Our second day was a bit of a mixed bag.
I woke at 6.30 to the sound of frantic sirens. It took me a while to realise it was just the local fire brigade, but I missed out on a nice sleep in while I struggled to work out whether we were listening to an earthquake warning or not. (I know. I am paranoid)
When we ventured out, it was to find that the portable wifi had a dodgy battery, so we could not use Google maps and had to find paper maps. Nevertheless, we had a lovely stroll round the back streets of Kojima, peaking into the myriad of tiny shops specialising in all sorts of weird things. One had antique buttons, but was closed so we saved a lot of money. We enjoyed the little gardens that people created in tiny little spaces, the beautiful flower shops and the little temples created in front of entrances. The locals sedately cycled around, doing their shopping. We admired a little dog sitting in his owner's bicycle basket and she waved his little paw at us. So "kwaii " ( cute)! We found the Kayadera Buddhist temple and ogled its pretty little garden and learned about the grave of Ishikawa Masamochi, a Japanese classical scholar. Then, I popped into a chemist for some anti-itch cream for a mosquito bite I had got in Australia, and the pharmacist produced this miraculous little machine which translated the diagnosis and treatment. I was most impressed.
We next caught the train to Obote-Sando. This makes it sound as if we were in control. In fact, we got a lot of help from very kind gentlemen on the way. How I adore charming, kind people who do something for nothing. Once at Obote -Sando, we strolled along the very elegant Miyuki street, agog at the boutique stores. The Prada store is especially stunning as an architectural wonder. I have decided that I am very partial to Issy Miyake's clothes - but I assumed I couldn't afford them, so I made do with the Cos sale.
Unfortunately, Nezu Museum, which was our destination for the day, was closed, so we headed back to the Minamiaoyama main road and had lunch in a trendy little cafe called the Antenna Wired cafe. I was quite chuffed that a young man told me I look very trendy. I love flattery.
Next, we headed for Shibuya station to check out a department store that I remembered as having marvellous artisans on the top floor. As usual, it was very crowded with trendy young people. I managed to interrupt an interview with someone famous, I presume, as I tried to take a photo of some of the statues around. . The famous one of Hachiko, the Akita dog which remained loyal to for more than 9 years after his master's death, had a huge queue in front of it of people waiting to be photographed with him, but I managed to get some of the mural to him.
We couldn't find the store I was looking for, but thoroughly enjoyed trawling through the Tokyo Toyoko store, which has a lot of quirky and individual gifts, many of them designed by artists and craftspeople. Hikarie was another wonderful department store, full of quirky little souvenirs for those back home. We had a lovely time with me flirting with some delightful little children until we mislaid a bag of shopping . We are going to contact the lost and found department again tomorrow, but the loss dispirited us somewhat, so we headed home.
We popped into a local restaurant on the way back for some dinner and they miraculously produced an English menu and a nice meal of soba noodle soup with smoked chicken, rice and vegetables and pickles. Yum.
Ps. Photos will be posted later.
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