One day down…and not much sleep! What to do with the new day? The coolest person I met the night before was a girl 
called Hannah and we decided to hit Harajuku known from Gwen Stefani fame – “Harajuku” Girls! The first thing we found was Meiji park. A nice peaceful park in the centrew of Tokyo’s hecticity….
Harajuku was mainly a shopping playground for the rich though. It was full of Dolce and Gabanna, Ralph Lauren and all that Jazz…. and one shop in particular that was very high class!
This shopping centre had the best entrance i’ve ever seen and also an outrageously busy crossing right outside it:
Not as busy as this next crossing which is supposedly one of the busiest in the world. It’s an intersection just outside Shibuya station where 6 roads meet, right in the heart of Tokyo. It wasn’t the busiest of days but when the lights changed a throng of people charged across the road from all directions!
After all the excitement of the shops we were getting hungry and so we decided to head to a place just down the metro line called Shimo-kitazawa. It had been recommended to us by a few people due to it’s more low rise feel, smaller and older streets and it’s 2nd hand retro clothing scene. Once we were there we were getting a hunger on but didn’t know where to choose from a plethora of places. I heard a couple of American girls speaking Japanese so I thought I’d ask them for some local knowledge. One of them was a massive Pokemon fan and had just secured some rare antique 
Pokemon, so was very happy! They eagerly guided us to a small place round the corner which we would never have chosen ourselves and recommended the mackerel…. We went in, sat down and were introduced to Sho, their only English speaking staff member. He was a really sound guy and we were happy for him just to order for us whatever he recommended. I did ask for the mackerel though! First came out an interesting salad style appetiser which was really good….but then came the Mackerel. Oh my god! They bought it out on a small platter, blowtorch and lemon in hand. They blowtorched in front of us whilst applying the lemon. This was undeniably the greatest tasting mackerel dish, maybe just fish dish, I have ever had in my life. I don’t know what they had done with it, maybe laced it with some magical intoxicating drug, but it was to die for. I should have ordered another 4. Wow. With the mackerel only just started they brought out the next dish…. a sashimi platter. This was also amazing. Damn I love what Japanese do to fish! At the same 
time as we were eating we obviously had to try all the different local 
alcohol selection. I can’t remember how many different types of local drinks we had but Sho had a knack for choosing the right drink for me and the right drink for Hannah. Aloe flavours, coffee, plum, other fruits that are beginning to escape my memory….along with my drink of the moment, whiskey, and some delicious Sake. This was a meal to remember! All the food was great, the drinks flowed, I had wicked company and a waiter who was cool! We must have been in there for about 6 hours but it was time well spent and won’t be forgotten any time soon. It’s fare to say I blew a stack load of money, but it was worth it 🙂
Sho gave us a great send off as we left and invited us to spend some time with him the next day….. We made our way back to the hostel, more than just a little smashed. I thought that was gonna be the end of the evening but the peeps at the hostel and my screwed up jet lag had other ideas. We ended up starting a bottle of Whiskey, watching a horrendously bad DVD and then whiling the hours away talking. Still no sleep, well, only 3 hours that night….
shyguy b 