On the street we ride with the cars on the left and cars stop for bikes as they ride through. Bikes weave in and out of traffic, sometimes cutting off cars turning as they ride through. This is amazing that they don't have many car bike accidents as no one wears helmets and it's not like their bikes here are top quality. Their common bikes are standard 3 speed and most all have baskets.
Most are manufactured the same as any bike with solid steel construction, not like what we are use to in the states. While on the road we follow car traffic laws, but if convenient we can switch to the sidewalks and follow pedestrian rules. People get out of your way while riding and bikes have the right of way. With so many bikes and pedestrians, it's amazing we don't see very many of those collisions and if that were to happen, both parties would apologize and get on with their day. Biking here is amazing and fun. I think throughout the day I biked nearly 50 miles! No wonder so many Japanese are in good shape.
On with the day's activities. We started the day with sleeping in. I have finally caught up in sleep and now woke up at 7 am to get some much needed work done. With a late start, we skipped breakfast (except eating some mochi cakes) and went to eat at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.
It was local and very cheap as the three of us filled our bellies and only spent $25.
We then proceeded to ride to the city capital building, Tokyo Metropolitan state building, which stands 48 stories tall. On the top floor there is an observation floor where you can have a 290 degree view of Tokyo. It was quite an amazing site to see as you can gain excellent perspective on how large this city is. It definitely lends to a new level of appreciation of how this urban mecca thrives with such a huge population base. It is truly a living breathing city.
One of the very cool aspects on the observation deck is the guided tours. I've been on tours where you get this nice little audio device and you type in the number of what you want to hear about but they took it to the next level. Up on they deck they hand you a pda with the tour loaded.
You can interact with the screen but the most amazing part of the device is that it knows what you are looking at and tells you! Actually, it doesn't know what you are exactly looking at but it does know what window you are standing in front of and starts reciting the items in that view for you!
SUPER CRAZY COOL!
Having been sufficiently wowed by the depth of the city we headed to the past and visited the Magi Temple.
It was nice seeing a very historic area for the Japanese people.
We drank from the fountain and saw their display of wishing blocks where people buy a plate of wood and write their wished or prayers on it for it to be fulfilled.
In the temple people toss coins and cash into a slitted crate and make their offerings. No pictures allowed :(
After walking through and expansive forest we headed to Harajuku to visit the famous Condomania, a store where they carry over a thousand varieties of condoms and other sex related nick knacks.
This however is NOT an adult toy store so most everything is PG since they are promoting safe sex for teens.
They had humorous gag gifts as well as a rely funny poster I took a picture of.
We were only passing through Harajuku since we will be spending more time on Sunday for the Okaku Cosplay orgy on Sunday so we proceeded on to our final destination, Shibuya.
One of the most famous places Japan is know for and probably more recognizable than Mt. Fuji, Shibuya is home to the world famous Shibuya square. If you've seen any moves that involve Tokyo, you've seen Shibuya square showing in one way or another. When the lights at the intersection turn red and the walk symbol activates, thousands of pedestrians cross the intersection all at once and have thirty seconds to make it. It is a literal zoo and we arrive on our bikes right when the madness began. Navigating the throngs of people was nearly impossible but we crossed without any serious injury to the natives. We parked our bikes and enjoyed the sight of the crowds. It was a Monday afternoon so the traffic was only 1/4 the usual on a weekend but it was still a site to see.
We proceeded to visit the famous landmark, the Hachiko dog.
If you don't know about the Hachiko dog at the Shibuya station, google it. In the world, it is the most famous meeting place, having over 1000 meetings there in one day. In summary there was a dog named Hachiko who waited at that train station for years for his master to return. The travels of this very busy train station took to taking care of this dog as it refuses to leave since his master died on the job. Hachiko represents undying loyalty and many draw inspiration from this true story.
We visited a bustling underground grocery store where exhausted workers stop in to buy their day's worth of groceries before heading home.
The store can only be compared to what I've experienced shopping on Black Friday after Thanksgiving. There were people everywhere in this very well organized clean asian market. They sold everything! I was so envious at the varieties of food they sold from meat to produce to pastries. It was a fresh goods market only so no canned or dry goods were sold here, or we just never made it to the dry good area since it was so HUGE!
Proceeding to the world famous fashion district, Shibuya 109 is 10 stories of clothing stores for women!
There you can buy clothes and accessories to suit any taste, from cute to goth to sporty, they have it all. It's a woman's wet dream to shop here and they girls here know how to dress in distinctive fashions. The dress here is so important to the Japanese that you rarely see someone wearing jeans and a T-Shirt, even when just going to grab a bite to eat.
You commonly see women dressed in super cute outfits complete with bows, frills and stuffed animals as accessories. They are walking incarnations of anime characters or is it the other way around, was anime inspired by real life? Hmmmm. We walked all ten floors with utter amusement.
After spending an hour in Shibuya we decided to take the long up hill ride back home but not before stopping in at a Krispy Cream.
Why go to Krispy Cream? Because we were told their donuts were better here than in America. That statement was only partially true. The donuts were the exact same artery clogging sugary fried pieces of dough but they did have a few unique flavors. Upon entering the order line we were greeted with a fresh hot free donut. We were then asked to choose from their selection. Having no desire to eat donuts we tried flavors that were unique. The green tea donut was delicious and should be sold in the US as well as banana filled, and soy cake donut. The coffee one was very good too.
Now that we were filled with carbs, sugar and fat, we are properly fueled for our hour trek back home. It was tough but a very good workout riding through rain and cars. Once we got back we headed out to satiate our now well earned hunger at a real Korean BBQ.
This place, right around the corner from where we were staying features a hot plate where they grill the food right in front of you. They provide you with paper bibs because the cooking process splatters a lot and that's because what they traditionally eat is huge ass thick half inch cuts of bacon and port bellies. 90% of the patrons were Korean so it was quite authentic. Every one of them were eating these fatty meals, wrapping their food with lettuce to make it healthier.
It was amazing that not one was overweight and many were petite. We looked at this display of fat with disgust and opted to get their seafood bowl, a super huge bowl of seafood in a spicy broth. It consisted of super jumbo shrimp, many crabs, muscles, scallops and octopus. The food was good and healthy. Although I wanted to try the bacon meal, I didn't want to eat just that, but they did offer a variety of veggies as sides in that meal. I would say that I typically don't shy away from meat dishes but that did not look appealing to me. Sure, you may call me closed minded but I can eat nearly any seafood that disgust some.
After a delicious seafood dinner I had a craving for some curry so we went to a 24 curry shop for some fast food curry. I ordered a small bowl of curry and it deliciously hit the spot.
What a good long day. Riding around Tokyo was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing that again and again while I'm staying here.
Location:２丁目,Shinjuku Ward,Japan
Another fun day. But don't be fooled into thinking bike accidents are rare. I witnessed so many, at least in the Okazaki/Nagoya area. One guy drove with a woman on the hood for half a block before stopping! O_o
ReplyDeleteThere are also lots of blind spots, and sometimes those little mirrors on street corners aren't much help.
The creator of GameBoy was killed when he stepped out to survey damage from a minor accident. Too many narrow, winding roads with blind corners.
I had another friend who was biking around the major cities of Japan and he got into a pretty nasty accident too.
Just be careful. ^_^ Keep giving us updates too!
Yeah, I can see that. I've observed that if you are careful and follow their rulses of the road, you're pretty much fine. When I follow caution and do things that are unexpected like allow pedestrians right of way or cars to go before me, they look confused and cause more problems. Careful is key and protocol is meant to be followed.
ReplyDelete