Day 5: No adrenaline today

What can I say, today was a little bit unexciting. Especially conmpared to the last two days it was kind of boring today. First, we started the day with a Starbucks coffee at our favorite crossing in Chibuya ^^ Then we went into a huge department store called 109, which had a section for men's clothing.

 

This is in the men's section...

 

Men are supposed to look like this.

Then we went to Ginza . Ginza is supposed to be a nobler district with a business section. It is modern and westernized. You find huge deparment stores (like Mitsukoshi) there, and also galleries and small artscraft shops. If you have money, this is probably a nice place to go.

The Kabuki theater in Ginza - it is the biggest Kabuki theater in Tokyo. It has a traditional Japanese architecture mixed with western materials.

 

Kabuki Theater

Traditionally, all roles, female and male, are performed by male actors. So this is how a Kabuki woman looks like.

Business district

Business district

We discovered a German restaurant - beer, Brezel, Wurst, and FC Bayern

Tokyo International Forum - interesting architecture. It was completed in 1996 and is supposed to be one of the most beautiful and impressive buildings in Tokyo. The building made of glass is 60 metres high.

Tokyo International Forum - there are many restaurants and shops downstairs.

 

Tokyo International Forum - much steel and glass

After Ginza we went to Ueno Park. But there was nothing exciting to see either. Just some dried plants. Actually many temples and museums are located in Ueno Park. But we did not go there.

Ueno Park - nature and city. Nature not at its best today.

Next to the Ueno Park is Ameyoko Arcade. It is one of the biggest markets in Asia. It started as a black-market after WWII, but now everything is legal and has become a lively shopping area. It was packed there! It was hard to fight your way through the crowds and sometimes the sheer amount of people around me really annoyed me. You can find many bargains there. Food, bags, clothes, everything you want.

Ameyoko Arcade

  

Ameyoko Arcade is very loud, lively, full of people, nerve-racking. Shop screamers attract the cusomers' attention.

 

Bargaining at Ameyoko Arcade

 

 We took some side street and it was filled with establishments like this

In the evening we meet Tobi again. As we live in a Korean neighbourhood, we went into a Korean restaurant. I had the feeling that they were not exactly happy, that foreigners came into their restaurant. We do not speak Japanese, behave awkwardly, and are simply exhausting. Sometimes in Tokyo I have the feeling that people are fed up with foreigners. It was in Tokyo, that for the first time, someone was impolite to me. I approached a passing Japanese business man, because I wanted to ask for the way, saying "Excuse me please". But he shot an unfriendly look at me, turned his face away just went on.

After dinner we went through Shinjuku. It looks very impressive at night, when the crazy lights are on:

 

As I do not have to say much about my day today, I will recite some dialogues from the last days. Dialogue Participants are A,B, and C. (Actually, after writing the dialogues down and reading them, they do not seem so funny like they were in that moment. It is the same with my photos. They never seem to be able to capture the real beauty that I see. Grr.)

A and B get off the subway. They are on the way to the fishmarket.
A: It smells like fish!
B: We are on the way to the fishmarket, what did you think?

A, B, and C walk through the park. They watch some cute children running around.
A (wearily): When I have a child, it will probably look ugly.
B: No, no. Your child will be really cute.
C to A: When your child grows up, I will tell him: 'Your mother once said that you would look like crap.'

A, B, and C look at a nice big tree with a huge treetop.
A: The tree reminds me of Germany.
B: Me too. The trees in Japan are usually so slim and small.
A: Like the men in Japan.
C: Even the trees in Japan are fags.