9/2/2001

10am Tokyo Youth Center
My feet hurt a lot, as do my legs. We were up early and walked to Meiji Shrine. It was in the middle of a very dense forest. We could still hear some cars and helicopters, but there were almost no people around. This was around 8am, maybe a little earlier. I was again impressed by the wide open spaces. The walkway was probably 40' wide and all gravel. There were occasionally old men sweeping the leaves out of the gravel with brooms made of sticks. They moved the leaves while hardly disturbing the rocks. We watched people pray (?) at the shrine, but did not attempt to do so ourselves. I bought 3 wooden plaque-looking things next to the shrine. I guessed they were blessings for homes- Dr. Prescott told me I was wrong. They are for special prayers. You are supposed to write your wish on the back and hang them somewhere in the shrine. I didn't see any but I did see paper shaped like lightening bolts hanging from booths.

Now we are waiting to meet Takeshi, watching Japanese television, which I do enjoy, although I can't understand the spoken words. I can still understand the main point of the programming. More later after a day with a Japanese businessman.

10:30pm
What an exhausting 12 hours! The afternoon with Takeshi was very fun. We saw so many things. He and a guy we've started calling Vollyball were in a car and drove us to the different areas of Tokyo. It was great not to have so much foot pain to get everywhere. We first went to the biggest shrine I've seen so far. In Akasaka we walked through all of these stalls selling clothes, purses jewelry, and little toys. Again, this stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction. Eventually we found the shrine. We moved the incense over our heads to make us smart, then continued up to the shrine itself. We donated Y10 to the... um.... thing you throw your money into. Then we went to a fortune-telling area. For Y100 we shook an aluminum canister and chose a stick with a number. That corresponded to a drawer that had a piece of paper with a fortune in it. Mine was good fortune- the greatest. Greg's was bad- the least. We were told to tie the bad fortune to a stick thing in order to leave it behind. We walked around the marker for a while and then went for a Japanese lunch.

It was okonomiyaki- a restaurant with hot grills in the middle of each table. At first it looked like some Japanese restaurants where the chef cooks in front of a large group of people. We sat on big cushions with our feet below us on the floor. Takeshi ordered two dishes, one "hard" and one "soft". I personally couldn't see the difference. Both were mixtures of all sorts of meats, fish, vegetables, and some sauce. I didn't care for either, but the eating process was interesting. The server poured the mixture onto the gill and mixed it up. The she let it cook for a little. Finally, Takeshi's friend told us it was ready. We had tiny metal spatulas, and with them we separated sections of the pancake. We pressed the bit into the grill to cook it to our preference. The we ate the food off of the spatula. It was gooey, sticky.

After we left we continued through Akihabra, the electronics district. It wasn't too remarkable except for the people who swarmed about and the fact that very expensive computers were just sitting out on the street. Takeshi said if you buy something on the street it will "maybe" work, not "probably" work. He then told us it was coffee time. I suspect he assumes all Americans take coffee breaks in the afternoon. The Starbucks he chose was very noisy and crowded, but we ordered our drinks in English. It was funny to hear "Mocha Latte!" and "Grande Mocha Frappuchino!" yelled amongst all the Japanese we heard.

Shinjuku was next, but honestly, I don't remember much of it. By this time my brain was severely overloaded. There was a DJ store, an arcade, and other flashy things to see.

Harajuku was next: most of what I remember was finding the Condomania store and seeing tons of "Bathe an Ape" t-shirts. Some said, "Ape must not kill ape. Bathe an ape to make it great." We searched for the shirts, but could find none for sale. Finally, we were on our way home- mentally, if not physically exhausted. We gave Takeshi and Vollyball little gifts of mounted state US quarters, and thanked them a lot.

On our way in we saw a group heading out to the Hard Rock Cafe. It was a truly American experience: one that proved that few students have yet grasped the Japanese way of courtesy, quiet, and respect.