Tokyo 101

Welcome to Tokyo 101.

In Tokyo, the world revolves around the denshas (trains). The trains are the arteries of the city. When saying where do you live, its really what stop do you get off at. All the malls, movie theaters, stores, restaurants, and really everything worth seeing is usually right by the stations.
Its hard to imagine how crucial they are, but I assure you, they're vital.




You're sure you remember what stop is yours? Cuz theres a lot...





Today the plan is to go to downtown Tokyo. What Ipanema and Copacabana are to Rio, Harajuku and Shibuya are to Tokyo.

Walk out the train station at Harajuku, and you see this:
This street is crawling with odd clothing shops, strangely (yet awesomely) dressed Japanese people, hilariously out of place gaijin (foreigners), crepe shops out the wazoo, and shiny things everywhere.
Yes, children, Harajuku is the lace and leather of Tokyo, the cutting edge of fringe Japanese style. And its oh so glamorous.














Harajuku smacks you in the face. And the group of us, rubbing our cheeks, proceeded to Shibuya. Shibuya is where the young and popular go to buy clothes that arent quite as insane as those at Harajuku.


I know you can't tell because of the HORDES of asians, but this is actually an intersection. Its utter chaos for about a minute as everyone shuffles across the road in all directions. This makes me want to study chaos mathematics and develop some sort of algorhythm or something. But then I think of the work...and decide fuck that.





The malls are extremely crazy. Space is a priority in Tokyo like it seemingly is on a 5-star dinner plate, so similarly, instead of sprawling, they go up. This famous mall, Shibuya 108 is a 8-story ziggaurat of trendy shops where the pious come to pay respects to the lord of dinero, or okane as they do in Japan.

And yes, there's a store called Titty.






After a while, we were tired, and chilled waiting for Pierce to get his cell phone. I call this picture "camera-cell phone-cell phone-cell phone-cane" which I found amusing.










The day ended with some toriyaki - grilled chicken and meat - and karaoke (always a great time). What a jam-packed day!

I slept well to say the least.