Today started later than the past few days as we intended to do laundry at the hotel in preparation to depart Tokyo tomorrow AM. The laundry machines in this hotel are typical for hotel laundry services in that they are a combo washer/dryer and dispense detergent, so none is needed to be provided by us, Sweet! They also have a setting for wash only, which Mom selected and then she hung her clothes up in the room to air dry. The guys and I each selected wash & dry in separate machines. Each wash/dry load cost 500 yen (less than $3.50) and took 2 hours.
While we waited for our laundry, Mom and I walked to 7/11 (have I mentioned how different they are here and how the 7/11's in the US need to get on board with this model???) We got sweets, yogurt, juice and a couple of egg McMuffin-style sandwiches for Kenji & I. Mom got a tandoori chicken wrap as she prefers savory items over sweet.
After laundry was finished, we all went to Shibuya together on the Metro. Leo wanted to go to the Pokemon store to look for some souvenirs for a friend. Mom and I ducked into a Coffee Cafe where we could observe the Shibuya Scramble while sipping an iced latte. We enjoyed people-watching very much. The young girls who dress "kawai" (cute) look like walking animae characters. I Googled about why some people choose to dress kawai and Google offered an explanation that it's a combination of wanting to hold onto childhood and also a coping mechanism for the stress of adulting. I get it. Adulting sucks at times.
We met the guys for lunch at MOS Burger, a Japanese burger chain. Leo told us that he didn't end up getting anything at the Pokemon store as it was mobbed and he couldn't even get in! Kenji sent me pictures of the line to get into a Pop Mart store, where I've been asked to go by someone to get Labubu items for his kids that are impossible to get in the US. It was a very long line. *sigh* Perhaps when we come back at the end of our trip. I don't want to carry multiple figures for another 3 weeks.
A walkabout in Shibuya with no particular destination in mind, led us to a grocery store with a $17 melon, $25 bunch of grapes and other expensive produce. Yowza! I looked up why fruit is so expensive here and learned "it is due to a combination of factors including high standards for quality and appearance, labor,-intensive cultivation, limited arable land and a cultural emphasis on fruit as a luxury and gift item. There is inexpensive fruit to be had here, but it's not as plentiful as at home. I would miss fruit in my regular diet if I lived here. I'm grateful for plentiful, inexpensive fruit. Let's hope it stays that way.
Kenji walked us into a Pachinko parlor, which is a Japanese form of gambling, without actually gambling, which is illegal here. Kind of like a slot machine, a person puts money in and plays a sort of pinball game where little metal balls slide around. I have no concept of how one "wins", but I imagine it has to do with how many balls one can capture. Perhaps I'm completely wrong. You then take your "winnings", the balls, around the corner to another place to claim your cash, thereby getting around the illegality of a gambling establishment by keeping the handing over of cash off-site. Something like that...
We walked through an upscale food mall and looked at beautiful sweets and I had to resist and only be satisfied with taking pictures. The it was time to go back to the hotel to cool down and have a rest, but not before a stop off at Daily for a bag of snacks. I chose a bag of sour cream & onion corn snacks as well as pizza flavored potato chips with a waffle ice cream sandwich and cherry flavored milk/soda. I'm not sure that's an accurate description of the drink or not. It's a cloudy drink with cherries on the picture. Leo bought one earlier today at a vending machine and let me have a sip. It was good so I bought one on the way back to the hotel. After tasting the 2 bags of chips (oishi!) I'll save them for the bullet train trip tomorrow to Osaka to share with everyone.
While we were cooling off and resting I looked up nearby restaurants and found an izakaya. By definition, an izakya means :stay-drink-place". It's basically a bar that serves food. Leo perused the menu online and gave it a thumbs up, so off we went! It was in an alley and down a steep, narrow set of stairs, so I had high hopes, as those are the best places, and I was not disappointed! It had maybe 8 seats at the bar and enough seating for about 30 other people.
We were given a menu in English that explained in return for charging a seating charge (otoshi), which is common, we would be receiving an "appetizer" of the cook's choice. A seating charge is a way for the establishment to cover costs of maintaining the dining area and providing service. Japan is a no-tipping culture. In return for a otoshi we were given 2 small dishes each of glass noodles and seaweed. Oishi! Kenji and I each ordered a lemon/shochu drink. Shochu is a distilled beverage typically made from rice, but is different from sake. It's usually served mixed with water or soda. It was bright and refreshing! For the table to share we ordered edamame, both kinds of gyoza, steamed and pan fried, Kaarage (Japanese fried chicken chunks), tempura, chicken sukiyaki, cha-shu) smoked pork and yakisoba. None of the dishes were large and we shared them all. By the end we were all satisfied and thanked the staff profusely, telling them it was all oishi!
We were glad to have gone early (5 pm) since by the time we were finishing the salarymen (office workers) filled the remaining tables in our room and were beginning their after work drinking. We wandered around Akasaka one last time, looking in windows, checking out the picture menus in front of all the restaurants. We went into a drug store and Kenji purchased some cream for his knee which has been bothering him for a week before we left. He's been wearing a knee brace the whole time we've been here. I bought him a wrap-around ice pack the second day here that he's been using. I got some band-aids for my newly developed blister on my big toe (yay) and then Mom and I stopped at Family Mart to pick up breakfast so we don't have to take time out in the AM.
We bade the guys good night and went to our room and spent time packing and blogging. Mom and I are having fun watching TV each night and not understanding a word they say, but seem to be having fun whatever they're talking about. Mom is especially interested in the weatherperson using a long stick with a nerf-looking ball on the end when pointing at the weather map.
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