Shopping Day in Tokyo

Outdoor cafes shibuya crossing, day in Tokyo — These outdoor cafes reminded both of us of the cafes where **Chihiro’s** parents eat in **Spirited Away.**

Shopping Day in Tokyo: Sue and I got up this morning intent on two things: seeing the fashion district and going to Shibuya Crossing, not just to see the Hatchiko statue, but also to see all the people walking across the intersection. It is said that as many as half a million people walk across the center section each day.

Hatchiko Statue

We waited in line to have a picture taken with Hachiko. This is the statue of the faithful Akita dog who waited for his master, Professor Hidesaburo Ueno, for almost 10 years after the professor passed away one day at work. Day after day, Hachiko sat by the Shibuya train station waiting for Ueno to come back. This act of patience and devotion impressed all who saw it and a legend was born. The name Hatchi means “eighth” and Hachiko was the eighth dog the professor had raised. This struck me, because of course my Check-Check is the eighth basenji I have raised. However, I seriously doubt he is as heroic as Hachiko, or could ever be. Hatchiko’s devotion to waiting, through rain and snow, patiently at the subway exit that now bears his name, has become a symbol of devotion and loyalty in Japan.

Pictures of Hatchiko

day in Tokyo, Hatchiko Statue, Shibuya Crossing In America, there is a famous movie and a famous book about this dog. As I’ve read the book, I wanted to see the statue. I noticed it was worn on the feet, as if people had loved it exceedingly, touching it in the way people have when they venerate a statue. Suellen took my picture, below. There was a Japanese woman in front of us, and I did not realize that she was alone until it was her turn. She gestured with her camera – would I take her picture? Of course. I took three shots, distance, closer, and closest – she seemed pleased. I had just been telling Sue how tasteful this woman’s platform shoes were. She was, indeed, well dressed. But alone. A small mystery.

Shibuya Crossing

go-cart tour Tokyo, shibuya crossing, day in Tokyo We next looked around Shibuya Crossing. I had the feeling of not knowing what I was looking at. The city as city, and city culture are not an area of expertise with me. I can tell you there was an awful lot of people crossing, so many, if you like, that you could no longer see them as individuals. And there are Jumbotrons on the buildings. I have studied the walkers in Tokyo since we arrived and what I can say is: women, generally more fashionable, men generally more busy, children, attended by their parents with devotion. But the individuals were lost, as it were, in the crowd here. I did get a picture of a go-cart tour coming down the street.

Walking Tour of Omote-Sando Boulevard

Shopping in Tokyo, Japanese Raccoon statue — A raccoon statue similar to one in from Studio Ghibli’s Pom Poko

Before this we went on a walking tour featured in my Tokyo tour guide. We saw a number of buildings of the fashion houses including Dior and Tommy Hilfiger and Stella McCartney and a mall, Omotesando Hills, which we did not go in. The boulevard, Omote-Sando, where all these shops were, looked like Rodeo Drive. It was tree-lined and full of fancy cars, Mercedes and Porsches and cars I didn’t even know what they were. day in Tokyo, onomate-sando restaurant, Tokyo french fries We stopped to eat in a restaurant recommended by the guidebook called the name Anniversaire-Cafe and had some kind of layered pancakes at lunch time and fries and the fries are the most delicious fries ever eaten by me or Sue. One has to say that you don’t want fries like this around, you would not be able to stop eating them, so perhaps it’s better that they’re in Tokyo.

I Finally Experience the Japanese Baths

This was very scary for me but I could not not skip it because my mother had been talking about these Japanese baths since I was a child and I was so intrigued by the idea of these tiled pools of hot water, particularly their beauty and their cleanliness and the fact that only women were allowed in the women’s bath. And of course it being a bath, you did not wear a bathing suit. But I was very afraid to go in. After watching a video which said the one thing you cannot do at the Japanese bath is get in the bath without washing first, I was still terrified. Of course I don’t really know the protocol, since I’m not Japanese! And if anyone in the bath asked me a question I would not be able to answer. I paced up and down in the hotel room worrying about it, how would I be able to go through this scary ritual that I must do? Finally I had the answer. I told Sue she had to come so I wouldn’t be doing it alone. Sue signed. She agreed. We could do this. When we went in, two ladies were there in the locker room and they were very kind to us, motioning us in, showing us where to put our things. Perhaps they were so friendly because I was with my daughter. Japanese baths are a family affair and people tend to go together, if appears to me, and this is consistent with what I’ve learned from movies like Totoro, where the family bathes together. But I could not get Sue to go again because she felt the whole thing was just…too much and anyway she prefers showers.

An Italian Dinner in Tokyo

We went to dinner at the hotel restaurant which is an Italian restaurant and although I was worried how Japanese cooks produce Italian food I will say it was quite good in fact everything they brought was delicious. I had gnocchi and Sue had waygu beef. We had salad, we had soup, we had ice cream, it was the whole thing. They served a special homemade ginger ale which was phenomenal. I could taste the sting of the fresh ginger. At first I thought it was strange, but soon I realized I wanted more. No, of course it was not an alcoholic drink.

We Stream Van Helsing

In the evening Sue figured out how to get her phone to stream to the television and we watched the movie Van Helsing which seemed to consist mostly of monsters fighting each other. I really felt like this was a lot and I almost fell asleep nor could I keep the plot straight it had something to do with having to kill Dracula and Van Helsing turned out to be his brother I think…shades of Darth Vader being Luke’s dad…and when it was over I was tired. And we went to bed but the city did not go to bed and if you stepped out on the porch you could see all the high rises lit up behind the little park underneath our balcony, and bright red lights on the top of each building warned airplanes not to fly too close, and you could hear the hum of distant motors and the whirr of the subway speeding up as it left Yoyogi station. And that was a day in Tokyo.