I want to post and write so much about my days Tokyo - this beautiful city. I have so many impressions from this trip, but don't know where to start or how to explain some of them.
It sounds cliché but not speaking Japanese I had a few moments in which I could totally feel some of the scenes in Sophia Coppola's 'Lost in Transaltion'. Voices which come out of speakers in shops, trains or elevators which you can't understand or street signs or menus you can't read. You get a lot more conscious of things but don't really feel part of situations and so I felt sometimes as if I am in a bubble watching people there in their life and what they do.
I didn't really have much time to prepare this trip apart of reading some blogs I got the Hello Sandwhich Tokyo guide which gives great ideas of where to go. Without big expectations I was ready to explore, to walk through the streets of Tokyo, hear different noises, smell and eat new food...
I got the feeling that not many people speak English there but I always thought that everyone I asked for the way - or better I was showing my map pointing at my destination - was so friendly and willing to help. I even once left my subway map back at a lunch place and after walking further, being streets away from the restaurant the waitress was suddenly running behind us to give it back to me (!) - a subway map.
On the second day I made my way to Omote-sando and the infamous Shibuya with its massive intersection and many shops. I was strolling through the back streets of Omote-sando and there was so much to see..I sometimes stopped, and turned around or looked up to make sure I am not missing anything. There are many small (vintage) shops, surprisingly many hairdressers and small places to eat in these backstreets/laneways.
Shibuya was just big and a bit too crowded for me. I went to one of the traffic lights to get ready to cross the massive intersection and it somehow felt special, passing the street with so many people. Tokyo is a shopping paradise. You can get pretty much everything you want, you only need to find it. I went to 'Loft' and 'Tokyo Hands' two massive departments stores in which you can get pretty much everything you can think of, I went because I have heard of their stationary floors and boy they have great stationary there. I stocked up on some great things. But I was also dragged into bookshops where I could look through foreign magazines, books or zines...I could have spent hours there.
Let me tell you how often I got lost in Tokyo, which wasn't really bad as it can be fun getting lost to explore new things but when you are actually looking for something particular you really would like to go to it can be frustrating. On my second night for instance I wanted to go to a cafe which I got recommended in one of the Shibuya's backstreets but I couldn't find it.
to be continued - maybe even in analog form :)
Maria