Japanese Breakfast! Or as I like to call it, any meal other than breakfast! We had hotel breakfast after a HARD sleep and I was grossed out by natto, miso soup, and hamburger covered in what tasted like ketchup. I think I'm going to be living off bread and butter for a few days! I can however, get behind rice at every meal!
I love vending machines here! They're crazy! Not only do you not always know what you're purchasing, but the flavors are just catered to a Japanese audience. I went with the safe route and chose a nectar that had a peach on it, called MOMO! Delish!
First stop was Shibuya Crossing, aka the scramble. I didn't get a shot because it was 8 AM and no business person was out crossing the street. I did however get a shot of the dog shrine from the 20's. Sad story really....about a man and his dog, and when the man died, the dog returned to the same spot for 10 years to mourn his owner.
We then walked briefly through Yoyogi Park and saw all the crows flying around and cawing. We found the entrance to Meiji-Jingu Shrine. BTW, Japan is SO hot and we're going through yen in vending machines like it's going out of style. The entrance gate was really gorgeous in how tall it was.
Aaron and I played around with panoramic photos and you can see in the shot where we bumped the camera a bit in the pass off.
On the way to the shrine was also an entire wall of sake barrels with beautiful designs. I really liked looking at every color and animal.
Before entering the temple, we came upon a washing station where you wash your hands and your mouth. We did the hands. Not the mouth. That's just gross. The shrine was understated and not opulent like the Chinese shrines we've seen in the past. Colors were muted and there there was very little detailing on the roof tops, but it was stunning. I didn't take nearly enough pictures.
After the shrine, we went to Akihabara and Electric city. We checked out some pachinko parlors which were both hilarious and frightening, smelly and deafening. Seriously. You walk in and immediately are bulldozed over with the sound. Imagine 40 teenagers playing playstation at the top volume level all in one hallway. Yeah, earplugs really should be required. We didn't understand the game so we didn't play.
We then walked into a large department store and had lunch in the food court. Unlike America, food courts in Asia are super yummy and a great place to get tasty morsels. We got ramen. Our meal together was less than $20USD! We picked a place that was full of people but had no wait, and decided on something based on a picture....no English menu!
After lunch, we wandered into more stores and decided that our feet were dying. We were also starting to feel the effects of jet lag again. It started to rain. This day was not going great. We decided to duck into a store complex and came upon a maid cafe. A little weirded out at first, we decided to just try it. A maid cafe is where the waitresses are dressed as maids and refer to you as Master or Princess. They bring you food and offer companionship such as a conversation, playing a game, etc. We ordered food and watched as other patrons got pictures taken with their maids, had their eggs drawn on with ketchup, or drink art. Our maid brought Aaron a coffee and told him that she was "going to put her love in his cup". I got a cute rabbit cheesecake. It was expensive but worth going once. It wasn't nearly as weird once we did it.
After maid cafe, we headed to Sunshine City where we checked out the Sunshine Aquarium. It was a magnificent aquarium, and why not? Japan LOVES fish. The craziest things we saw....a shark in its egg sac and it was moving, and the largest spider crab I've ever seen....seriously, this thing was a monster and freaked me out!
The jellyfish were in a tunnel you could walk under. We also checked out the sea lion feeding show. It was impressive but I also was sad that they were doing stupid circus tricks.
At 7 PM, we finally met up with Jeff for dinner at a weird place called Namjatown, also in Sunshine city. We went specifically because there were 100 types of Gyoza there. I wasn't super impressed with any gyoza I ate, and it was a place similar to Chuckie Cheese!
After gyoza, we got ice cream. The boys shared some weird flavors like eel and coal...why? They had a good immature laugh about their choices.
I got a cute cat "nekko" crepe. I made an error in buying something cute rather than something that would be delicious....though, in a place like Chuckie Cheese, is ANY of the food amazing?! It was quite a day!
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