Tokyo Day 5: We meet again Harajuku

I spent the whole day in Harajuku, which is completely exhausting on a Sunday because practically every young person in Tokyo is there to shop, to be seen, or just to watch. So it's the perfect place to just hang out and photograph people. My favorite part about Harajuku or more exact the kids the come to hang out in Harajuku, come dressed in outrageous costumes to hang out with their friends in a very touristy neighborhood (because of the shopping and the Meiji shrine), and they get pissed at people that try to take pictures of them.






I walked on Takeshita street in a sea of people, and I popped into the doggy clothing store, omg, they have the cutest things, I wish Francie liked wearing clothing. I also went into the Angels Nest harajuku, which is a store with just Super Dolfie dolls and all sorts of accessories, they were amazing but a little creepy because they are huge.



After a couple of hours of shooting and getting the evil eye from teenagers I was hungry so I went to Bio Ojiyan Cafe. The cafe is housed in the old Opatoca building which is really distinct in the middle of square box buildings. Opatoca was a sweet bakery chain. Bio Ojiyan's specialty is a type of Japanese Risotto made with what looks like barley, probably egg and dashi. These are just some guesses. There was also shredded scallion, sesame seeds, prociutto, some nori sheets, a tiny food colored frank carved into a flower, and a piece of sugary fried bread. I was stuffed and ready to move on.




I spent more time shooting people on Cat street then I headed into the new and temporary location of Kiddyland, a toy store that houses mostly character toys like Hello Kitty, Miffy,etc. It was probably worse than any other time I've been but Harajuku in general was insanely packed today.


After that insanity and buying a couple of Hello Kitty Rement boxes I parked myself on Cat Street for sunset light and shot some more film.








Time to go home to get ready for dinner with a new friend. I took some of the back streets to get to the train station to avoid the crowds and enjoy some of the tiny quieter blocks. But I had to eventually get back onto Omotesando-dori, and I went for a quick peek at Meiji Square where all the Lolita's and other kids hang out. It was pretty empty except for a group of gaijin lolitas and a crazy drunk with a sign that read "ask permission to take picture", regarding the girls and he would shove it in the face of anyone who dared to take a picture. I took several anyway, posed pictures are no fun. I got to my train station and as my train pulled out I saw a pigeon get trapped on the electric wires desperately trying to get out and as it released itself and flew away, a million lights and alarms went off in the station and the trains all came to an abrupt stop. Platform guards ran back and for on the platform freaking out not knowing what set the alarm off, I knew but I don't speak Japanese to tell them it was a poor bird stuck on wire.

Dinner. I met, Jennifer, a friend of a friend, for dinner at Iwao Izakaya,in Shibuya, it was totally decent and the staff was nice including Hawaiian guy named Robert who helped translating the menu for us. Getting in the restaurant was interesteing because the door was about 3.5-4 feet in height so you really had to bend to clear your head. We had a few beers, some tuna sashimi that was like butter, steamed thin slices of pork and a delicious Japanese fried rice with ginger, shiso, scallions, and ground chicken. It was really nice making a new friend in Tokyo and not having to sit alone for dinner, and Jennifer saved me because she was kind enough to bring me a hairdryer and frying pan!

Tokyo Day 4: Margo under the train

-A Walk in Yutenji and a sneak peek at Gakugeidaigaku.

Today I made my way from neighborhood into the two neighboring areas, Yutenji and Gakugeidaigaku, mostly Yutenji. It's a sweet neighborhood where people were really friendly, one woman made a huge effort to speak to me to find out why it was so interesting to me to photograph Yutenji. Luckily, I have a million apps on my phone to get me through a baby conversation. I was able to tell her "I'm an artist and I live in nakameguro for one month", not that smoothly though, nor with that much sentence structure. Yutenji has a two main shopping streets, one runs parallel to the train.





This is the street I found Margo, a tiny adorable restaurant, run by one woman. Again, I was lucky that her English was amazing and she was able to run the lunch set menu down to me. I settled on the pancakes, that came with two teeny-tiny saugages, a tomato quarter, a slice of daikon radish, three potato slices, a smear of what seemed to be mustard seeds in a vinegar, and a teeny carafe of syrup. The pancakes were just plain pancakes with a slab of butter, but the sausage and tomato were heavenly. The tomato might be the most delicious tomato I've ever had, it actually tasted like fruit which is what we have been told tomatoes are. The set came with english tea served in a beautiful glass cup with a stone bowl filled with finely ground brown sugar with a small wooden spoon to serve. The most amazing thing about Margo aside from the decor and food, is that the owner is the wait staff and cook all by herself, and she's lovely to boot.






I spent the rest of the afternoon in Yutenji just walking the streets and hanging out at busy spots like the train station getting shots of people. I sat in front of a supermarket for about half an hour, people kept looking at me funny, but I shot them anyway.





