I need to sleep soon, and I'm exhausted from the past four days anyhow so it shouldn't be a problem. Aided by the 15-year old home-made umeshu that my uncle shared with us (and the plums that were steeping in the delicious delicious liqueur) I think this night will be awesomely full of sleep. Oh, but a hot bath first. Yes, plz.
Thursday my aunt called me while I was window shopping by myself in Tachikawa, and she took me to an izakaya inhabited by Oyaji ("Daddy"), the big, battle-scarred orange cat with half a tail and his sons Seven, who has a similarly halved tail, but with a kink making it look like the number 7, and a random itty bitty version of the former two who shot out of a bookcase and disappeared. I was fed oden, squid, and salad and we sang copious amounts of karaoke (my uncle is a karaoke fanatic and insisted we do some duets). Language barriers aside, it was a fun night. Karaoke is made easier when surrounded by people who love it, but it is an even bigger breeze when given beer and haichu.
Friday my aunt took me Akiba, where I helped her pick out a digital camera. We had lunch, then headed to Kappabashidori, which was a little disappointing as I had hoped to find something actually useful there. We went to Shinjuku, where we met my uncle for dinner. It was there that I discovered that there are indeed things that I cannot possibly eat, despite my mostly-iron stomach and tolerance for a vast array of flavors.
Saturday I met up with the 'Thena and Brian in Yokohama, where we sampled sake and tidbits of food at a food festival, ate amazing ice cream from the most amazing ice cream stand in existence, and trekked into the very depths of the Earth to catch a subway to Chinatown. From there we sort of stumbled into a weird situation where a shoplady sent her friend/sister/woman of undetermined relationship to escort us to a restaurant when Brian inquired about Peking duck. The food was not quite what we expected, but the experience was interesting enough. Panda martial arts stores were perused, sweets and onikuman were purchased, and after being partially blinded by the blingingness of the ostentatious temple there, we returned from whence we came and sat down for some cake and coffee/tea. Much chatting was done before we decided it would be prudent to make our return.
Sunday Athena and I met in Harajuku for some noontime shopping. She surprised me with an ume tofu plushie, which is covered in what must be a fabric made entirely out of angels since it is unearthly in its softness. Takuya Angel? Wtf, dood. Tokyo rave fashion at its finest (weirdest?). Engrish clothing is not in short supply in Harajuku, and luckiry we were able to find some gems that will never cease to shock and amaze. I hear that it takes years to recover from the in-jokes that you accumulate from such things. Mercy. Athena also acquired some shoes that were five hundred fucking yen (let's get 'em).
After we'd had enough of the Harajukuness of Harajuku, we trained it towards the mountains and into the significantly more austere Mitaka, home of the Ghibli Art Museum. I have to say that watching their examples of different types of animation were mesmerizing and difficult to escape from, once caught up watching them. I'm sorry, a tiny clay Totoro pops out of the frigging ground and scampers up a tree (amongst other amazing things) in their giant spinning strobe-light/claymation exhibit. HOW CAN YOU NOT WANT TO STARE AT THAT FOR HOURS SRSLY. Their short movie du jour was a delightful story about a girl who goes into the mountains, encountering onomatopoeia-producing creatures, forests, and weather elements, to whom she offers apples and ramen in exchange for safe passage and mushrooms. The entire soundtrack was produced by two people, making noises, and it mostly resembled storytelling by drunk friends. I loved it. Exploring was done, and a cute dinner was had in the Straw Hat Cafe. We also got the fruit sandwich of our dreams. I would say that's an accurate description.
(this is turning into a real update and not really drive-by anymore. hm.)
We met Brian at Hachiko (literally, he was standing in front of him) in Shibuya, and from there we entered the wonderful/frightening world that is Mandarake. On a table I saw what appeared to be a doujinshi with GeGeGe no Kitaro's Kitaro on the cover, blushing. Something was truly amiss about that, and I felt the need to not be in that section anymore. We then went to Shakey's pizza, where I opted out of the buffet but instead got extremely sweet grapefruit soda. The place was filled with school girls and boys, and some young men who were so absolutely the epitome of cool that they dropped the temperature of the restaurant several degrees, prompting me to put on my newly acquired SPLENDID MINORITY (necessity knows no law) long-sleeved tee. After spending some time chatting and showing off the new shirts to Brian (who was able to decipher the symbols on a "grammer test"[sic], sealing his pedagogical fate), we scampered back to the trains and headed our separate ways.
Today Mom and I took a long walk down memory lane and she pointed out all sorts of places that used to be only fields and are now filled with apartment buildings and dry cleaners. She also pointed out crappy shacks where they stuck the American servicemen 60 years ago. They are still standing today, and people still live in them. A couple weeks ago she found the house where she used to live when she first got married, and was appalled that people still lived there because, even 40 years ago, it was crappy.
Tomorrow we're going to visit my oldest aunt, who seems rather dismayed that I am coming along because she has a messy house. If things go awry, I am going to make my escape and maybe go to Hamamura zoo or something.
