Catching up Again

Well the last 3 days have been kind of crazy so I haven't had a chance to update. I got back from clubbing at 4am after walking back from Roppongi. Taxi's here are fricking expensive.

I woke up to go to the Harajyuku area. We walked around looking at the famous subcultures in the park. Including 50 year old Elvis impersonators and some really good bands, then went into the more commercial part the street. This is when my 2 days of awkwardness began. After we got out of the famous alley way (I forget its name right now). We went into the higher class shopping area. We as we made our way through the area I felt progressavely more out of place until finally we got to Omotesando Hills. This is a place where you could buy an under T for 60$. Then it started raining, hard. We took cover in the subway for an early dinner at 5:00.

After dinner I went shopping with Patrick and Will for a few hours. Or actually a better way to say it was I was suffering from sticker shock for a few hours. No store they went into was selling stuff for less than 150$ for a jacket. This is when I realized that I was raised completely differently than these people, and my value system was totally different. Style over substance my ass.

I went home read and slept.

The next day was worse. We went to Shinjyuku which was alright. I saw some cool buildings and an intresting middle class culture. Then we went back to Rippongi, the place where I went clubbing before. I've previously heard that it was kind of a dangerous area from Japanese friends. I only saw it at night and it was definitely more dangerous than other parts of Tokyo, meaning I wouldn't let a girl walk alone at night here, unlike the rest of Tokyo where that is almost acceptable. In the day time it was very different. We went to two development projects, both of which were selling things for more money than I could dream of. I didn't even bother to look at the price tags. I really just couldn't deal with the amount of money that was being spent on useless stuff here. I felt completely and utterly out of place. There was no function only form and I couldn't understand it.

I got out Rippongi asap and tried to get some money out of an ATM to go souvenir shopping. Thats when my night of crisis started. I'll leave it at that and say I'm fairly sure that everything has been taken care of.

Today was much better. We started out in this little shopping street that called yanaka-ginza. It was quant, out of the way and middle class. I felt right at home. I saw a nice yokata there, but because a distinct lack of funds I couldn't buy it. Thats when I realized today might not have been the best day to not have money. Next up was Ueno. Famous for a zoo which we did not see, and a giant ww2 black market under the tracks. Again I saw great engrish shirts, and other things that would have made great gifts. Sadly I'm going to have to go back. The shops were crazy. They were literally right under the tracks. Trains going over head every 3 minutes. Just like out of a Sifi movie. I'd love to come back here at night.

Next up was Akihabara. Also known as electric town or geeks town. This is when I really started crying. I walk into the store and the first thing I see is a Terabyte external hard drive for 230$. Then I walk into this little anime store and see a whole bunch of things from Miyazaki films. It was amazing. I could easily spend a day here shopping. Everyone else can have their nice clothes I'll take this stuff instead.

The day finished up kind of blandly at Shibuya, the busiest station in Tokyo. Its our transfer point to get anywhere else in the city so we've been there a lot of times now. Meh. Tomorrow should be nice. I get to go to a urban planning lab and look around. I'll write more about it tomorrow. Or most likely the next day. The exploration seminar is having another group dinner and those always go late.