She Says: Day 2

As I write this we cheer that there is a second day of sumo wrestling on TV. This stuff is utterly addictive. There is something in the ballet of two giant men in waxed loincloths and the shock waves that pass through the fat that utterly entrance. Or maybe its the fact that this is the most real wrestling we've ever seen, having to deal with such gems as WWF and ECW back in the States. The men on the TV screen are dead serious, and the matches are over within seconds usually. Each one plays a little game of psych-out, though, and will raise their hands or stand up and walk away to prolong the match or catch a glimpse of their opponent' strategy. It's something you don't see to much sin the Western world, unless you could talking shit to one another as a means to gauge your opponent. I mostly saw that as a refuge for retards with the unfortunate ability to both play sports AND speak the language.
I think I can safely say that we did more before 2 pm than most of the rest of the world.
Of greatest note is the fact that we braved Shinjuku Station at rush hour, and we rode a human tide from the open doors up to the JR Yamanote platform as if surfing on the psychic energy of a million people to "JUST FREAKING GO I GOTTA GET TO WORK PLEASE GOD WHY DID YOU STOP RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, GAH!"
It's powerful, this psychic tide. I would really, seriously suggest you not stop in the middle of it, even to get your bearings. Let it take you deep in to the men's restroom if it wants, in fact. Your best bet is to simply swim to the side of the river like someone caught in whitewater rapids would do, then wait and grab any other companions behind you as they ford past.
My initial thought was that it wasn't actually that bad... except I was thinking that while we were standing in one of the side lobbies. We weren't actually in the station proper. As soon as we crossed that line it was immense and i'm proud to say we did damn fine making our way through without knocking people over, bumping in to people, or otherwise making a public nuisance of ourselves.
To portray the immensity of it would take a photo. But in order to take a photo would've meant stopping in the middle of that rush of people and...wow... you SO do not want to be that guy.
As Bob mentioned previously, we went to the Meiji Jingu shrine this morning, braving the salarymen crush in the trains to find ourselves in a beautiful forest. Literally walking out of the Harajuku train station and taking a right off of Omotesando will drop you right in to the park and immediately shut out all noise from the trains and street beyond.
It's a very calming, relaxing place loaded with trees, bamboo and streams. Originally it was given to the Empress Shoken by the Emperor Meiji so she would have a place to walk in the woods that reminded her of home. If that's not romantic, I don't know what is. Also, might I mention, that it was a NICE gift.
We paid a few yen to see the gardens there, but neither the azalea garden or the iris walk was in bloom (save for a few spare flowers that every tourist, Japanese or gaijin, stopped and photographed to have SOMETHING to show for walking down there.) Even so, a quick journey to the koi pond was fun. We had a little hovering buddy for a few minutes, green faceted insect-eyes, yellow translucent body and 4 wings beating so fast they were a whir. It made a whirring noise as it hovered to, and stared at Bob and I. It only backed up when I reached up to poke it with my finger to see if it reacted. It darted like a hummingbird, then darted back to where it was. I wish I knew what it was, the colors were very bright.
After we made our way out of the garden we purified ourselves at the fountains before going in to the Meiji Shrine.
It is a huge shrine, and demarcated from the world by the largest Torii, or sacred gate, in the world. You guys know what a torii is, they're on every postcard in the world, they look like a giant gate with two pieces of lumber across the top. In Japan they're used to specifically mark entrance to a sacred space.
Meiji-jingu, btw, is a Shinto shrine. Meiji and Shoken are actually interred there and people come to offer coins, pray and ask their help as ancestors and guardians of Japan for whatever they need.
For those who want to be extra sure, they sell ema, or prayer placards, for you to write your wish on. You then hang it on the wall surrounding a sacred tree and then.... I have no clue. I'm not a practicing Shintoist so it's lost on me, but I went ahead and bought a placard anyway and wrote my wishes on it. I even drew a little picture of Bob and I enjoying ourselves in hopes it would convey what I wanted.
At one point when we were in the inner sanctum, in front of the building where Meiji and Shoken are, I pulled out my camera and popped the cap off to get a shot. The guard there hurried toward me immediately making the "shame on you" motion with his fingers and saying "No photo preese! No photo!" I apologized profusely, as there hadn't been a sign and I certainly hadn't meant to be disrespectful. He probably thought I didn't understand initially, as I stared at him in disbelief just to see another human being use the "shame-shame" motion for the first time in about 16 years.
