Day Two: Shibuya/Asakusa

We woke up in our hotel room at about five in the AM. Still on LA time I guess. I know my legs and feet have been more sore in the past, but I couldn’t really remember when. We tried to sleep more but found this difficult. So instead we decided to create our “plan of attack” for the day. What was our plan of attack you ask? Follow the Lonely Planet Guide around the neighborhood of Shibuya. (Which I think is probably Stuart Scott’s favorite Japanese neighborhood. Sports fans will get this reference. Maybe.)

This is a very cool and hip neighborhood on account of all the young cool and hip Japanese people that hang out there, also because there are tons of stores selling cool and hip tee shirts for really skinny guys.

It is also a neighborhood without many street signs. Come to find out Tokyo is a city without many street signs and/or street names. This can be a little frustrating for people used to navigating via streets and signs telling you what these streets are named. But we were almost moderately successful using landmarks from the above mentioned Lonely Planet guide. Like the ten story Tower Records, or the Parco Department store (Uh oh, there are three Parco department stores? All within a few blocks of each other? This upped the confusion level by at least two degrees. The Japanese love department stores, also raw fish.)

But we eventually got our bearings and found what we were looking for which was more toy stores. Well just one in particular it was called Mandrake, and it was the greatest toy store I have ever been in in my life. It wasn’t really a toy store so much as a place to buy Manga (these are Japanese comic books only cooler and get this, you read them left to right. What will they think of next?) and also a place to buy figurines, toys (both new and antique) and little models anime chicks in fetish outfits. Wild.

It was at this store that I learned how cool I was when I was a kid as two of my favorite toys ever were on sale for huge sums of money in the antique section. One was my favorite toy of all time, it was a little metal robot called Tranzor Z. Tranzor Z was equipped perfectly for any situation in which someone might need to shoot his fists a few feet through the air, as this is what the toy did. I almost bought it, and would have if it hadn’t been over three hundred dollars. But I was content with the fact that I was that visionary as a seven year old to choose Tranzor Z as my favorite toy, a figure that would one day be a highly sought after prize to the cool people of Japan. Although it could have been a fluke. I also played dungeons and dragons.

After we dropped a hemorrhaged money at Mandrake, mostly buying cool looking guys for my nephews, we walked some more around Shibuya. We took a break and ate lunch at a place on top of one of the three Parco department stores. It was authentic Japanese food. But isn’t any food ordered in Japan authentic Japanese food?

At this point in time Angelica and I have mastered the phrase Arigato. I think this means hello.

After Shibuya we left and made our way back to Asakusa. We decided to let ourselves rest a little that night. We wanted to get drunk and sing karaoke, but this was not going to happen. My feet were once again in the barbeque zone and we still had a lot of walking to do.

We got back to the hotel. Took a nap. Got up (Angelica enthusiastically, me I would say in more a of a begrudging mode). And decided to go find a tempura place written about in the Frommers guide to Japan. Tempura is awesome because it is anything (usually seafood) that is encrusted with some form of breading then fried. We had a little trouble finding the restaurant as all the signs are written in Japanese. Eventually we did and discovered once again that the tables were just a little too small for me. (Maybe I haven’t mentioned this yet, but Japan as a whole was built for someone smaller than me.) I had to sit sideways again which made a table of young girls laugh even more than they already were. The hostess looked at me disapprovingly. And it didn’t help that when we finished with the lovely tempura I stood up and the table came with me, kind of like a turtle. The waitress said something which I think meant: Silly foreigner, he take table, we charge him extra! No this didn’t really happen. Well everything happened but the taking the table with me. That’s how we ended that day.

Still have yet to see any form of karate, giant monsters, or yakuza gun fights.

Most used phrase: “Let’s step back and get our bearings,” “Arigato,” “I can’t feel my feet.”

Most painful body part: Feet.

Interesting yet possibly offensive fact about Japan that I will write anyway: When people laugh they actually say “ha ha ha ha.”