I woke up excited today, because I knew I would finally be experiencing the crazy little Japanese area harajuku. Thoughts of gwen Stefanie naturally flooded my brain and my wallet swelled in anticipation. We headed over there on the train and I instantly started eyeballing the goods on Takeshita st (bahaha sorry, it gets me every time). Already dressed in booty shorts, rainbow knee socks and tights in anticipation, I got me some more colourful bits n pieces to add to my wardrobe and was particularly taken by an amazing, handmade tailed waistcoat I'd been looking for for a while. The old man who made it offered all these gifts as I bought it, and I asked him maybe instead he could just reduce the price of the jacket, but instead he wanted to gift me things. Including some miso noodles, which he claims are the nation's national noodle. Instant noodles, mind you.
After taking my photo in front of harajuku crepes in harajuku, we headed to yoyogi park which housed the remains of the former emporor I believe. We came across a traditional Japanese wedding instead the temple area, which was cool, and some more cherry blossom trees. Walking back, we got lost (again) and gave up on trying to find the big shibuya crossing. My bro was getting tired and I had to admit walking around was getting a little frustrating. Little did I know it wasn't the last of my aimless meandering that day.
Walking through the streets, I did notice that even the pedestrian walking noise was subtle and unobstrusive, a fake bird call instead of the pounding rhythm of Australia's traffic lights. And the people are so well behaved at the train stations, waiting in between the designated queue lines drawn to fit where each carriage door ended up. A well oiled machine, this city.
Found out we couldn't hire a car to drive to some illegal drift racing because we don't have international licences so that was a bummer. Once I dropped my bro back to the hotel, I went off exploring for a park I read was glorious at this time of year with the cherry blossoms. Confident this time I would get it right, I walked and walked... And walked. TWO HOURS LATER I returned to the hotel having found the park but missed its opening hours and then gotten lost again on the way back to the hotel. I was pooped and hungry!
So it was a taxi only to the other side of town, my back and feet having start to hurt, and we finally got the correct address for kagaya to meet this crazy little Japanese man I'd heard so much about. In Shinbashi, we found the restaurant but were told it was full because we didn't make a reservation. I was determined not to have to come back so we made a time for late dinner, and spent a couple of hours exploring the nearby bar area which was actually quite cool. It seemed to be an after work kind of place so wasn't very touristy and had a bunch more of the funky little 5-person bars like the Golden Gai area. There were also these strange signs with scantily clad ladies everywhere describing something in japanese called "all time service". One can only imagine where that was going!
In kagaya, we were certainly treated to a memorable dining experience. Without giving too much away, the owner/waiter/brain behind the place was a ball of unashamed energy and used all matter of props to welcome us, deliver the food, culturally theme our dining experience and give us our bill - kermit the frog included. We chose Brazil as a theme, he strongly suggested the theme of the day (Spanish), we pointed to the mid-priced story that represented food (literally stories written in a school book cryptically based on his meals) and he suggested we both get the same instead of different. The were many sexual references so we came to the conclusion the restaurant was perhaps an outlet to his own suppressed desires, but either way it was certainly entertaining.
After that we were done. A big day so it was back to Shinjuku town and into bed!
After taking my photo in front of harajuku crepes in harajuku, we headed to yoyogi park which housed the remains of the former emporor I believe. We came across a traditional Japanese wedding instead the temple area, which was cool, and some more cherry blossom trees. Walking back, we got lost (again) and gave up on trying to find the big shibuya crossing. My bro was getting tired and I had to admit walking around was getting a little frustrating. Little did I know it wasn't the last of my aimless meandering that day.
Walking through the streets, I did notice that even the pedestrian walking noise was subtle and unobstrusive, a fake bird call instead of the pounding rhythm of Australia's traffic lights. And the people are so well behaved at the train stations, waiting in between the designated queue lines drawn to fit where each carriage door ended up. A well oiled machine, this city.
Found out we couldn't hire a car to drive to some illegal drift racing because we don't have international licences so that was a bummer. Once I dropped my bro back to the hotel, I went off exploring for a park I read was glorious at this time of year with the cherry blossoms. Confident this time I would get it right, I walked and walked... And walked. TWO HOURS LATER I returned to the hotel having found the park but missed its opening hours and then gotten lost again on the way back to the hotel. I was pooped and hungry!
So it was a taxi only to the other side of town, my back and feet having start to hurt, and we finally got the correct address for kagaya to meet this crazy little Japanese man I'd heard so much about. In Shinbashi, we found the restaurant but were told it was full because we didn't make a reservation. I was determined not to have to come back so we made a time for late dinner, and spent a couple of hours exploring the nearby bar area which was actually quite cool. It seemed to be an after work kind of place so wasn't very touristy and had a bunch more of the funky little 5-person bars like the Golden Gai area. There were also these strange signs with scantily clad ladies everywhere describing something in japanese called "all time service". One can only imagine where that was going!
In kagaya, we were certainly treated to a memorable dining experience. Without giving too much away, the owner/waiter/brain behind the place was a ball of unashamed energy and used all matter of props to welcome us, deliver the food, culturally theme our dining experience and give us our bill - kermit the frog included. We chose Brazil as a theme, he strongly suggested the theme of the day (Spanish), we pointed to the mid-priced story that represented food (literally stories written in a school book cryptically based on his meals) and he suggested we both get the same instead of different. The were many sexual references so we came to the conclusion the restaurant was perhaps an outlet to his own suppressed desires, but either way it was certainly entertaining.
After that we were done. A big day so it was back to Shinjuku town and into bed!
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