Late Start

I must have finally become acclimated to the time zone change, because I managed to sleep late. Ms. Okabe had also slept late, so we had a late start for the day.
We were supposed to go to a bar to watch the hockey playoffs, Ms. Okabe is a big hockey fan.

Shibuya

We arrived at the Maple Leaf Bar, in Shibuya, after the end of the first period. The Maple Leaf is a Canadian sports bar, and attracts a lot of Canadian and Europeans, and because of the time zone difference, the hockey game was on in the late morning.





We took a booth, had some breakfast, and watched the game.
A reporter went from table to table, interviewing people for a story about hockey fans in Japan, and he spotted Ms. Okabe sitting with me at our booth, and thought he had a real story, gaijin hockey fan with a young Japanese lady watching the game. Well, he had an interesting story, but not the one he thought. He started asking me questions, and I quickly explained that Ms. Okabe was the hockey nut, and I was just the tag along, she was a real Pronger fan, and if the Blues weren't playing, I really wasn't terribly concerned with who won the game. The reporter seemed a little confused that his preconceived expectation was so far off, and started asking Ms. Okabe questions. He ended his interview and said he might use some of it in his story on Canadian TV and radio.
The game ended and Ms. Okabe's team won. She seemed very happy.
We left the Maple Leaf and walked through Shibuya, stopped at a few electronics stores, and headed for our next stop.

Shinjuku and the Meiji Shrine

Ms. Okabe assured me that I would be seeing some of the strangest costumed people when we arrived in Shinjuku, but the damp day and its intermittent drizzle must have scared them all away, because there were none to be seen.
We headed over to the Meiji Jingu, or Meiji Shrine. This shrine is dedicated to the Emperor Meiji, who opened Japan to trade with foreign countries and encouraged development within the country. Under his reign, Japan became very prosperous, and the Emperor is credited and revered for this accomplishment.





The Shrine is on a very big scale, as would be expected for an important shrine that is located in a large population center like Tokyo. The walkways are very wide, lined with large trees. It is quiet and solemn with the feeling of walking through the forest, despite being in a park, in one of the largest cities in the world.




We encountered more tourists and patrons as we approached the Main Hall.




Notice the thick headed gaijin, washing his hands in the purification ambulatory font, and allowing the water to drip from his hand and back into the font. Proper technique is to let the water roll off your hand and into the trench around the font. Each time I did this at a different shrine, I would realize what I had done, and remember my mother telling me not to drip water from the sink, onto the floor. A mother's training nagging trumps the best of a gaijin's intentions to follow local customs.




Approaching the Main Hall.




The Main Hall. The donation troughs are located in the doorways. Again, the visitor walks up, places feet together, tosses a coin into the donation trough, claps twice, holds hands together in the familiar prayer manner, bows, and pauses for a second or two in meditation and contemplation (praying or otherwise).




To the right of the Main Hall is this wall of prayers. Visitors can buy the little wooden plaques and write out their prayers, and hang them on the wall. Oddly, some were written in English and other European languages.

We stopped and I picked up a few more Omamori, before walking around the Shrine grounds.
We found the gift shop and a snack bar style restaurant, and I found another opportunity to have some more green tea flavored ice cream. Ms. Okabe and I each had an ice cream cone before leaving the Shrine park.




One last picture before we left.

Walking Shinjuku

We spent the rest of the afternoon dodging rain showers while walking and shopping in Shinjuku. There are lots of discount electronics stores, and we looked at cameras, computers, and Ms. Okabe was shopping for a DVD player and recorder.
As I had mentioned previously, I seem to always be in Japan when the World Cup Soccer competition is taking place, and there is always a lot of the Japanese national soccer team memorabilia everywhere. I wanted to pick up a replica soccer jersey, but they were selling for $150 and up. I'm not really a soccer fan, just wanted a nice shirt, so my desire was somewhere less than $150, and I passed.





We happened across another strange thing I've never seen in the US. I thought it was the Subaru headquarters, but I was mistaken, it was actually an urban car dealership.





American car dealerships are always in suburban areas, with big parking lots to store all the cars. In Japan, they put the show room downtown, and I guess they store the cars they sell somewhere else.





The show room actually took up only a small area of the first floor, but the sign on the outside gave the appearance that it would be entire building. But the displays included motorized transmission and engine cut aways that showed the machanicals in action, the type of thing that could only be seen at the Detroit or Chicago International Auto Shows in America.

Dinner

Dinner would be another treat, curry. Ms. Okabe also knew I love curry, and found a little curry restaurant in the Koenji area.





We had a very good dinner, followed by several rounds of Chuhai, Shochu, and Sake, and spent the evening talking about old times.