Tokyo - Day 2

Free Internet amounts to another entry.
Today was a fantastic day, predominately because of the Harajuku Girls (of Gwen Stefani video clips fame).



It's quite a spectacle, and I am not entirely sure what motivates them to go to so much trouble (especially on a Sunday morning). They completely act the part and put on quite a show for the photographers/bystanders. Most of them, from my limited experience, are inspired by goth. In fact, and I didn't know this at the time, we were standing behind 4 Harujuku Girls while waiting for the Peter Pan ride @ Disneyland (biggest waste of time). We were in the line for about 40 minutes and in that time, they must have spent about half of it fixing up their makeup, orange contacts, hair etc. Tell you what though, they had BAD BAD teeth ... and it wasn't because they painted it black.

We had 2 lovely Japanese locals take us out today - Sharlene's work colleague (Masaru) and his girlfriend (Hatsumi).



They were great ... brought us around everything, including Akihabaru (Electronics Town); Ginza (fancy smancy town e.g. Brioni, Hermes etc); and Shibuya (trendy teenage town). All very different and interesting. Got around via trains. The train stations have THE COOLEST door closing/train leaving warning melodies. Unlike dodgy cityrail which has your one standard *bom bom bom* (you know what I mean); Japanese train stations have really cute polyphonic cartoon-esque melodies. And there's a few of them too. Might record one and use as my ringtone. There are the most literal signs in the train as well e.g.:




People really can't live out their Bidet i.e. after toilet washing function.



Had my first experience this morning. My reaction? I shrieked both times I tried it. I think it takes some getting used to.

Public holiday in Japan, which means more crowds and probably more Mickey Mice. Hey did you know Doraemon had a girlfriend called Mimichan. I didn't!