Shibuya

The weather forecast is not good. It looks like it will rain a lot today. I check out of Holiday Inn and go to Yayoi Kaikan. I leave my bag in the cloak room because I can't check in before 3 pm. I still have half a hope of visiting Hakone, a park outside Tokyo. In any case I need some breakfast so I go to Shinjuku station, where the self-service ramen shop is. I can't find it today; there are so many passages in the station it could be lurking in. I give up and buy some pastry for breakfast. I do a bit more CD shopping. Fortunately the Shopnade (shop+promenade?), an underground passage, runs underneath Shinjuku, linking all the major shops so I don't have to get wet.

By time I'm finished shopping it's raining harder so Hakone is out of the question. Perhaps I'll take a look at Harajuku, the next district. I emerge from the station and it's still raining and I have no umbrella. I stand around for a while hoping the rain will abate. While I'm waiting there, several Japanese attempt to start a conversation with me. I can't figure out what they want, but my guess is that they are evangelists, since there's a Christian school in a nearby ward. After a while I decide to buy an umbrella from the shop opposite the station. So I dash across the road and buy one. I inspect the main street of Harajuku in the rain. There's a Meiji shrine in the park nearby but it's too far to walk in this rain. So I head down the road towards Shibuya, the next district. Trendy boutiques line the streets. Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya are districts young people like to visit.

Outside Shibuya station is a bronze statue of a dog, Hachiko. According the plaque nearby, Hachiko lived with his master, a professor, in the 1920s. He used to accompany his master to Shibuya station in the morning and back in the evening. One day his master was taken ill at work and died there. Hachiko continued to come to the station and would sometimes remain there for days, in the hope that his master would return. He continued to do this for several years until he died. Even before his death, Hachiko became well known in the neighbourhood for his loyalty so the residents resolved to erect a statue honouring him. Today the statue of Hachiko is a popular meeting point for young people.

From Shibuya station I take the subway to the other end of town, to the Asakusa Kanon shrine. This is a buddhist temple where people come to pray for intercession by Kanon (Buddhist goddess of mercy). In front of the shrine is a smoking vat of incense. People try to waft the smoke towards the part of the body that is doing poorly. I have a relaxing time strolling around the grounds; it was a brief respite from the crowds outside.

The grounds are a bit messy and the buildings somewhat dilapidated. If you have the image of Japan as a place of shiny, spotless new buildings, you have the wrong image. At least this image is true only of corporate Japan. A lot of Japan is old and worn out, but still lovingly cared for. Tokyo isn't litter free in the way that Singapore is but whatever rubbish appears will be swept away by the next cleaning crew. Asakusa is an older district of Tokyo and one can see small businesses probably the way they have been for years.

Tonight we have a friend of my brother with us for dinner. He is Korean and went to University in Japan with my brother. We go to Ueno and select a Japanese restaurant. We have a seafood hotpot, some tempura and some sashimi. We also have some sake (rice wine) with dinner. Sake is quite strong, at about 17% alcohol content, but it goes down smoothly. Perhaps too smoothly; I think the slight headache I have later that evening might have had something to do with the sake.