Meiji-Jingu, Harajuku, Shinjuku, I'm a cuckoo

Taking advantage of my surprising lack of hangover and the free time I had today I went on one of my planned excursions. The idea was get the Oedo line to Yoyogi, walk down to the Meiji-Jingu shrine, head down to Harajuku, laugh at the Goths and either go to Omote-sando to take in the boutiques, or go to Shinjuku and check out the de-pa-to-me-n-to stores.

Part 1 - Brunch: I started about midday and had a hankerin for something filthy to eat. Unfortunately, the first place I came to was Subway. One 30cm subway Ceaser BLT sub later I jumped on the Toei-Oedo line to Yoyogi (代々木) and emerged realising I didn't know how to get to the park. Not to worry, I headed in what, fingers crossed, was the right direction and found myself at the entrance to the park.

Part 2 - Shrine: The entrances to the park - or at least the parts of the park belonging to the shrine - are marked by very tall and intimidating gates (I'll try to upload my own picture, but the one I took was too big for my phone to send) called Torii. These are traditional at Shinto shrines. The whole place has a strong sense of scale. Obviously, it was built to inspire awe, and it acheives it very well. At the entrance to the shrine proper is a small chouzuya (trough of water) where long handled ladles will be visible. Many (although not all) visitirs purify themselves by washing their hands (first one, then the other) and face with the water in the trough. Try not to let the spillage go back into the trough though as I'm guessing its meant to be kept clean. Each entrance eventually leads to the main hall of worship (haiden) where people can pray. If you wsih to pray, you can make an offering (toss a coin into the offering boxes at the temple entrance), clap your hands to atract the attention of the deity/spirit (not sure which it is in this case - past emporors seem to be considered deities here - and this shrine is devoted to one such emporor), make your prayer, and finally clap your hands twice before bowing and backing away. I learned whilst I was there that this shrine is actually a reconstruction. The original was destroyed during the war.

Part 3 - Harajuku and beyond: Done at the temple, I went down to Harajuku. Harajuku is famed for its mix of Goth and Cos-play kids. Goths are goths - and don't change much the world over. But when the Japanese do anything, they do it 100% These kids sit on Harajuku bridge waiting for someone to pass by and either notice how sexy/sad they look, or ask for a photo. I was actually looking forward to taking a couple of snaps but my heart wasn't in it. Maybe I had my fill of teen angst back when Radiohead was blaring out Creep at 100 decibels on my personal stereo. But I just felt something was missing with those kids. Its not that I think there is anything wrong with the idea of what they were doing: my sister managed it without being too much of a pain. But they seemed to miss the point. The attention seeking aspect of what they were doing seemed to be the primary motivation. Why else sit out on a bridge that is frequented by tourists with cameras? I remember being that age, and I remember my friends from that age. We did the things we wanted to do, not for attention, but for fun. You can't be a happy Goth (a la Irn Bru's genius advertising campaign). The other side of the coin is the cos-play kids. Cos-Play, short for costume play, is a lot more innocent than it might sound in other countries. Kids will dress up as their favourite cartoon, video game, manga or movie character and just hang out. There are places you can go to play card games like Magic or Yu-Gi-Oh! with cos-play waitresses done up to look like a character from the parent show that spawned the merchandise you are using. It seems to be quite a market over here. Any new anime is designed for evolution based card collecting that just has these kids hooked for years on end. Compare that with He-Man which had some of the most brainless and short lived toys available. All you could do was bash them together. Japanese kids have to study their chosen past-time just to be able to compete! Its quite different. The end result of this is a fairly visible current of people into cos-play. Just walk around Akihabara or Harajuku and you'll see what I mean. OK, its fairly limited to those areas, but thats just the ones that want to be seen in public... So after being underwhelmed by Harajuku's grim street urchins I decided to take my fill of bright lights and easy shopping over Omote-sando's boutiques and cos-play officianados. A five minute train ride landed me in Shinjuku.

Part 4 - Shinjuku: Since I'm moving into my apartment next week this was an ideal opportunity to check out a couple of furniture stores and maybe try to find Kevin that camera he wants a quote on. Shinjuku station is possibly the most confusing station I've ever been in. Its not really one station, but four or five stations turned into one giant hub - all connected through bloody shopping malls and department store basements. There are THREE south exits. So if you go there, don't arrange to meet at the south exit. I got out at the main JR terminal and swung over to Tokyo Hands, a big department store with pretty much everything you could want. It even has clocks that tick backwards. My favourite find was the Teddy Scares. Goth teddy bears to help get your kid on the path to harajuku heaven. Unfortunately, the furniture section sucks. There were maybe four or five sofas - and only one I'd consider that is going to cost the equivalent of 250 pounds. Thankfully I'll get paid next week so I should have some cash to play with. The next shock was the cost of curtains. I don't want to go into it but Its possible I could spend more on curtains than a sofa. I lost hope at this stage and didn't bother looking for mattresses. Thankfully, all I'll need in my first week is - curtains, sofa, mattress, fridge and washing machive. So I reckon I can limit the damage to a thousand quid if I'm very careful. Next stop was Odakyu Halc, where the famous Bic Camera resides. This is an OTT electronics store that also has a good selection of cameras. I didn't see Kevin's but I couldn't remember the name so didn't ask.

Part 5 - Home: So thats it, I'm about to head home and watch a movie. I'm on support tomorrow so I want an early night... otsukare!

Currently Listening to: Belle and Sebastian - I'm a cuckoo (oh, and I've just ran into Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne).