We Buy Crap

We set aside a couple of days to actually try to shop in Tokyo. Things have been expensive in general, and both V and I have fairly Western tastes in clothes. However, while I'm out here, I plan to make an effort to shop Japanese and we did manage to check out some Japanese boutiques yesterday in Harajuku.

Takeshita-dori was bustling as usual. I had the opportunity to snag a good pic, so there you go. It may seem like we've been hanging out in the high-schoolers area a lot, but it has the closest Daiso to us, so we don't really have a choice. Daiso wasn't our objective today though; if you continue down Takeshita-dori and then cross Meiji-dori, you can get to a boutiquey section North of Omotesando without the high-schoolers.

On the way there, we stopped by McDonald's to grab a bite. The Japanese call McDonald's simply "Mac." I supposed it makes sense cuz the katakana is pretty unnecessarily complicated: マクドナルド. A friend of ours, Laura, had told us to try the ebi-filet, and so we decided to check it out.

Have to admit, it was tasty. V said yesterday that it was good, but she wouldn't go back to Mac just to get it. She's a liar cuz all day today she's been talking about how she wants to go get an ebi-filet.

It took us a little while to cross Meiji-dori because in addition to the kids, there were all these random old tourists. It bothers me that I'm trying to walk down this street, and there are these old people leisurely walking in a horizontal pattern and taking in the sights. I understand that you're tourists, but don't block off half the street with your uselessness!

The other side of Takeshita-dori is pretty interesting. The stores in this area seem to have three central themes: hip-hop, outdoors, or surf. Other than those lines of fashion, there isn't anything else really out there. We did find an APC Underground tucked away in a corner. We were running a little short on time, so I think we need to go back to check out all the nooks and crannies, but for the most part, not too much luck. On Cat Street, I trekked all they way down to the end around Shibuya where there's a Momotaro Jeans.

I've been eying this store for a while as it just seemed really interesting. I'll get a picture of it up eventually. Not sure to say if it disappointed or not. It's basically a premium denim store with some really nice cuts of jeans. So now I really wanna buy a pair, but they're also really expensive...bahhh.

Back in Shinjuku, we checked out this little alley of food that we always walk by. The majority of the restaurants inside are some sort of yakitori, and we picked one earlier that had looked really good. They had been grilling up some enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon, but when we ordered we found that those were already sold out. Let's face it though, it's not hard to wrap mushrooms in bacon.

Ended up ordering some shiitake and various parts of a chicken (heart, liver, kidney...). It was pretty good, but I still can't say I really enjoy liver. The two people sitting next to us started to chat us up. Everybody had been calling the old man at the end of the bar, "Sachou" - Chief. He initiated the conversation by guessing that I was Korean. First time ever someone has thought I looked Korean. This OL, Office Lady, was actually Chinese and I think that the owners of the establishment were actually Chinese as well. The owner kept trying to talk to me in Chinese and we probably would've been better off if V just talked to her, but instead we roughed it out in Japanese.

I think that the alley is meant for people to go, drink, and eat random crap. There's a tempura soba place that looked really really good that I wanna go back and try sometime.

We didn't go to sleep as early as we should have because we were supposed to wake up early to catch the bus to Gotemba Premium Outlets. The best outlet mall in Japan is a 100-minute ride out of Shinjuku Station. Getting there and back is actually pretty convenient. Unfortunately, actually buying the tickets is a huge pain in the ass.

What is the point of having a website if it's closed between 1 AM and 5 AM? Who closes a website? V figured out how to reserve the tickets and we woke up at 9 AM to try to figure out how to actually get our tickets. People say that New York never sleeps, but every city sleeps on Sunday morning. Doesn't matter where you are; unless you're in a neighborhood with a lot of old people, the city is always dead on Sunday morning.

One problem with Japan is that it's really really convenient to use your cell phone and convenience store to take care of a lot of business, but really inconvenient to figure out how to do it the first time. This stuff is not that natural and everybody just assumes that it's easy. We had a hard time using wireless at a coffee shop for the same reason. At a convenience store, I can basically pay for all my bills, but I've been avoiding it because it's gonna be a pain to figure out how to do it.

One thing I really miss about the US is how everything is online. I can pay all my bills online. If I wanted to, I could even automate the payments so that I would never really have to bother looking at my bills. I logged onto google.co.jp hoping to do some research via google shopping. No such thing.

As far as I can tell there just aren't that many online retailers in Japan. I was looking for Timberlands online and found like three stores. In the US I could spend hours clicking through every single link. I guess you could say I miss online shopping.

That was one of our main reasons for going to Gotemba anyway; I wanted to get some boots for the rain. We managed to put our tickets on our cell phone and just showed that to the bus driver; then, we were on our way.

Gotemba Premium Outlets is kind of out in the middle of nowhere. I'm not sure why they decided to build it all the way out in the boonies, nestled in mountains, but it does make the place fairly scenic. V said it reminded her of Ithaca, and I have to say that's a spot-on comparison.

The bus left at 10:40 AM and arrived after noon. Our ride back left at 5:00 PM and arrived after 7:00 PM. But Gotemba is big enough to amply fill those 4.5 hours. There are two stores in particular called United Arrows and Beams that were kind of overwhelming. They're just packed to the brim with clothes and people. Somehow we navigated the mess; V left Beams with a skirt and I got a vest at United Arrows. Yay, a vest!

The weather reports for Gotemba had been improving all day, and when we first arrived at the mall, we were disappointed that it was too cloudy to get a clear view of Mt. Fuji. Luckily, they did clear enough before we left to take this one:

きれい～。　Bought a couple of other things and passed out on the bus back. I had plans to go to a fashion show with one of my classmates and so we booked it home. A friend of his from California was showcasing a line in Shibuya. I wasn't sure if this was going to be a legit show, or one of those club fashion events. It ended up being closer to the latter, but something else altogether.

The venue was this place called Vuenos Tokyo off Dogenzaka. On my way there the area started to seem pretty familiar because we had considered an apartment around here. It's a good thing we didn't end up here because I got followed for half a block by three different guys trying to sell me unsavory services.

These guys just hang out on the street and try to take you into fairly discretely marked stores and before you know it you're having sex with Japanese prostitutes and being robbed!

I arrived a little late and by the time I made it in, the first act, a female beat-boxer, was in full swing. She brought out a dancer, and the two performed a pretty creative routine. The fashion show was next and it turned out to really be a show. Actually, the whole thing was pretty sweet. Models basically danced on the stage showcasing the line and I was kind of interested in some of the crazy pieces.

After that, I have no idea what happened, but it turned into a dance competition. Dance troupe after dance troupe came out on stage and performed for the crowd. Some of them were actually really good, but people were sitting down watching them and nobody was drinking. I'm pretty sure everyone there was just a friend of someone performing and the club made money on a Sunday night by charging cover to people who wanted to watch a dance-off.

I left after a while completely exhausted and never met up with my friend. A lot of Japanese clubs don't seem to get cell phone service. It's pretty annoying and he didn't manage to reach me until I was back in Shinjuku. Not that it mattered because I actually have homework due by tomorrow morning that I still haven't done. I should probably do that...