June 3, 2008
11:55 PM
Day 4
Day 4 (Tuesday)
I slept in until 2pm since I was really, really tired. Raining, and with the temperature near freezing point, I skipped breakfast and headed straight to the train station to get to Shibuya.
Alighting at Shibuya station, I wandered around for a bit. Checked out the nearby Tokyu department store, all levels of it. Nothing appeared interesting at all. Wandered around a bit more to finally find the famous Hachiko statue. Snapped a few pics, and went on my way.
Doggy-doggy
If I remembered correctly, Shibuya was often termed the place to go for clothing. So, my objective was to find some clothing. I had no idea where to start, so I just headed in some random direction. Mind you, with rain + freezing weather + no clear destination in sight, its really a torture and kinda depressing walking around. I gave up the search for a while to have lunch at a nearby KFC. Comparing the service and food portions of Singapore's and Japan's KFC is like comparing the nearest speed bump to Mt. Fuji. One interesting thing I noted in the fast-food restaurant was that there were two separate areas, one for smoking and another for non-smoking. Another more interesting thing is the number of seats at each side is roughly the same. Does this possibly mean that the ratio of smokers to non-smokers in Japan is roughly 1:1?
After lunch, I go back out into the wilderness to continue my search. Another games arcade lured me in. This time, I played the UFO catcher and got a nice 'He is My Master' figurine for 6 tries, equating to 1000 yen.
The figurine's size relative to a DS
I wasted 2000 yen trying for the second figurine though. After that, I eventually arrived back at the station. This time, I headed in another direction. After a long search, I finally found a relatively decent men's clothing shop. Bought a black singlet and white shirt that came as a set.
Having being done with Shibuya, I can pretty much conclude that either Shibuya isn't the place to go for clothing, or that I'm very bad at spotting clothes shops. Before I left though, I found another of the UFO arcades. One of the machines had some red remote-controlled car as a prize. It'd make a nice item for my brother, so I tried it. A plastic hoop was stuck to the box, and hung over the prize chute on a metal rod. The objective was to get the hoop off the metal rod so the prize will drop. I spent 2500 yen on it but couldn't get it. The coin machine changes 1000 yen at once, so I had a 500 yen coin left. I looked around a bit more and found another machine with a Lexus remote-controlled car. This machine was different. The UFO catcher was a long bar with two arms hanging downwards. You move the catcher's arms one at a time, so that when the catcher dips down, the arms will catch under the prize. The box was above 3 horizontal bars, so you had to slide the prize into the chute. Since I had the 500 yen coin left, I thought I'd give it a go. 3 tries, the first 2 didn't really make it. But the 3rd try, I got the two arms really close to the box, so when the arms went down, they caught the box firmly and slid it nicely into the chute. My UFO catcher skills are levelling up. =)
Remote-controlled car size relative to a DS
Next, I took the train one stop to Harajuku again for a better look this time. Back at the main Harajuku street stretch, I branched out abit. Girls clothing.. girls clothing.. and saw some interesting 'UFO catcher' machines. The first one was basically the fishing game most of us used to play. You start the machine and the board starts to spiral. The fish on the board open and close their mouths, while you try to fish them out. This machine literally had the actual fishing game machine inside, and the UFO catcher was the fishing line. If you fish the right fish, you win the prize. Near impossible. The second one, inside the machine is a board with metal half-rings sticking out. The UFO catcher is a chain with a dangling hook at the end. If you manage to hook a ring, you win. The dangling hook shakes and turns when you move the catcher. Another near impossible game, I tried it out anyway: it was 200 yen for 3 tries. Didn't make it for all 3. Oh well.
Went down a basement to a mens clothing shop called Harada's. Saw some relatively interesting clothes too. They had One Piece t-shirts from Cospa. =/ They also had some shirts which looked more for girls. But they looked interesting either way, and I tried a few of them. Didn't suit my taste. One shirt said 'The Music is My Weapon'. The english wasn't broken enough to warrant buying. I finally came across the right one after a bit more looking.
"The water was very nearly to the top of them"
So far, the clothes were ok.. but I was looking for something which was like, uniquely Japanese. Something which you probably won't find elsewhere. I found another basement shop, named 'Yellow House'. They sold all those JRock and Punk outfits. I doubt I'd be wearing them a whole lot, but I'd probably regret not at least getting something like this, so I went in.
The shop was really small, but even more surprising was that the owner was an old lady. She even spoke english. You'd never think that someone like her would ever be involved in this line of fashion. Furthermore, she resembles my Japanese teacher in pretty much every way possible. Her way of speech, her speaking, age, height, and flat-out interesting in her own way. She seemed awfully knowlegdable in the clothing, pointing out how this goes with this and that, what would fit, what won't fit.. all those. Every inch of the shop not used in displaying clothes was covered with pictures, signatures and messages. This includes the ceiling as well. Anyway, I saw a jacket and some pants I quite liked. I tried it out a bit, she gave me a bit of help here and there, with some explanations off the side, and I eventually got them. Total of 22700 yen excluding tax. Crazy price but I felt it was worth it in a way.
Some time between entering the shop and leaving, the old lady told me that all the clothes here were designed by her, and were designed for many of the JRock bands themselves, including Dir en Grey, L'arc-en-ceil, Miyavi.. All those pictures around were of her and the various members in her shop. Some of the clothings on sale were exact copies of the outfits worn by the bands on stage. The shop had been around for 26 years. For a shop that small, I never thought the old lady had such an influence in today's culture.
The jacket @ 9900 yen
Pants @ 12800 yen
The back
With that said, I have no idea where I could wear this around in Singapore without getting stares. Probably at those cosplay conventions, I suppose?
Getting back to the hotel, my mum was looking through all the stuff I got today. Saw the prizes from the UFO catchers, she was like 'oooh, ok'. Looked at the shirts and said 'looks nice'. Came to the jacket and pants and she said 'What??'. 3 times, each with a pause between and the shocked face. Partially because of the cost too. She said the clothes were weird. It might not mean much, but this coming from her, 'weird' means a lot. It kinda leaves bad taste, with me wondering if I should have and bought it at all, making me seem to feel bad for buying it in the first place. I'm not too sure, but I ask myself, "Which would I regret more? Buying it or not buying it?". I think I would have really regreted not getting it. The old lady accepts the style and even goes designing the clothes, while my mum, whos a lot younger, doesn't accept it. Does speak a lot about people and society. Anyway, after this, I gotta slow down on cash use a bit. Still have 4 days and 60000 yen to go.