location had been pinned back in January 2011). Apparently the Harajuku side of the park attracts Cosplay enthusiasts, but we didn’t see any while we were there. Then we wandered back down towards Shibuya Crossing because it gets busier in the evenings and we wanted to see all the bright billboards and hoards of people crossing the street en masse

 (every traffic cycle all the lights are red for the cars so the intersection fills with people crossing every which way). Along the way we stopped at McDonald’s (yes again, please don’t make nasty comments about this) so we could sit down and rest for a bit and eat one of those giant French fries for dinner. 

When we finished and headed down to the streets, it had gotten crazy busy. Tonight is the semi-final World Cup soccer match between Japan and Australia, so everyone was out in their jerseys, the media was out filming the chaos, and of course Ben walked us in front of the cameras a couple times.

Earlier in the day I had been looking online for cat cafes and I found one in Shibuya that I wanted to check out. We managed to find it amidst the chaos and I was excited to see what all the fuss was about. It was on the third floor of the building and when I looked in there were a couple people inside with the cats. When I had looked online and used the handy Google Translate function, I read that for 30 minutes with the cats plus one drink it would cost 525 yen; this information was confirmed on a sign on the door of the cat establishment. Ben and I hummed and hawed and decided that we would both go in and visit the cats, so we when up to the window to speak to the hostess. She asked if I spoke Japanese, which obvs I don’t, so she was nice enough to give me an English menu. To my shock and dismay, the prices listed on the English menu were double the price listed in Japanese, so it cost 1050 yen per person. Needless to say I was super unimpressed and of course didn’t end up going into the café. It’s not like the prices and time limits on the Japanese menu were written in a form I couldn’t understand; they were normal numbers (plus as I said earlier, I translated their website into English). 

All in all, a very disappointing experience.

After the cat fiasco, we headed back to the train station and caught our train home. A couple stops after we got on, a woman got on the train with her three small children and an older woman who I’m assuming was her mother (who had the youngest of the 3 in a baby carrier). Ben gave up his seat for the woman and her kids and she was very appreciative. Of course once he stood up on the train the kids couldn’t stop staring at him. At one point the baby got fussy, so the mom pulled out her little box of baby snacks, which consisted of little pieces of bread and little balls of sticky rice; she also had what looked like tea in a sippy cup.

Anyways, now we are back at the apartment, very tired after a long day. I’m not sure what we will do tomorrow; we will probably go back to the Imperial Gardens and have a good look around in the morning before it gets too hot. It’s been surprising comfortable temperature-wise, today was the hottest and sunniest day so far in the high 20’s, but it really hasn’t felt humid to me at all (could be because I have gotten used to the heat and humidity in the hot yoga room, so this is nothing). We are also still on the hunt for crazy flavors of Kit Kat; I read online that you can buy them at a store near Tokyo station, so we may scope that out tomorrow too.  Well its 10:00pm and Ben has fallen asleep already, so I guess I better go to sleep too. Ben was complaining this morning that everything here tastes like either fish or tea, which I think is hilarious because if he feels this way now I’m really not sure how he’s going to make it through the next 12 days (this also may be why we ended up at McDonald’s twice today…hmmmm…)