Shibuya, Harajuku 11/04/2006

Saturday was a busy but very fun day. One of our friends from Brandeis, Sham, and his wife Faiza were coming to Tokyo for a day and we put together a short tour to give them a few memories.

Since both have seen Lost In Translation, we decided that a perfect meeting place would be the Hachiko Statue in Shibuya. It is a very busy, popular meeting place in Tokyo because it is very specific and easy to find, even for people who have never visited the city before.

Here is a quick look at Hachiko:















We had planned to meet at around 2:00pm, but Sham and Faiza did not make it until around 3. In many places this would be a bad thing, but in Shibuya it offers you time to people watch, which is endlessly fascinating due to the huge numbers of people who come and go through the station.

The first thing we noticed was these three young ladies offering free hugs. Never ones to say no to a free hug, we all availed ourselves of their offer.

















Note that Jeremy is better sized to receive a hug from these ladies than Dan (or me, though I don't have pictures of myself getting hugged yet.)















This young lady also enjoyed her hug.















The masses crossing the street....















Since we figured we might be waiting a while, we sent Dan and Jeremy on a Starbucks run. It was the first time I'd had a Starbuck's Coffee since I left the U.S, and it was good.

Unfortunately, Jeremy's developed a problem
















Since we had eaten crickets not too long ago, I argued he should just ignore it and enjoy the extra protein it provided. He decided to scoop it out. Wuss.

After a while we noticed a young girl standing next to our friends offering the free hugs. She had on headphones and seemed to resolutely ignore the outside world. Then she started dancing, and continued to dance for the entire hour we waited. She was still dancing when we left.

And mind you, she was not dancing well.





On occasion we would make a loop around the Hachiko area, as there was an exit to the station that we could not see. After one such loop Dan grabs me and says "you have GOT to see this."

I can't really tell you what this is, because I don't know. I can only show you the video and let you decide for yourself.






When Sham and Faiza finally arrived, we hung our for a while then decided to head up to Harajuku for some more people watching and to expose them to one of Tokyo's more fashionable areas. We were also able to find a restaurant where we knew for fact what we ordered did not have pork in it. Since Sham and Faiza are Muslim, this was important!

Here is a shot of the Snoopy Town. Who doesn't like Snoopy?















And here is a look at Harajuku's main drag, Takeshita Dori.

















Yes, this store on Takeshita Dori is called Nudy Boy. I'm pretty sure it sells women's clothing, but I could be wrong.















Those of us living in town also had tickets to see the MLB All Stars play the Japan League All Stars at the Tokyo Dome that evening. Since Sham and Faiza did not, we set them loosing in Akihabara so Sham could shop for gadgets. As he said, they had spent a lot of time in Bangkok looking at curtains, bedsheets, silk, etc. It was his turn to shop!

More on the game later.