As it was a Sunday we wanted to take Matt to see Harajuku in hope that there would be lots of young people dressed in crazy outfits!
We saw lots of people dressed very extravagantly (like the people above), but because they were walking around I didn't manage to get any good shots of them! We went for a walk down Takeshita-Dori, which is the main shopping street for young fashion in Tokyo. Also we saw a shop that was selling clothes for your dogs and cats... no matter how many dogs I see wearing clothes and being pushed around in pushchairs... it's still just as strange!! Matt was amazed at the people who stood outside their shops, either shouting as loud as they could or shouting through a megaphone to get you to go inside! Me and Fran are just used to that now!
We went into a building called the Design Studio, where there was lots of technology that you could try for free, such as phones and computers and stuff! There was a booth that had face recognition technology and from taking a picture of your face it would tell you your ideal profession... p'ha! I don't think so! haha!
The results were as follows;
Matt
Wine Selector
Celebrity / TV Personality
Web Designer
Vicki
Fashion Adviser
Beautician
Waitress
Fran
Bar Tender
Wine Selector
Web Designer
Needless to say Matt and Fran weren't thrilled about there top 3 choices, especially as there was a MUSICIAN and me and Fran getting Bar Tender and waitress didn't exactly go down well after leaving that all behind in England! hehe! Anyway, we soon got over it :-D
Matt was flagging a bit by this time, so we headed to Yoyogi park to chill and eat some Turkey sandwiches! We stopped at the front of Yoyogi Park to watch the Rockers Rock out to some 50s music! I love them to be honest and Matt had never really seen anything like it!
Matt confidently did some jiving for a few seconds! HEHE!!!
Well I had to get a photo of these cuties didn't I, their owner was sat to the left of them chain smoking whilst tourist and anyone with a camera or camera phone took photos of them! hehe - adorable!
He's got the Rock N Roll thing down to a tea, hasn't he... that leopard print floor length fur coat on the chair was his too!
Matt went for some free hugs...after all you never know when you'll get your next free hug ... ha!
We headed to Shibuya for some shopping and mooching around... Matt was completely blown away by the crossing!
Oh yeah - and we finally found the Pink Cow!!!! It's a bar about 10 mins away from Shibuya station. Me and Fran have tried to find it a couple of times (granted - we didn't have a map!) and we finally found it with Matt! It was a totally cool, chilled out, relaxing bar and whilst we were there, there was a jazz band sound checking. If we hadn't all been so tired we would have stayed to listen! Me and Fran will definitely be going back there FOR SURE!
I had an interview the other day in Shibuya (oh yeah on the job front Fran is doing really great, really enjoying his work. I am doing ok with my part time job(s) but the full time job fell through, I was gutted but I am convinced this is a positive thing now and I will keep my chin and continue job hunting!) it felt familiar. Which is strange because nothing about Japan is "familiar". It was great though!!!
It was really hot. I think like 36 degrees again. So it was nice to just sit in the shade, to try to escape the heat. I honestly think this weather is just beautiful, I have never experienced a climate like this and all I can say in Thank God for aircon!!! Where would we be without it?! Well... we'd be a big melted mess on the floor that's where!
There were decorations up for the matsuri (festival) this weekend... or at least I hope it's this weekend... well I read it was this weekend but lets face it, I can't read Japanese so I guess there is a chance I could be wrong... ah well, I am going anyway!!!!
I decided that I wanted to have a walk round and take some photos that captured the atmosphere and the fast pace that Shibuya works at! So I went and stood on the side of the round and took photos of people as they were crossing THE crossing of Tokyo! The majority of people kind of noticed that my camera was pointing straight at them and they would just stare right into the camera, so I didn't take pictures of them, I wanted them to be natural, For the person to be wrapped up in there world. I really enjoyed it actually!
I love this picture!!!! I like to this they are playing a" guess the song" game... enough said!
I headed back home after this, and took a walk around Kameari, there is a river so I thought I would go there to take photos of the sunset. Unfortunately though, The sun sets behind the buildings in Kameari so I didn't get the WHOLE sunset, but I did get a bit! I am just loving how dramatic the Japanese sky is!!!
Had a fab weekend, got alot sorted for apply for jobs here, just off to get a bank account now then can get applying!!! :-) We had such a great day yesterday, we managed to squeeze so much in!!! and I can't even imagine how much walking we actually did yesterday! Crazy!
So we started at Nihombashi Bridge, It had pretty impressive statues on it like this dragon.
