Hey fans, Chris here. Sharon is out like a snoring light so I’ll make today’s entry. This morning we looked at our master list and planned how to spend the last day and half. After a leisurely breakfast at one of the several Starbucks look-alikes that they have here (“Excelsior Caffe”, I kid you not), we headed over to the Shibuya part of town to go look at a couple museums, some shopping districts, more fruit hunting, etc. Most destinations are closed on Monday so half the things we still wanted to see were out of consideration (like the Tobacco and Salt Museum) so we were relegated to things like the Electric Power Museum, which was pretty dull, let me tell you. Sharon wisely sat in their little library and read magazines while I spent a little while wandering the place pushing buttons and dodging elementary school kids. Then we wandered around a few shopping districts, including an encounter with a deeply subterranean Mandarake store and other nuttiness, and ended up at a gigantor department store to buy swag for the peeps back home. My wallet is an empty vessel, my soul is full. And a little damp, it rained off and on all day, sometimes very on.
A few random pictures: first, most restaurants (except for the very upscale) have wax/plastic models of their dishes on display out front. Do not trust the glisten, this is NOT real food!
A closeup of the architecture of the Meiji shrine.
An incredible parade that just popped up alongside the traffic while we were trudging down the Omote Sando in the Aoyoma district. They were doing a choreographed dance to a song that everyone seemed to know. I saw a twenty-something woman come off the sidewalk and jump right into the routine. I think it’s a song/dance that everyone knows, I don’t suppose there’s an American analogy.
Most buildings have signs indicating the businesses that are up on the non-ground floors — most restaurants are not street-level storefronts. There’s not enough storefront to go around, so you have these vertical signs, sidewalk placards (with glistening food photos or glassed in displays), carneys hollering out their restaurants offerings. This isn’t just in the cute tourist districts, this is everywhere.
This is a view of our hotel room. A sizable chunk of it. The one thing we noticed the minute we walked in for the first time (carrying suitcases) was that there were no dresser drawers or even suitcase stands. D’oh. So we improvised with upended chairs and spreading out on the narrow shelf that ran along the window. Noted: can’t take dresser drawers for granted in a Japanese hotel room. Also noted: high speed internet connection (using my laptop seen on left) was a freaking godsend. I love the internet!
The fabulous “Excelsior Caffe”, with fonting, color hues and store layout details to make it look remarkably like a Starbucks; close enough that a Japanese person not familiar with English or Latin characters might not even notice the difference. There was also a “New Yorker” coffee chain doing the same thing. I spent more time in Starbucks-lookalikes in a week in Tokyo than I’ve spent in my entire life in the US (read: none).
The surely-incredible Tobacco and Salt Museum, sadly closed on Mondays.
Wacky architecture.
We have a friend (hi Mark!) who draws for Marvel, and we were trying to find some Spiderman comics (with Japanese translations) that had his art work to bring home. On Monday we stumbled across an entire Spiderman store, closed. Picture taken through front door — flashback is from the mirror at the back of store; mirror’s are used widely to make spaces look bigger.
After a respite at the hotel, we had a fabulous final-night dinner at a well-regarded restaurant 50 stories up a nearby building (note: not revolving). One of the dishes we had was garlic rice. It was served with the papery covering of the garlic on top and it was so hot the papery sheaves were quivering and dancing around on the rice. The server then stirred them into the dish. An amazing presentation.
Now we’re just getting some rest in preparation for the long day tomorrow — a little more sightseeing then on to the airport for the 13 hour flight home to Atlanta’s spectacular fall weather and regular life again.
[updated with pictures and more commentary on 23-Oct]