Subwayed it across Tokyo to shopping mecca Harajuku. Luckily the massive Meiji-Jingu shrine and park is right opposite the subway entrance so we took a stroll around it before descending into shopping hell. Meiji-Jingu is massive and the park surrounding it is also huge – a little like Central Park in that it is also surrounded by huge buildings in a long rectangular space. Props to Lou once more for his expertise in the area of shrine etiquette – our hands were clean and our bows were deep.
And so to shopping – first a very small and very crappy coffee and then some huge shopping. The Lush Concept Store featuring a bath bomb sushi train, the Onitsuka Tiger Concept store which had a pair of tigers on sale for $940. I bought some – but mine were a little cheaper. The Adidas Store, the ridiculously expensive and slightly ludicrous high fashion of the Commes De Garcon store, tried to get into the Supreme Clothing store but the queue was literally around the block. Just as well if the prices of stuff in the window were any guide.
Running out of time, so it was straight across to the massive covered Tokyo Dome to catch the baseball – Tokyo Giants vs the Fukuoka Hawks. Words fail me – the crowd was massive, the chants were elaborate, the beer was readily available and then there was the baseball itself. A lacklustre game which the Hawks easily won. Not that I noticed, we were seated next to two of the most conservative Americans from Atlanta who simply would not shut up. As usual I was more polite than the Japanese and subsequently missed half the game while they burbled on about the Japanese toilets, how they hated raw fish and what a problem “reverse racism” was in Atlanta. I almost lost my lunch – and my phone.
flyeelookee 