My Clothing Shop Heaven

Wow, I just finished my homework for the weekend...and it was REALLY easy. And then I looked at my week homework schedule, and it looks like the way they do things here is assign one thing for the whole week...which means that I basically finished the week's homework. Of course, I couldn't do my Japanese Art reading because the book is in the library, and the library is closed on Sundays, but that's not due until Tuesday.

This morning, Brittany (I finally found out how to spell her name!), Steve, Peter and I went to Harajuku, and it was so, so much more fun than yesterday.

We wandered through the lane/alley (?) and then went for an early lunch...which meant that the horde of Japanese people hadn't all gone to lunch yet. (When it's lunchtime, everyone eats.) We went to a fabulous ramen place, and I got something that I can't remember the name of, but it was so good. It had the noodles, a slice of pork (I think), three halves of hard-boiled eggs, sliced mushrooms, miso, chives/onions (I'm not sure)...and I think that's it. It was really, really good. Even the water was good, because I think that they put some lemon juice in to make it not taste bad.

After lunch, we went back through the lane and went across to the Meiji Shrine, passing through some cosplayers. The shrine was pretty cool, and not too crowded, since there aren't any holidays close by (New Year is over, and Coming of Age day was last week). On our way back, we came across a few "free hugs" people, and I hugged some guy dressed all jrockish. I have a picture, but I look like a complete sketchball (I didn't realize the picture hadn't been taken yet, so I started to pull away, and I was laughing and looking away from the camera), so I'm not posting it here. I'd like to keep what dignity I have, thanks.

We went back through several more Harajuku shops, and Brittany bought a shoulder bag and hair extentions before we went to buy crepes (I got a strawberry chocolate cheesecake crepe! Yummmmy). Then we went to karaoke for an hour, and it was kind of bad at first because none of us knew how to work the controller, and we wasted some time with that. But then we figured it out, and we tried singing some songs. Only Brittany and Steve could do the Japanese songs, but Peter and I resorted to English songs. We stumbled across the Tarzan song ("You'll Be In My Heart"), and so we ended the hour with Peter and I doing a ridiculous duet.

Afterward we agreed that we needed to get back home to do homework, and we split up at the Shibuya transfer so Brittany and I could buy art supplies at Tokyu Hands. I was so happy when I saw the ginormous ToHoShinKi posted hanging from one of the buildings in Shibuya, that I had to take a picture. I also had seen one of those advertizing trucks for their album when we were in Harajuku. (There are trucks that have huge posters of the group with the album name on it, and it plays their music really loudly as it passes.) When we were in Tokyu Hands, I was very lucky to find a store worker that spoke English. He helped me find some of the things on my list...though I'm not sure he knew what news print was, and I'm not sure what I bought is news print, since it's yellowish...but it was cheap, so it is just as good as gray news print I might get in the States.

I had a most exciting dinner of Cesear salad for dinner. Actually, I'm not lying. I was surprised at how good it tasted. It's been a while since I've eaten salad, so it must have just been my body secretly craving salad. I'll have to go buy more from Peacock when I get a chance. I also had an English muffin, and it was wonderful. <.<

Anyway, I absolutely love Harajuku. My favorite places so far are Shibuya and Harajuku, and sometime I'll have to go back to Harajuku and get some clothes. Brittany, Tamaria and I will have to make a day of it sometime, since we all have the same interest in getting clothes like that.

Peter in the middle of some cosplayers.
One of the huge torii at Meiji shrine.
Inside Meiji shrine.
The tiny picture doesn't really show it, but the crows flying overhead looked really cool...kind of like from a movie.
Harajuku lane! (I forget if that's what it's called, whoops.) Lookie all those people! We went into that crowd, haha. I'm getting really used to navigating crowds like this.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the sign. ^_~ The clothes inside were pretty awesome.
The hallway where our karaoke room was. All of those doors are karaoke rooms.
Yaaay, ToHoShinKi poster!

On that intelligent note, I'll leave you for the day.