First Day

Today I spent the entire day in Shibuya, which is where the Blacks live... it's just as well because the weather ended up being bad today anyway. It was sort of drizzly in the morning and late at night, and humid the rest of the time.

I ended up buying a whole bunch of stuff, which I was planning on doing so it's okay... graduation money ftw. I chose a few clothing pieces I really like, which were expensive, and the rest was spent on little things.

For lunch this afternoon I went to a place called Ducky... or was it Ducky Ducky? Anyway, it's a nice cafe on the 2nd story of a building, and I sat at the bar facing out the big curved window, so it made for nice people watching. I had curry omelette rice, which I've never heard of before... but it was really delicious. It's a little mound of (maybe ketchup flavoured?) rice covered by basically a scrambled egg, and then they pour the delicious sauce on. Delicious, delicious sauce.

I really like hearing "irrashaimase!" every time I go in a store :< The 109 department store takes "irrashai" to a whole new level, though, I have to say. Typically when you go into a store, the person working or the person nearest the door will say "irrashai" or "irrashaimase" to welcome you. As you walk through, other people who work at the store will usually say it, too, when they first see you. Sometimes there's a fun irrashai chain, where one worker says it loudly enough for another to hear, and so they say it... and it sort of continues on like that.

Japanese department stores, like 109, are not like ours... it's basically level after level of individual small shops for each brand. You pay individually at each place. There's usually at least one wall open to the hallway, so even as you just walk by, "irrashai" rings throughout the land. At 109, they're catering basically to 20-something-year-old girls... so I guess the 20-something-year-old girls that work at the stores are especially enthusiastic.

After coming home and dropping off all my stuff, and showering off all the icky humidity ._. I went back out for dinner, which ended up taking me into the middle of Shibuya again. I got distracted almost immediately by crane machines... crane machines! I can't even believe I forgot about the crane machines before I came over here. I love love crane machines, but the ones in the US are rarely worth playing thanks to crappy (often terrifying) prizes and terrible claws. I sort of made up for a long time's worth of not playing crane machines, I guess.

The cranes are more difficult than the claws you're used to... these only have two 'fingers' to pick up your prize. But many of the machines are set up more like a puzzle than just a pile-o-stuff; they'll place one large prize in a spot and you have to try to figure out how to get that stupid stuffed bunny thing off of there. Some of them are clearly impossible, but others are a fun challenge for which you actually receive a reward. The puzzle/crane/cute thing combo pretty much did it for me. I wound up with a bag, a pillow, and some candy.

I took a photo of those things and a lot of other things, but I can't post photos yet because I'm still trying to work stuff out with the computer here so... big block of text posts for you! For now :<

After the crane machines I had a really inexpensive and awesomely good dinner of gyoza dumplings and fried(sortof) rice. Everything was greasy which is probably why it was so good. Only ¥450! A good price especially after blowing so much money all day long .____.;

I'll stop going on about shopping day now. I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow yet... I'm going to go to bed and look at my books. Mrs. Black helped me get a subway pass yesterday so it's pretty much up to the weather to decide what I do. I'll probably stay within the city... maybe it's time to find a maid cafe :3