Day 10 - Harajuku and Ikebukuro

Now I know what you're thinking... where's Mount Fuji? Well the thing is, it just couldn't feasibly be done, we just couldn't get to the hostel for a reasonable price, it was on the wrong JR line which we are not covered on with the JR pass. (The JR Pass covers you for most of the JR owned lines, except for this section that runs on the south side of Fuji.) Basically this oversight would have cost us upwards of 6,000 yen per day to travel to (and subsequently another 6,000 yen to get back to a JR line to get to Osaka) Which would have in essence torn an extra £100 out of the budget, so we did the next feasible option which was to stay at this place one more night and save around £50 (We still have to pay for the hostel we're not showing up at, and another night here, but it seems like the only logical way. It's a pain in the ass, but I spent about 2 and half hours trying to get a route to the "picturesque" location, but we "plod along."

So we got up early and set out for Harajuku, we decided to split up and go our own way, probably for the best, as I wasn't in the best of moods this morning! Straight away I walked down Takeshita-dōri to see all the hipster crap the guide book was telling me about, and no world of a lie, within 100 meters, I had been stopped by at least 10 men of South African decent, "Yo Man, Yo! I got your size!" There are quite a few of these little shops along the corners of Takeshita-dōri which cater to American import apparel, I have nothing against American clothing what so ever, in fact my Cincinnati Bengals shirt is one of my favourites, but that is besides the point. These guys have these stores they've opened up and they sell Hip Hop clothing imported from the US, I have nothing against Hip Hop or anything, but it's not me, not my style! Stop harassing me please! Take the hint, no means no! If you keep trying to take me to your lame shop I may dropkick someone! Because of the constant stoppages I only walked down Takeshita-dōri once, mainly due to trying to stay sane! There was some interesting stuff there, mainly in the form of anime cosplay shops.

I left the chaotic marketplace to go and check out the Meiji Shrine, I took a long sidetracked walk through the pathway leading up to the shrine. Meiji Shrine is dedicated to Emperor Meiji who passed in 1912, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Shrine) Pictures to come soon!

I was going to venture into Yoyogi Park, but I had already spent enough time in Harajuku and at the shrine, I'll probably be back before I go to get this awesome looking shark bag I found! (Yeah you read that right Luke - Shark Bag!) Back on the JR Yamanote line to Ikebukuro now, I only really wanted to see one place here and that is Namja Town! I've heard so many stories about gyoza stadium and ice cream world I just had to check it out! 

I found myself wandering through various department stores before finally meeting up with Dan and getting some grub, I checked out Bic Camera, which is like a large electronic department store, seems quite popular out here, same goes for Yodabeshi Camera, as an economist, I see these prices and cringe! £50 for a 16gb SD card? £220 for a 3DS?! The Yen must be kicking some serious ass at the moment on the market place! After sprawling around the same kind of shops, I found some arcades... Today was a good day, I found some Tales of Vesperia - One Coin figures (Out of print, stupidly hard to find!) Managed to win 2 and a couple cannon fodder crap in the process! I'll have to send these weird looking hentai girls to StayDead when I get back to England!

Eventually we made it to Namja Town, we went to Gyoza stadium first, I've never had gyoza before, but I was told this is the place to try it/ love it! and it was! It's hard for a westerner to describe a gyoza, (who's never had any before!) I guess it's kinda like a rice dumpling with some kind of filling, think of a sweeter ravioli. We sampled a few stalls gyoza, we had some beef and cheese, chicken and cheese and beef with teriyaki sauce, all of which were sublime! I was always put off by gyoza, as I thought it would taste like dim sum, I'm not really a fan of dim sum. After the brilliant gyoza we found ice cream city. I think I was mis-sold on this place, I mean where was the shark ice cream at? I sampled melon ice cream and crab ice cream, Dan tried peach ice cream and wasabi ice cream.

Slowly repacking now, as tomorrow we set sail for Osaka, it's a shame we didn't go to Fuji-San in the end, but there is always another time, I may not be updating the blog for a while, that's mainly down to the next few places I'm staying at and if they have Wi-Fi or not.