April 10, 2005 Archives
They give you a "film" ticket at the Ghibli Museum (my pics of Mitaka). Mine was a sequence at the beginning of Spirited Away, when Chihiro boards the lift to meet Yubaba and comes face to face with one of the "monster" customers. Much complicated process to get tickets... I went by the JTB travel agency office in Canada (office in Toronto), but they charge something like 25$ for service. Useful if you don't speak Japanese and don't want to face the automated ticketing system at Lawson convenience stores (since the number of admissions per day is limited, you got to go through a centralized ticketing system)... I should've waited, because the day before I arrived, Tante Ghyslaine went with the kids. :/
Doorknob at Ghibli Museum. No pics allowed inside, they've guards posted everywhere. It's a wonder I twisted the rules and got a snap at the live-size neko-bus from Totoro...
A large representation of the Robot-creature from Laputa on the roof of the museum.
Evening in Harajuku and Shibuya pics.
Me in a mirror sold with merchandise from the Kiki's Delivery Service Ghibli film, at Kiddy Land on Omote-sando. After coming back from Mitaka, I wandered a bit in Shinjuku, then realized the park was closed, and went off to the Omote-sando classy shopping avenue in Harajuku (to the "Kiddy Land" toys shop, which turned out to be a super Gaijin hangout - saw table hockey sets!). And spent some time in Shibuya, the young and vibrant amusement district, two or three stations below Shinjuku on the Yamanote.
Shibuya crossing from the JR station. When the pedestrian light goes blue, it becomes a sea of people. Immortalized it in videos.
Street in Shibuya.
Unlike what the filename says, not a pachinko... Pachinko parlours are large, much larger, with rows of people sitting in front of their pachinko machine, sort of mix between pinball and slot machine (with all the addictiveness of the latter). Pachinkos are everywhere, even places where you walk by with your family and stuff. Japanese have no concept of protecting the youth against the vices of society... or it's perhaps not necessary and we North Americans are wrong. You can for instance buy alcohol and cigarettes quite easily off vending machines on the street, found at a rate of 1 for every 4-5 "regular" pop soda machine. Not that Japanese are worse smokers/drinkers than North Americans, I'm sure. Did I talk about how they put porn magazines at the front of newspaper stands?
Went for sakura-viewing that same evening with everyone. Bunch of students merrily drinking, chanting and vomiting beside us. Indeed the joys of sanctionned drunkedness in public... Like frosh, but with salarymen/women along.
Last few days were spent in Tokyo. On my way back to Iidabashi, stopped in Akihabara (station where you change from the Yamanote line to the Sobu line). And the Thursday (2005-04-07) I went to Mitaka, a suburb to the West of Tokyo, 20 minutes on the Rapid service Chuo Line from Yotsuya via Shinjuku. Then on Friday, I went to Shinjuku Goen, a 10 minutes walk northwest from the Sendagaya on the Sobu JR local train line.
These are called nigiri, and they're basically rice balls with something in them. Convenience stores has them as an unexpensive snack, as an alternative of the sandwich (which is pricier, and not necessarily tastier) for about 100-150 a pop, depending on the filling. But because I can't read hiragana, and can make out that much of the kanji, every nigiri was a surprise. And forget about colour coding, there are many companies making them in each different city...
Electric town is where you traditionally found the newest/cheapest wares in electronics and computers in Japan, but the market has declined ever since, according to word of mouth. But it still maintains its reputation (although I was told you should go to Bic Camera electronics stores for the best prices in the market - largest of which is in Ginza, near the Yuracucho JR station). A few pics taken first around Yuracucho, and then in Akihabara, and Iidabashi and surroundings.
Akihabara outside JR station. Mirror of a pic I took in 2002 at dusk.
Summum of the self-pic. I don't even know why my camera was facing down like this... But I'm certainly a natural. :D
Akihabara shops, around the corner from the station.
I believe it should be called a tempura-don, with udons on the side in some bonito/MSG broth.
Sushi in Akasaka. Wasn't so more expensive than Montreal... Sushi is still an expensive meal to have (3000-4000yens), compared to the usual noodles/rice bowl (400-800yens).