Shibuya, Shi-Shi-Shibuya, Roll Call!

Annex Katsutaro is nestled in a neighborhood includes small boutiques & markets along a sloped, narrow pedestrian lane that leads to the Nippori JR station. It’s a charming walk when all the shops are open and Japanese residents are out & about. The only drawback is that this area near Ueno Park has very little nightlife.

This morning we take a short subway trip to Akihibara to search for Electric City. We find it quite easily. There are signs everywhere in the subway station that we strangely missed the first time we were there. Electric City is a vast network of alleys & streets that consist of shops that sell electronics. We first stumble upon a 6-story sex shop that includes manga pornography, life-sized dolls costing $6,000 (there is even an adolescent one, gross), & costumes. The array of sex paraphernalia in Japan is most shocking. The rest of the shops in Electric City are pretty mundane. You can buy anything from video games, washing machines, and DVD players to tiny screws, microchips, thick & thin cables, & all parts necessary to assemble a computer from scratch.

Today is Saturday, so the streets are brimming with wandering, wide-eyed young men & older men who come for a specific item. We pass many young women dressed in maid uniforms who are scattered about handing out leaflets advertising maid cafes. We find one & venture in to ask for a menu. We aren’t really interested in spending money there, but we want to check out the scene. There is classical music piping through the speakers, groups of young people sitting around, & maids in frilly dresses serving snacks. You pay $6 for a Coke & the service of a maid. We aren’t sure if the maid is required to spend time or play a game with you, but it’s all so bizarre.

In the evening, we head further out from our hotel to Shibuya. The bright lights & swarms of people are overwhelming. Robby feasts on a savory crepe (a sweet buttery crepe wrapped around cucumber, tuna, & pizza sauce), & I stroll through the Loft, a department store that sells everything, & a furniture store called Franco Franco, which reminds me of Crate & Barrel but more colorful. I need a break from walking, so we go into a small cafe on a side street, & I order a slice of chocolate cake. We sit at the last open table & wait 10 minutes for service. All the other customers are young Japanese people. When the we order, the waitress tells us that we have to order two items (one for each person), so we leave. We find Gas Panic, a popular bar, but the bouncer prohibits us from going in. He points at a poster, “Members only,” yet he lets in the two people who follow us down the stairs. We figure that he looked us up & down, saw our horribly unfashionable clothes, & refused out patronage. Tonight is starting to look like exclude-the-tackily-dressed-foreigners night.

Luckily, we find another small hip hop bar with a warm Nigerian owner & a friendly bartender. We meet Kumi, an outgoing and smiley Japanese woman who works at Coach. Her friend, another regular at this place is a young Brazilian woman who is an amazing dancer. We watch her a bit until a large group of Americans come in & occupy the floor with their stereotypical American grinding. So tasteless, we think. But by the end of the night, everyone is dancing to some ‘90s hip hop & reggaeton music & having a good time. We leave the bar by 11:15pm & catch the subway back to Annex Katsutaro.