Japan: Shibuya and Harajuku

We were automatically awake by 5:30 am so we are definitely suffering from a little bit of jet lag.  Since we were up early we took the local subway to Tsukiji Outer Market.  Tsukiji is the site of a nearly one hundred year old market that was built in an old neighborhood formerly occupied by shrines and samurai family homes.  Up until last year Tsukiji was famous for it's wholesale or Inner Market.  This was the site of auctions for all kinds of food items like gigantic tuna.  They used to allow a handful of visitors inside each morning to observe on the warehouse floor but it was very dangerous and probably annoying for the actual merchants.  The Inner Market has been relocated to another part of the city.  Visitors can still see the operation but through a window in a hermetically sealed shopping mall.  The Outer Market still exists as a collection of small buildings that house grocery stalls, street food, and tiny restaurants.  Many of the vendors live in the upper levels of their respective buildings.

When we arrived many of the stalls had not opened yet but some clearly popular ones were already bustling.  There was a short line at an omelet stand so we joined the queue for some eggs.  Our little rectangles of teppanyaki were slightly sweet.  It was almost like if scrambled eggs were made into a light custard.  Feeling a bit less hungry, we wandered the rest of the alleys.  I had a gigantic oyster and Hans had baby octopus on a stick.  We also ate some nice pork dumplings and shared a large squid ink bun filled with uni.  Ahhhh...the uni bun was so delicious.  It was like a dark and savory creamy sea urchin donut.  When I type that out it sounds completely insane but you'll just have to believe me when I say it was tasty.

Uni bun!

When the rest of the stalls were open the market was really starting to get crowded.  After a little more window shopping and people watching we headed over to [probably] the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world: Shibuya!

At Shibuya Crossing hundreds (and at peak times over a thousand) of people scurry across an intersection in one of Tokyo's most popular shopping and tourism districts.  Hans and I got there in the late morning and thought it was pretty busy.  It was nothing compared to what we saw a few hours later!  There is a sky bridge from where you get a pretty good view of all the madness.  Hans and I even joined the crowd a couple of times throughout our exploring.

Hans and I had a blast while wandering through multi-level shops and arcades.  The stores were absolutely crammed with everything from kitchen appliances, toys, makeup, food, and all in between.  At one arcade we had fun playing Mario Kart and a popular taiko drumming game.  We discovered the many multitudes of gashapon machines that can be found on practically every street corner.  We may have bought some stuff at one of them.

Hans is too tall for much of Japan

For lunch we went to a shopping mall that had a large sushi conveyor belt restaurant.  My only previous experience with this gimmicky concept was had in Atlanta so it was fun to try it in a more authentic setting.  The plates are all color coded by price so when you are ready to settle the bill a server will count up how many plates of food you ate.  Half of the fun is just watching everything float by.

After we'd seen enough of Shibuya we walked up to the neighborhood of Harajuku.  We allowed ourselves to be swept in with the crowd on Takeashita Street, which is definitely not for the ochlophobic.  Harajuku is known for being the Tokyo center of youth culture but Takeashita street has evolved over the years to be just another tourist draw.  To be honest, once we ducked into a side street called Brahms's Alley and went a few blocks north we emerged in a low key and cool part of the city.  There were vintage clothing stores, hip little restaurants, beverage stands, and some interesting niche shopping.  We even browsed a record store that serves beer.

Packed in like sardines on Takeashita Street

When we'd seen enough it was time to fight our way back through the shopping malls and enter the nearest subway station.  Despite being surrounded by people at all times I never felt cramped.  Everyone seemed self-aware enough to be careful about not bumping into anyone else.

Once we were back in our room the jet lag truly took over.  Hans and I never made it back out for dinner because we passed out some time around 6:30 pm and then awoke again at 11.  After a few hours I finally fell back asleep.