Birthday Fun

For my birthday the girls met me for dinner at the place of my choosing. I was feeling a bit homesick, (at least food-wise) so we went to "The Hobgoblin" English style pub.


The waitress spoke perfect un-accented English and all of the patrons besides my friends were westerners/foreigners. The music they played was English and American. I didn't go to Japan to do things that feel like I'm back home, but it's nice to get a break from the culture shock.

I ordered a Mexican chicken wrap. It was delicious, and it struck me as a bit funny considering that it was a Japanese take on an English pub serving an Americanized version of Mexican food.



After Dinner we went to プリクラ or Purikura. It's a mash-up word that comes from 'print' and 'club' and it's basically an insane Japanese version of a photo-booth.

It's most popular with girls it seems. Actually I think guys aren't even allowed to go to purikura unless they are in the company of women. At least where we went that was the rule.
So you go into this big photo-booth with these super bright lights. you put your money in and then the screen shows you a bunch or sample poses that you are supposed to emulate.
Then after the photos are taken, you go to a separate area where you decorate the pictures with all manner of cutesy graphics and text. The weird thing is when you have your picture taken in one of these things, through some sort of automated facial recognition, the machine makes just your eyes look bigger. After it's all done you get a small printed sticker sheet of your pictures and also you can get them sent to your fancy J-Phone.




After that it was time for Karaoke. In Japan you don't do Karaoke in front of a crowd of strangers at a bar, you get your own private room. You pay by time spent in there and while you are there you can order all-you-can-drink drinks on the phone, and it's part of the package I believe. It sounds like a good deal but they take so long to bring your drink that I don't think you actually get your money's worth.

A huge library of both Japanese and English songs, but the music that goes along with the songs isn't the real music, it's a computery sounding midi track. Probably why they can have so many songs. I was so full from dinner that my drinks had no effect on me, and made me painfully aware of how bad my singing ability is. Plus the girls had never heard any of the songs I chose so there was no duets to mask my voice. It was still a fun experience anyway.

The little wireless song chooser thingy.

I didn't know what they were singing but they sounded nice.

Hachiko

Here is a famous Tokyo landmark. The Hachiko statue. It's a heartwarming story of a dog that loves his owner so much that it would wait for him every day until he got off from work and would exit at this train station. *Spoiler Alert* The dude dies and the dog keeps waiting there anyway. Soon to be released as a major motion picture starring Richard Gere.

Anyway, they made a statue to commemorate the real dog, and now this is used by many Japanese as a meeting spot and a touristy photo-op. The problem with a famous meeting spot in a city of over 12 million people is that around rush hour so many people are using this statue as a meeting point that it actually becomes very difficult to find who you're looking for. I took this picture early in the day before it got really crowded.

Chocolate flavored beer

Before my trip I had read about some strange types of beer and Chocolate beer was one of the varieties I wanted to try. After spending about $4.00 on this single bottle of beer, I think I have a better name for it than "Choco Biere". I would call it "Expensive Coffee Grounds and Dirty Dishwater Flavored Biere". So yeah, I'm not a fan. But at least now my curiosity has been satisfied.

Shibuya Crossing

The famous Shibuya Crossing. Shown in almost every video about Tokyo, it's the biggest crosswalk I've ever seen. Also above that Starbucks, is the famous video screen that takes up the whole side of the building. Much more impressive in the dark, but I unfortunately forgot to come back here at night to shoot it.


People gathering to wait for the pedestrian crossing signal...


And the organized chaos begins.

McDonald's apple pies...

McDonald's in Japan still have the deep-fried apple pies that we used to have in America. Now you can only get the crappy, dried out, baked ones. On second thought it's actually a good thing they don't have these in America anymore, because they are way too addictive.

Food Show

I found an amazing food court at/under Shibuya station. the "Tokyu Food Show". It has almost any kind of food you could want and at pretty reasonable prices too. My only complaint is that there isn't an area to take your recently purchased food to so that you can eat it. I was on a quest to find something great for my morning meal.



Roasted Eel...




A delicious looking Indian food stand that I intend to check out further.




After looking at all this food I finally decided to go to this bakery. This has to be the best bakery I have ever been to. They get a '10' for presentation.


These Cheese rolls reminded me of the eggs from the "Aliens" movie.

I got a bacon+cheese pastry,

And a burnt sugar tart with an unknown but tasty type of fruit in it,

And a mini banana cake. Soooooo good!!

Breakfast of Champions

Nothing like a spicy curry filled donut and some pocari sweat to start your day off right.

The woman at Mister Donut asked me something that I didn't understand when I bought my donut. Later, as I was eating it I realized that she wanted to heat the donut up for me, and I think that would've been a good idea. It was still good at room temperature though.



Pocari Sweat is one of those "when in Rome" things you just gotta try. Because it's got a slightly salty taste, it truly feels like you're drinking a can of someone's sweat. Refreshing!