Caitlin and I took the Shinkansen up on Saturday, and hung out in Asakusa, where we were staying. We had dinner in Shibuya, burgers, real burgers, with cheese and bbq sauce and pineapple. Due to the stupid fact that Tokyo subways stop at 12, we decided not to go dancing like we'd planned, but go back to our hostel.
Sunday we scoped out a flea market and then met up with Lana in Harajuku. We shopped and saw Meiji Shrine, and a bizarre store called condomania, which is exactly what it sounds like. We had Thai food for dinner, which was great, and then met Caitlin's friend Cameron and his 3 friends back in Asakusa. Since there's nothing much to do in Asakusa, we ended up getting an all night karaoke room and hanging out there, until circumstances required that we return to our hostel.
Monday we went to the Tsukiji Fish Market, and had really fresh sushi at a little place in one of the many maze-like alleys around the market. Walking (or, more accurately, squeezing and staggering) through the market area made me feel like I was really in Asia, the foreign smells and the jam packed little streets with severed fish heads staring at you and weird creatures floating in icy water. In the afternoon we walked around Ginza, the fashionable shopping district. I came across a print shop where I found this gorgeous print by a Japanese wood block artist from the early 20th century names Kawase Hasui. I've fallen in love with his work, it has a very realistic and yet very picture-book feel to it. It's very idealized, peaceful and calm. You can take a look at some of his prints here. The one I bought is below.
Monday night we went to Tokyo Tower, because the view at night is really cool. Then Tuesday we went to Nikko, about 2 hours outside Tokyo, where there is an impressive collection of shrines and temples. One of the shrines has carvings of monkeys on it doing the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" pose. Apparently these carvings have something to do with the origin of that phrase, though I don't understand how. Due to unfortunate circumstances, we were forced to stand the entire 2.5 hour train ride back to Tokyo, and were exhausted when we got back. We had dinner at a little place near the hostel, and accidentally ordered spam patties. Then we went back to Ginza to have dessert at a place called Alice Cafe, which is a theme restaurant where the waiters dress like Alice and the place looks like Wonderland. It's dark, like you really are in a rabbit hole, the walls are draped with blue fabric and there are mirrors on the ceiling. It was a lot of fun, but I was very conscious of being the only foreigners in there. Clearly it was off the beaten path.
Tuesday night, Cameron and his friends were supposed to come in to the city again to meet up, but due to what I'm not sure, lack of consideration or immaturity and poor planning, they chose to wait until 10 to let us know they were actually still in Hanno, where Cameron lives, an hour outside of Tokyo. But why didn't we come out there? We could have a house party. Long story short, Caitlin and Lana and I disagreed about whether such a plan would be a lot of fun or a mind-numbingly juvenile throwback to freshman-year frat parties, and we parted ways, them going to Hanno and me going back to the hostel.
We met up again the next morning. I had breakfast at a little cafe in Asakusa, did a little last minute souvenir shopping (I bought a gorgeous silk robe and a Starbucks mug-I'm collecting the different ones from the major cities). We went to Roppongi Hills, the huge shopping/housing/entertainment complex for lunch, and while Caitlin and Lana shopped I went to try to find the studio of Murakami Takashi, a Japanese artist I like. I assumed his studio would include a gallery, which it did, but the building was closed, probably because of the National holiday. So I didn't get to see it, but it was still cool to see where his studio was.
We left Tokyo at 3 and got back to Yamasaki around 8 or 9. It was a fun trip, but it was tiring. The hostel we were staying at was in no way relaxing. It deserves its own entry, but I'll try to do it justice here. The only redeeming quality was the price, which at under 20 dollars a night is unbeatable. That said, I would at all costs avoid staying there again in the future. It was not too far from the subway, which was good. But Asakusa is not the most exciting area of Tokyo. The guidebook actually used the word "yawn" to describe it. There was one toilet per floor (one physical toilet) and it kept running out of toilet paper. One of the girls in our room the first night came back at 6 am and had forgotten her key, she knocked and woke us up to let her in. There was no one at reception at that time. The other 3 nights we moved into an 8 bed mixed dorm. There was no lock on the door. Again, 1 toilet for the entire floor. The common space was a kitchen (cockroaches) and through the kitchen was the one sink and shower (no lock) on the floor. Zero privacy. I showered on Sunday night because there was no one around at 3 am when we got back, but that was it. I couldn't shower again until I got home Wednesday night. I know. Disgusting. The security was a joke. They told us that after 12 the front door would be locked, and we would need a code to get in. When we came back at 3 Sunday night, the door was open, which meant we were able to walk right in, and right up into our dorm room, which, you will recall, also had no lock. There was one guy sitting up in the kitchen on his computer at that time, a guest with insomnia, I assumed. It turns out he wasn't even a guest there. His friend was, but he had nowhere to stay, so he was just hanging out in the hostel. He made himself perfectly comfortable in our dorm. We came back one day to find him sitting with his laptop on Caitlin's bed, which he had clearly climbed over to plug in his cords. Caitlin was understandably annoyed. It's common hostel courtesy, don't enter another person's bed space. I've stayed at a lot of hostels, and some of them were pretty dirty, but I've never stayed at one that was so completely oblivious to the convenience and comfort of their guests. They didn't even have individual bed lights, so when you got back late, like we did every night, and the lights were off and people were sleeping, you had to fumble around for your things in the dark, or use your cell phone light.
Anyway, other than the hostel and the unfortunate disagreement about Hanno, it was a great trip. Here are pictures:
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