Day 16 - Tokyo: Shopping and Quaking
Today was our last chance to some souvenir and gift shopping so went straight to Harajuku for Oriental Bizarre (for gifts) and Kiddyland (big toy shop). Stopped for lunch at Pizza Express again and got served by same English waiter (sod it we were hungry!) then continued shopping picking up 2 new watches and some T-shirts for Kerry. There some roadworks happening under the main road through Harajuku and noticed that Japanese workmen are just a scruffy as the British but wear really baggy trousers instead of our builder-bum jean look.
Back over to Roppongi Hills for TV Asahi shop and found Matthew’s Best TV merchandise which was featured in Lost in Translation. He’s a bit like Graham Norton but with louder suits and weirder TV graphics. Headed over to Ginza to see the latest Sony products at their flagship store. Played some new PS2 games that are not even out in Japan yet - Shadow of the Colossus (ICO2) and Katamari the game where you push a sticky ball around picking up items like a snowball effect which gets bigger. Bought a right bargain of an MP3 player (20GB memory) for about 2/3rd’s the price of the UK. There were loads of HDTV cameras and AIBOs on display with plenty of foreigners looking for a bargain. Subwayed over to Aoyama which is the King’s Road equivalent district in Tokyo. Amazing design of shops including Bathing Ape, which looked like a huge mirrored bathroom, and Prada having glassed walled criss-cross effect.
Back to the hotel for the daunting task of packing and the paranoia of not being able to fit it all in the case. No time for restaurants so resorted to a pizza delivered to our room. Mid-way through our packing the floor started shaking and we experienced our first full-on Japanese earthquake. For 30 seconds it felt like the building was shaking sideways by about an inch with the sound of the toilet water swilling around. 15 minutes later on the 9 o’clock TV news, it was the headline story with cameras recording the moment and mentioning trains and planes stopped or grounded.
Back over to Roppongi Hills for TV Asahi shop and found Matthew’s Best TV merchandise which was featured in Lost in Translation. He’s a bit like Graham Norton but with louder suits and weirder TV graphics. Headed over to Ginza to see the latest Sony products at their flagship store. Played some new PS2 games that are not even out in Japan yet - Shadow of the Colossus (ICO2) and Katamari the game where you push a sticky ball around picking up items like a snowball effect which gets bigger. Bought a right bargain of an MP3 player (20GB memory) for about 2/3rd’s the price of the UK. There were loads of HDTV cameras and AIBOs on display with plenty of foreigners looking for a bargain. Subwayed over to Aoyama which is the King’s Road equivalent district in Tokyo. Amazing design of shops including Bathing Ape, which looked like a huge mirrored bathroom, and Prada having glassed walled criss-cross effect.
Back to the hotel for the daunting task of packing and the paranoia of not being able to fit it all in the case. No time for restaurants so resorted to a pizza delivered to our room. Mid-way through our packing the floor started shaking and we experienced our first full-on Japanese earthquake. For 30 seconds it felt like the building was shaking sideways by about an inch with the sound of the toilet water swilling around. 15 minutes later on the 9 o’clock TV news, it was the headline story with cameras recording the moment and mentioning trains and planes stopped or grounded.
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