Forbidden foods taste better

Sunday was a whirlwind of activity, at the end of which we slept for 10 hours straight. For breakfast we tried to go to Tsurotontan, an udon shop in Roppongi that's open from 11am to 8am, but they turned us away at 7:30. So we ended up across the street at Tenkaippin. Mmm, tasty and no waiting. For breakfast we got a pork-filled gyoza set meal (with rice and soup) and cold ramen with lettuce and red onion. Tokyo is extremely hot and muggy, so the cold snacks are a refreshing treat.


We wandered over to Roppongi hills, which is a gigantic steel and glass shopping center. The descent to the subway there is prototypically Japanese. Music playing, recorded announcements blaring, and a gigantic television. The cinema there looks as though it plays fun movies.


Next stop, Harajuku. The Meiji Shrine is the most elaborate Shinto shrine in Tokyo, dating back to 1920. You can write a prayer there on a wooden tablet and hang it on a tree. The recommended prayers range from marital contentment to success on entrance exams. This person's prayer seems particularly anxious. There was a wedding going on, but I didn't want to distract anyone by taking pictures.


The Meiji Shrine is right next to the heart of Harajuku, where cosplay fanatics gather to strut their stuff and shop. The strange juxtaposition of sexuality and obsession with cuteness is apparent here, with shops ranging from Kiddyland (looks like someone vomited Hello Kitty paraphenalia on 6 floors of merchandise) and Condomania (no, not Condo-mania). Everywhere there were young people with wacky hair and make-up, but why inflict my lack of photography skills when I can share ajpscs' fantastically gorgeous photoset instead?


After five hours on the go we were starving, so we hit up Shibuya for lunch at Fujiraya. Fujiraya's specialty is whale meat. In fact, it is the only type of meat they serve. We got two lunch sets, one with sashimi and one with barbeque. When they brought us bibs (sadly, not decorated with a whale) I was looking forward to seeing Chris look as though he had wrestled with a whale, but the barbecue process was uneventful. Whale sashimi is blood-red and tastes like tuna except with more tendon, but when cooked it resembles hanger steak, with slight overtones of organ meat. Ah, tasty and cute, a winning combination.


On the way back to Shibuya station we stopped at a fruit stand. The meticulousness of Japanese wrapping never ceases to amaze. Each grapefruit, each peach, and each pear came nestled in a web of soft styrofoam. However, I was most excited to see the square and tetrahedronal watermelons. The entirely yellow peaches smelled too delicious to leave behind, and compared to the watermelons they were a bargain, so we left with one in addition to four gigantic figs.


After a brief visit to the hotel (and second shower for Chris), we headed out to enjoy some sumo wrestling in Ryogoku. Although it's possible to spend an entire day (starting at 8:30 and ending at 6) at the arena, the higher-ranked wrestlers don't start until 4, which is when we arrived. The sumo matches are quite short, ending when one person falls down or steps out of the ring, which is encircled with rice bags. Before each match, the wrestlers sprinkle salt to purify the ring and ceremonially stamp to chase away evil spirits. There were some exciting matches towards the end, especially when one wrestler got thrown out of the ring onto the observers. We were lucky enough to see this twice. At the end, before the ceremonial bow dance, the entire first floor got up and threw their seat cushions into the ring. Very amusing in light of how excessively polite the Japanese are in other contexts.


The plan was to go to Popeye's Beer Club (whose website is charmingly named 40beersontap.com), but it was closed. My feet were really killing me by this point, so we cabbed it back to the station and tried once more to go to Tsurotontan. Cabs in Tokyo are really wonderful. The doors open and shut automatically and the drivers use super-accurate GPS to navigate to your destination. This is crucial, since addresses in Tokyo are based on the age of the building rather than geographical proximity. Taxi service used to require a map for this reason, but no longer! Unfortunately, the line at Tsurotontan looked an hour long so we ended up next door and had naka ochi donburi for dinner. Yay! It wasn't as artfully prepared as on my first night, but still very tasty.


Afterwards we visited Almond, one of the ubiquitous French-style patisseries, for a snack. The packaging was again quite impressive. The cake came in a cardboard box along side a small packet of dry ice to keep it cool. Result: cool, unsoggy cake, and very satisfactory after a long day.