Japan: A Day in Shibuya

Tokyo
May 2005


Takeshita Dori

At the entrance of the shopping street for teens. This street in the Harajuku area is where young people come to shop and be seen.



Can't imagine how people back home will react when someone dresses like this, but in Japan this is common. The most common trend is dressing up like Mary of the nursery rhyme fame, but without the lamb.



How cute can you go??


Crepes crepes crepes


Street in Shibuya.

Similar to Hong Kong's Causeway Bay - crowded, busy and filled with the latest everything. The subway station here is frightening. It is multi multi-storey, very busy and crowded and nobody speaks English. It handles 2 million people a day - almost half the population of Singapore!



Inside a musical instruments building. Extremely boring for me so I went to Shibuya 109, a metallic cylindrical building famous for the latest clothing trends for young girls. It took me 10 minutes to go through the 10 floors; couldn't understand the fashion...I stood at the entrance for half an hour just watching the girls go in. Japanese girls are very trendy and daring, always made up with fake lashes and faces painted fair and thick with foundation. I got it after a while - they wanted to look like some manga heroines. Nobody had a bad-hair day except me. (I felt like I was from Kansas after yet another tornado...) Hair style is almost uniform: layered, pouffed, long, colored and every strand in place. I had to move my postion every few minutes because all the girls were puffing away.


Economy packed meals

Tokyo isn't so expensive; these packed meals are quite affordable ( Wey says not to be fooled by his thumbs-up: the food was below his standard). There were no parks or even benches where we could sit down to eat so we ate it on the street. Its funny how we do the things we do in other countries which we'd never do at home.






The Japanese have perfected presentation and gift-wrapping; how a gift looks outside is as important as what's inside.



Considering whale meat Ming?



Thought so. Better stick to Japanese 'mos' burgers. Notice the buns are steamed, not baked. These were so good the boys had two each. I worried about having enough money left to get home...but hey, I still had to look for:


Kappabashi

Yes, those plastic cups tell you you're on the right place. This is where people like me go crazy choosing ceramics saucers, laquerware, sushi moulds...



This is where you'll find all kinds of crockery and kitchenware.



After a long day, it was comforting to come back to Daisy's cooking - in this case the most delicious and succulent lamb rack, mash, veg and moussaka.