Day 3: conquering the train system

Yesterday we decided that we better get used to the trains. We opted to go to Harajuku and Ginza and luckily, they were both on that Yamanote line, which does a circle through the city. So rail passes in hand, we got on the train.

The train system here is very easy to use. All of the announcements are made in Japanese and English, and there is a little TV screen over the door which shows you where we are, and what the stops are on the route. At some points the train was pretty full, and there was standing room only, but on every trip we had a chance to sit after things cleared out.

As we waited for the hotel's bus to take us to the train we realized that we accidently purchased some gay water


At the train station: old meets new:


The fake food makes ordering SO much easier! Find the plastic food you like, memorize the symbols on the sign next to it, find that button on the machine you order at, and you are golden. Only at this restaurant it came with a catch. After I handed the woman my tickets she asked me some question. I told her I didn't understand, and she came back to me with two bowls, one with soba noodles the other udon. This was the best meal I have had yet, tempura squid over udon, yum! We also tried a new treat in the station later that day that I will have to not only get again, but learn how to make. They are these sticky rice balls with meat and sauce inside and a piece of seaweed on the outside. Using my phrase book I asked "What do you recommend" I'm not positive what the meat was, but it was damn good! I will be getting more of that today before we board the train for Kyoto


Waiting for the train:






Our first trip was only two or three exits down the line to Harajuku. This was a place we should have gone to on Sunday, but we didn't have time :( it wans't quite as exciting on Monday. Harajuku is a very trendy shopping mall, where all of the girls dress up in strange costumes when they go there. We saw a few Harajuku girls today, but between feeling awkard about taking their pictures, and the amount of people blocking them, we didn't get many photos :( Harajuku was neat though, I'm glad we got a chance to go there. We went into some of the stores and looked at what people were buying, and ran into a few Nigerians who were running some sort of scam, they are EVERYWHERE in Harajuku so watch yourself.









We found a manga lover's heaven in Harajuku, a book store dedicated just to mangas. The place was huge! I asked where the Sailor Moon mangas was (Japanese style Say-la moon). It took them a while to find it, but 200 yen later, Chirstina, you got yourself a new Manga




Pizza anyone?


Atempting to take incognito photos of the Harajuku girls










some little Honda thing


These little things were awesome! They were crepes filled with goodies and rolled up like an ice cream cone.


















After walking around Harajuku we heading back to the station to board the train to Ginza. Aren took train pictures as I had my first experience with a Japanese style toilet. I now understand while so many people wear skirts. The advice I got to bring a hand towel came in handy here as well. When Aren came out of one of the train station restrooms with wet hands, I gave him a lot of crap because he laughed at me when I bought the towel.




Now in Ginza





Canon > Nikon as you can see in this photo


We went into the Sony building, where they had a huge display of their new stuff


Taking advantage of a seat while Aren messes with a Vaio, which, btw, were AWESOME they make one in pink, and it seems to weigh less than 2 lbs




Baller shot of their new little MP3 player. It plays movies as well. But at 300 bucksfor 8gigs noooooo thank you


Aren got excited about this ring light for a point-and-shoot






For the record, I made Aren take this photo because I thought these little boys were so cute in their little outfits






We walked down to the Kabukiza theater in Ginza. We were having trouble finding it, and were standing at a map with our guide book, comparing and trying to figure it out. Yet again, people came through, as an English speaking Japanese woman asked if she could help us and gave us very good directions.









We went ahead and saw one act of the show. It is cool that you can do this. It was 1000 yen (roughly $8) a piece, and we spent another 800 on 2 English translation ear pieces. They came in handy, especially since we watched the final act and had NO idea what was going on. No photos were allowed during the performance, but here is a shot of the theater. 1000 yen buys you some pretty crappy seats, box seats are 17,000 yen, which is about what we are paying for our hotel room a night


The performance was well worth the money. It was a nice hour spent sitting in air conditoning, which you don't get much of in Japan. Also, it was a great experience to see a kabuki performance. The costumes and sets were just amazing. However, the current director of the Kabukiza does a lot of Shakespere, so we saw a Japanese adaptation of Shakespere's 12th Night, where Olivia is a Japanese Princess. I would have prefered to see a real Japanese story, but what can you do? It was still well worth it.

Um, something went a miss when they wrote this sign:


Back in Ginza:


Aren thought the swastikas on the map were a little funny




We went into the Nissan showroom hoping to get some photos of the cool Japanese Nissans. However, car dealerships (or show rooms) are hell of a lot different in Japan, unless we understand them wrong. There are only two or three cars in each show room. I don't know how they do test drives, I guess you have to schedule one and they have to go get a car. They had this Fairlady Z Nismo edition and an SUV that looked like a small Murano


we went upstairs thinking maybe there were more cars there. Instead, it was just an accessory shop. We looked around for some neat things to get, but most of it you can buy in the states, aside for maybe some Skyline apparel. The stairway was the best part of the showroom


We don't even have this in the states! Shows how nice Ginza is. However, I read about it in Car on the airplane, the tonneau cover is made of wood! Like a yacht! Totally baller. And you have 300,000 color choices! Makes me wish I had 300 large to drop on a car.


here is a shot of the car off of google:


These two are just for you Brookie:




Back in Shinjuku we waited for the bus to take us back to the room. We met a young English traveler who is backpacking across Japan. He just came from Kyoto, so we shared experiences.



Why on earth do they not bring these minivans to the states?