Saturday's Adventures

Kolla and I arrived at Shinjuku station at 7:15, a bit earlier than was scheduled, so yay! We got a quick breakfast out of a nearby conbini and waited for Victoria. We weren't sure where she was getting off at, but she found us eventually!

Our first stop was Harujuku, the famous fashion street. We visited a number of what I call fan stores. They are little, usually underground shops, that are crowded wall to wall, floor to ceiling with picutres and posters and basically anything you could think of plastered with faces of J-pop and K-pop stars. One of these shops was a bit bigger, and had several purikura machines as well, which we took advantage of.

We went into a couple of shops without buying anything. One was a Lolita shop. For those you don't know anything about Japanese fashion, Lolita fashion is modeled after European Victorian age clothings: petticoats, aprons, lots of accessories, all of the lace, and platform shoes are basics of the style. We paid a brief visit to a store devoted to hip-hop clothes and accessories. Another shop we spent some time in was a Visual-Kei shop that specialized in recreating the outfits and jewlery worn by famous bands.

After all our shopping, we stopped by one of the many stands that were selling crepes. That was the most delicous crepe I have ever eaten!!! I got one filled with chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, and pieces of pie crusts. Of course, the sauce went everywhere, but it was so worth it!

Then we took another train to Akihabara, the Otaku district! The stores here were mostly tall narrow buildings with a different small shop on each floor. We went into a couple and I bought the newly released 2ne1 album, in preparation for the concert later that night. We also saw several maid cafes, both on the street and in one of the buildings.

By this time, we had been on our feet for almost 6 hours so we went into a Tully's cafe to rest. We sat and talked and drank coffee/tea for an hour or so. Then we hit up a few more shops. In one of these, I finally found a phone charm I liked: Gigi, the cat from Kiki's Delivery Service.

We took a train back to Tokyo Station, and Victoria went home to a well deserved rest. Kolla and I caught a train out to Makuhari to continue our adventures!