K & A’s Adventures in Japan – Pt. 2
Tokyo – day one.
We arrived at the Shinjuku station in Tokyo at the lovely hour of 6:15am. Kim wasn’t keen on getting up any earlier than 8:00am, so we decided to head to the Starbucks in Shibuya for some breakfast while we waited.
We did some people watching, and caught a model and some photographers. It was pretty interesting, and it seemed like it was a shoe campaign. The model was wearing a ridiculous outfit, which made her look kind of like a prostitute. While they were shooting, she was propositioned by this one guy, who she completely ignored. A bunch of people walked through the shot, and they almost got hit by a few cars. That was our breakfast entertainment. The look on everyone’s face when they realized they were in the center of the Shibuya crosswalk when the walking lights were all red was priceless.
We were walking across the crosswalk after breakfast to hail a cab, and there were two irritating guys behind us going, “Do you speak Japanese?”. They also saw that Kat’s backpack had ‘Canada’ on it, so they were like, “Canada!?”. We didn’t respond. That is not cool at 8:00am after you’ve been on the night bus and feel like complete and total ass. That is annoying.
So, we ended up meeting up with Kim and taking our much needed showers and a bit of relaxation before heading out. Kim went to work earlier, but we met up with him for lunch and had some awesome shabushabu. The guy at the restaurant was so sweet, and gave us some candy on the way out.
Next, Kat and I headed to the Meiji Shrine to check out what was going on there. While we were taking a photo, this random guy (who is now our BFF) came up to us and asked (in English) if we wanted him to take a photo of us together. That was awesome, so we said sure. I said thank you to him in Japanese, and he kind of freaked out. YOU SPEAK JAPANESE!? And he asked a bunch of questions like where we were from, and we talked for a bit. He had one question that was plaguing his mind — IS GINGERALE CANADIAN? I told him that I think it was just a brand name, but we do drink it in Canada. Then he asked if he could take a photo of us with his camera, so after deciding he wasn’t creepy, we agreed and went on our merry way.
The shrine was really beautiful, peaceful and we had some great weather. There weren’t that many people there, so it was nice. At another part of the shrine, shortly after Kat had said she wished our buddy was around so we could get a photo together, HE SHOWS UP. He asked again if he could take our photos, but separately and together. I asked him if he could take a photo of us with my camera, and he had no problem with that. So he did, and then we got our photos taken by him. He was nice, we felt like models. He was always looking for the right light, and would be like OKAY, MOVE UP! MOVE BACK! STEP HERE! He also referred to us as ‘Miss Canada’ over and over. It was cute, and he was nice so it was fun. He asked about what we didn’t like about Japan, but I told him there wasn’t anything really I disliked. It’s just different from Canada. He said he thought Canadians have a lot of freedom… and I said well, I’m a foreigner in Japan so I feel like I have a lot of freedom here anyways… he laughed. We said our goodbyes, and explored the shrine a bit more.
Afterwards we headed to Harajuku for some crazy fashion. We didn’t buy much; socks, hair bands. That’s about it. It was paced, like it always is, but it’s always interesting to look around. We were there for about three hours just window shopping mostly, and at the end were feeling pretty exhausted. So, we headed back to Shibuya where we hopped on the bus to come back to Kim’s.
On the way we stopped at the conbini where the cutest conbini boy ever was working. And blushing like crazy. He asked me if I wanted a straw which confused me, because they generally just give it to you and I’ve never been asked. I told him it wasn’t necessary.
Kat and I hung out at Kim’s for a couple hours; tried on our head bands, watched Glee, chatted… and Kim texted us saying he was ready to come home and head out to dinner. We went for some awesome gyouza.
The rest of the night was spent with the three of us on YouTube and just talking… Kat and I had a giggle fest just before we went to sleep and I honestly don’t remember what was so hilarious, but we couldn’t stop laughing. Poor Kim.
So that was yesterday! What adventures will today hold!?
We all woke up for a brief period to a lovely swaying due to the earthquake. Every time we have an earthquake (which have been two now… well, two that we felt), Kat thinks that someone is gently trying to rock her awake.
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