When I was done in Yutenji I meandered along the streets near the tracks so I wouldn't lose my way while I headed into Gakugeidaigaku (yes, it's a mouthful). I realized I must be in Gakugeidaigaku because I was nearing the next train station along the Tokyu Toyoko line. I stopped in this really cute store called modern pets has nothing to do with real pets, they basically remade Dream Pets which is are stuffed animals from the 60's, they also carry all sorts of Astroboy stuff. I picked up to tiny creatures super cute.






These two tinies came home with me, so kawaii!

I made an attempt to go to a gallery opening this eve but I was unsuccessful. After taking three different trains and getting on two wrong trains, and navigating some dark alleys the place was closed! The gallery is in Ryogoku(pronounced Yogoku) which where the Edo Museum is so I got to see the building it's pretty impressive looks like a giant spaceship. All that traveling took 2.5 hrs! I got back to my hood and went to a delicious izakaya, Kushiwakamaru, that basically makes yakitori of all sorts and serves mega size beers. I had a quart of beer, I kid you not. As an appetizer they brought out a bowl full of pureed daikon radish with teeny fish sprinkle on top, I tried it, it tasted as bad as it sounds. For dinner, I ordered entirely too much, because I was basing it on the size of yakitori we get in NYC, but it's all mega size at this place. I ordered two screws of beef with peppers, two chicken with scallion, one scallop with salsa, two asparagus with bacon. Let's just say, I would like to stick a finger down my throat because I ate so much. This place is super gaijin friendly the whole menu is translated into English and you will see plenty of gaijin faces. It's really busy and you have to put your name on a list because people come form all over to eat here, it's suppose to be the best yakitori place in town.









Getting there:
Margo Cafe in Yutenji- Take the Toyku Toyoko line to the Yutenji station.

When you get out of the station make a left at the KFC at the corner, walk down the Terra Shopping Center to the end right before you hit the train overpass. Margo is right across from the train overpass and it's the last little store at the end of the shopping strip. About a 5 mins walk from station.

Kushiwakamaru in Nakameguro- Take the Toyku Toyoko line or the Hibiya line to the Nakameguro station. As soon as you get out of the station cross to the opposite side of the street, make a left. Then make a right at the next corner, and one more left at the next corner. The building says YAKITORI in the front. Put your name down on the list and number in your party and take a seat.

Tokyo Day 3-Nakameguro, Daikanyama, and Beeru!

I spent the day trolling around Nakameguro and Daikanyama with my Canon and Nikon hanging from my neck. I walked along the meguro river in Nakameguro into Aobadai where I had a delicious lunch set at Aoya.



Aoya is located in a sweet Showa era house tucked away from the street with a lovely narrow garden path to it's wooden sliding door. The only way you know it's there is by a tiny lantern at the entrance. I was really fortunate that the young man who seated me spoke English so he explained the three options on the lunch set after showing me to the counter where I took a seat and I could watch them prepare the meal. The restaurant prepares Kyoto based food, and my choices where a one-plate Kaseki style dish with lots of veggies and a fish, a curry bowl, or a Korean inspired tofu spicy stew. I went with the Korean tofu stew and it was delicious. All the meals come with side dishes, mine had a bowl of 5 grain rice and a salad.





After my meal I headed out and walked some more around Nakameguro, I went to stop in at Nill style/Bonill cafe which is on the corner from Aoya but they were closed, it's one of my favorite stores/cafe.




Then I trekked up a very steep hill into Daikanyama where I saw the Egyptian embassy which is a very strange sight in the middle of Tokyo with all it's gold and Egyptian sphinxes and such. I walked a little fer onto the side streets filled with tiny stores and I went shopping for socks at Kutsushitaya where they carry all the Tabio socks which are made in Japan. I scored, they had 60% off all the winter socks! Then I went into CA4LA (pronounced Kashira), a hats-only store hoping to replace some of my older winter knit hats from here, but alas they were onto spring.




Next stop, Chez Luis, a patisserie, where I had me a sit-down with a cup of tea and a yummy custard filled pastry.

Time to head back to the apartment to relax for a bit before heading out for the evening. On the way back I stopped at the cutest looking take-out window from the restaurant Mahakala which seems to serve squid and chicken dishes including okonomiyaki and chicken sashimi, but the take-out window has a refrigerator filled with yummy puddings and custards in adorable containers. I picked up a matcha flavored pudding for after dinner.

Went home relaxed, then got ready to head over to the Taproom, a beerhall with twenty-something beers on tap, including a really good imperial stout which is what I had, I paired that with a nakameguro burger which was very seasoned and had onion rings inside. They definitely need to learn to make their fries better, they were steak-cut potatoes that were limp and wet with grease, yuck, left those alone. I sketched while I was there, not many people to sketch since it was early only 7pm, but there were interesting faces around including a lot of gaijin (foreigners). Around 8pm I strolled back to my place had my pudding and got to bed by 10pm, I know lame but I'm still jet-lagged.

More pics from the day walking around

AOYA 1-15-10 Aobadai, Nakameguro, Tokyo