I was a little lazy the past week and haven't posted for a few days. Last weekend and the one before I visited both Shibuya and Harajuku. Both are frequented by younger people and tourists. Harajuku is famous for the teenagers and early-20s who dress up in costume and either just chill, posing with pouty faces for tourists, or dance to music. Or they grin and wander around taking photos with everyone. Some of the more entertaining costumes I have seen were a pair of 80s glam rockers (who I initially thought were female), lots of punk rockers, a gentleman in a Sailor Moon Costume with pink Mickey Mouse ears, and a girl in a Victorian-style dress who was passing out Chu-Hi to people of all ages.
Shibuya is basically the Times Square of Tokyo. It is considered the world's busiest intersection. That being said, its crazy busy! There are hundreds of people waiting to cross at any time. When the light changes and it is safe to walk, all lights are red for traffic and people flood into the streets going any number of directions including diagonal. Its seriously like playing Frogger, dodging and weaving to avoid pedestrians and bicyclists. People will keep crossing even after the lights have gone green until the cars start pulling out. Look at the photo below and the two night ones a little ways down. The black areas at the bottoms of the photos are people. Hundreds and hundreds of people!
In Shibuya is a huge shopping center called X Madonna. Its full of mostly women's clothing and shoes. Malls here aren't like they are in the states. The shops have no walls between them, they're situated so that they use angles and corners to present the largest possible amount of merchandise to those walking by. It's a busy place with fantastic clothing and shoes. I'm taking Emily and Anne shopping there when they come visit. :D
Saturday night, I met up with a huge group of people and we decided to go back to Shibuya to sing karaoke, have dinner, and maybe go dancing. The karaoke places are a total racket. There are tons of little rooms with a tv, karaoke machine, table and enough room for about 8 people. The cost is 4000 yen (about $45) for 2 hours all you can drink. It was around 1700 yen for us non-drinkers. By the end of that, we had 4 very drunk people and a $400 bill to pay because they claimed we went over by 2 minutes and decided to charge us for an extra hour EACH! OUCH! It was a total blast though.
Since I realized I hadn't posted for almost 2 weeks now (sorry), I think I should mention that we visited the Tokyo Tower about a week and a half ago. Its taller than the Eiffel, but very very similar construction. It was beautiful all lit up. Quite the experience!
Shibuya is basically the Times Square of Tokyo. It is considered the world's busiest intersection. That being said, its crazy busy! There are hundreds of people waiting to cross at any time. When the light changes and it is safe to walk, all lights are red for traffic and people flood into the streets going any number of directions including diagonal. Its seriously like playing Frogger, dodging and weaving to avoid pedestrians and bicyclists. People will keep crossing even after the lights have gone green until the cars start pulling out. Look at the photo below and the two night ones a little ways down. The black areas at the bottoms of the photos are people. Hundreds and hundreds of people!
In Shibuya is a huge shopping center called X Madonna. Its full of mostly women's clothing and shoes. Malls here aren't like they are in the states. The shops have no walls between them, they're situated so that they use angles and corners to present the largest possible amount of merchandise to those walking by. It's a busy place with fantastic clothing and shoes. I'm taking Emily and Anne shopping there when they come visit. :D
Saturday night, I met up with a huge group of people and we decided to go back to Shibuya to sing karaoke, have dinner, and maybe go dancing. The karaoke places are a total racket. There are tons of little rooms with a tv, karaoke machine, table and enough room for about 8 people. The cost is 4000 yen (about $45) for 2 hours all you can drink. It was around 1700 yen for us non-drinkers. By the end of that, we had 4 very drunk people and a $400 bill to pay because they claimed we went over by 2 minutes and decided to charge us for an extra hour EACH! OUCH! It was a total blast though.
Since I realized I hadn't posted for almost 2 weeks now (sorry), I think I should mention that we visited the Tokyo Tower about a week and a half ago. Its taller than the Eiffel, but very very similar construction. It was beautiful all lit up. Quite the experience!
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