We saw several shrine maidens, bought some charms for good luck, and then walked back to the more retail-oriented souvenir shop. Once there I acquired a fabric fan (it's damned humid here, even when the sun isn't blazing overhead. It is an item of necessity) and a box of the most fragrant incense I have smelled in a while. A quick note to my father and to Blake; the box of incense is friggin' HUGE and I will be bundling some of it up to pass along. I think you'll enjoy it.
Lunch consisted of chirashi-sushi (sliced sashimi on vinegared rice) and custard with aka miso soup for me and tempura on rice with aka miso for Bob.
We then went back towards Harajuku Station, walked past it down the street a bit, and went up Takeshita Street. Takeshita, for those of you unfamiliar with Japanese fashion or "Harajuku girls", is a place of fashions for teens. We were quickly lost in a see of teens and 'tweens, mostly school girls in uniforms and the occasional male that braved the throng. It was interesting to see all of the different styles they wear here, and honestly if I wasn't sporting my goddess-sized exterior I probably would've tried to find something to wear. As it was, I just enjoyed the slice of life and kept walking.
We took a mosey through a side street, Harajuku street, where there were FAR fewer people. Then we turned and ended up on Omotesando-dori once more. A great number of western stores were here, with such familiar names as Body Shoppe, Lauren Ashley, and Ray-Ban.
At that point my feet were killing me -our phrasebook doesn't have a phrase for "I am in desperate need of gel insoles, PLEASE tell me where to purchase them"- and we decided that for walking around without break for 4 hours and several miles we had done more than any sane American normally did in a day and we deserved to take a break. Seeing that it was a 4 minute train ride and a 5 minute walk, we decided to head back to the hotel room for a bit.
On the way here, though... you guys know how easily I give in to serendipity. I found... a donut shop. Not just any, but one with the awesome name of Donut Factory New York. They also had bagels, but obviously bagels are not cool enough at this place to get equal billing.
So we're walking along, feet aching, mildly sweaty from the damned humid air that parks on top of Tokyo, and I see a square donut in the color of green. I then actually stop Bob, pause, and walk around to see if the place is still open. Upon seeing that it is, I then proceed to see a sign that says the green square donut is even MORE awesome in that it is a glazed green tea donut with green tea creme filling. It's very artsy. All of their donuts are. I immediately know that these are the kinds of things that travel documentaries hinge on, and inform Bob that I am going to stop in the middle of the busiest train station in the world and buy the Japanese translation of the common donut.
He, lucky bastard, orders what they call here a 'bitter chocolate' donut, meaning that it's dark chocolate with very little sweetener. With how they make it, you absolutely do not miss the sugar. The hot cocoa the first night and the bitter choco donut tasted more chocolately than any American junk I'd had recently, and you really have to hand it to the Japanese for being willing to extract the pure essence of a flavor from something.
We then carried our discoveries out, the sharp pain in our poor feet spurring us the five blocks back to the hotel. By the time we got here I felt like I had heel spurs. And toe spurs. And everywhere spurs. It burned.
We are now safely here, and I am uploading images to sort and post a bit later. The day's not done yet, so I don't ~quite~ want to post before they're all collected.
Words we have learned today: Infuruenza. Take a wild guess.
Otorii - The Biggest Torii in the world, and because of this gets the honorofic "O" in front. There are torii, and then there is the Otorii, and it is the one in front of Meiji-jingu.
For some reason when I saw it, the bit from Eddie Izzard popped in to my head, "It's the biggest henge in the wooooorrrrlllld...."
Tonight the plan is beer and Japanese pizza. Yes, I'm serious. We located a convenience store in the basement of this place when we were coming back from this morning's breakfast (today's fried potato product was animal shapes filled with mashed potatoes. I took great joy in biting the head off a potato-dolphin, btw) and they sell alcohol in it. Actually, they all do. You can buy whiskey, razors, coffee and a girly mag all within about two rows of each other. Also, they have sushi. But I digress... the place has biru, so we're headed down to buy some cold ones to have with pizza, and something for dessert. While there this morning we found Pocari Sweat, which is their answer to gatorade, a mildly citrus and slightly thicker than water drink that supposedly rehydrates you quickly. I enjoy the taste but find the sensation of actually drinking it somewhat unnerving thanks to the texture.
Oh, also, I ate tako, or octopus, at lunch. We just can't do that shit right and should stop now. When properly prepared it is NOT chewy like rubber, but rather yielding to the teeth and mild in flavor. I will endeavor to try it again soon.
Also, Mom, I am NOT allergic to shrimp brains as we originally thought. It was numb because it burned my tongue. It's blistered this morning. We're totally cool. I know you were seriously concerned your little girl was going in to anaphylactic shock while dying of swine flu in Japan.