We then walked along to the Imperial Palace Gardens, which was so so beautiful! The whole place was surrounded by a massive thick stone wall and a moet. It was so peaceful. I really enjoying walking around in side here
There were a whole load of wildlife that I'd never seen before, drangonflies were as common as flies are in England, every bush was covered in a thick spider web, there were birds flying between the trees (mostly cute (but I can't stand the crows, they are huge and make such a horrible noise!!!)), and different coloured butterflies floating around. The butterflies never stayed still long enough for me to take a photo, I kept chasing them - bet I looked like a right idiot!
My Uncle Dave and KT!!! I've told him... I'm fasing out the uncle cuz it's just not cool saying Uncle Dave all the time... haha. No honestly, these guys have been so amazing, they have been ssooooo helpful, definitely couldn't of done this without them!!!! (although no more history museums please U. D!)
We visiting the Yasukuni Shrine which was very beautiful, the Temples and Shrines look very similar but the ones we have seen has slight differences. this was in my opinion by the far the most peaceful.
After that we split off from Dave and KT. Me and Fran headed to Harajuku again... only we didn't walk down the same road we had before because it looked quite hard to get anywhere - as you can see! We were told that to experience the real Harajuku culture we had to go on a Sunday. We were told that teenages gather and dress up in crazy costumes to resemble anime characters, punk rockers, or anything they fancy - just as long as it's crazy! They dress for the attention and love to pose for any camera!
We actually just followed the crowd and we ended up at a concert venue, which had totally thrown us off. There isn't a concert every Sunday so I think we are hoping to spend the day there next sunday to really get some great photos, and soak up the atmosphere. We went for a walk in Yoyogi Park nearby. and we could hear music... so obviously (being us!) we followed it and ended up at this outside little concert venue, probably about 150 people watching/dancing/singing along to this rasta/acoustic music!!!
After chilling out to this pretty cool music we walked in the direction we thought there would be a place to get some food... I had no idea we had walked so far but we ended up in Shibuya! We had a bite to eat and fran got some footage for our first video. So be ready for that one :-)
We went back to the flat and totally flaked out! I think we are totally over our jet lag now - WOOP!
So, we landed 24 hours ago! we have done soooo much! Went for a meal with Uncle Dave and KT last night which was cool. We had some lovely stuff but it was a realisation moment as Fran is vegetarian and I have ALOT of food allergies... main one being rice. which is pretty crap!!! And all the rice meals look really so so so good as well - so unfair!
So we had a task today... to get the flat key cut! so Uncle Dave took us a bit of a tour, drew us a map and gave us a few maps of the subway and of Shibuya to help us find our way around.
We came out of the train station to this... Shibuya Crossing!!! my goodness it's big, with sooo many people. God knows what it's gunna be like on a weekend! Crazy I'm sure! We didn't seem to have any problem finding what we needed, followed the map to find the keycutting place and then we just wandered around Shibuya. Now I'm sat in the flat it was pretty surreal!!!
We were stood on the side of the road looking at our map of Tokyo and an American gentleman came up to us to help us, it was so nice of him as we didn't even ask. And then the same thing happened about a hour later... got the map our and a lovely Japanese girl came over and asked if she could help us. We both thought it was lovely!!!
We were both feeling quite tired so decided to come back, so we got the metro to Hiroo Station where we had been told there was a Supermarket. KT had mentioned that there was a park over the road from it so we were thinking typical english park... flat green grass and maybe a play area for the kids... but oooooh no! how wrong were we!?!
More like a small nature reserve!!!! it was beautiful. loads of trees, small paths leading up and down and pond and a small river and a few small waterfalls!
there were ducks, birds, tortoise, butterflies and dragon flies!!! It was beautiful!! we had a lovely walk!
Also, we were walking along and there was the smalest tortoise just sat on the footpath, I wanted to move him so that he wouldn't of got trodden on so I had to take a picture!!! look How Cute!!!
Anyway, the jet lag is going ok I guess, feeling quite disoriented... don't know whether that's the time difference or being in a new place, but sure everything it will be fine soon. I think are going to sort our visa stuff out tomorrow so will write then
Also, don't forget, you can hit the comment button at the end of each entry/post and leave us a little note, that would be cool :-) and also, ALL our photos whilst we are over here in Japan will be on our new Flick Photostream - Fran and Vicki's Photos so please keep checking what we are up to. and Hope everyone back home is well!!!!
