On Tuesday we went to Ginza and Shibuya. Ginza is famous for its Kabuki theater where all of the performers are men and the costumes and make-up are very elaborate. There was a line of mostly gaijin (foreigners) buying tickets as we walked past. Here is some info and a photo of the Kabukiza in Ginza : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KabukiGinza is also known as a high-end center for traditional fashion from around the world - Gucci, Armani, etc. Everything is more expensive there.
We were in Ginza for Fumiko to do a magazine photo shoot for an article about facial yoga. It took about two hours for her to be interviewed and complete the photo shoot. In the four days that I have been here she has done two photo shoots, four phone interviews, written a couple of magazine articles, scouted locations for a commercial she is shooting for a Sapporo Brewing Co energy drink, developed some product ideas and posted daily on her blog. In the same amount of time I've managed to make a couple of trips to the grocery store, read some e-mails and post on my blog...heh!
After leaving Ginza we rode the subway over to Shimbashi to meet Fumiko's friend, Mayumi, for a drink.
Mayumi works in investor relations for a Japanese firm and teaches aerobics classes on the weekends. Her and Fumiko are outdoor adventure buddies. In Shimbashi, on our way to meet Mayumi, we saw the Tokyo Forum and stopped in for a visit. The Tokyo Forum is a huge conference and arts center designed like the hull of a ship with an immense glass wall on one side. Inside Tokyo Disneyland was holding a recruiting drive and advertising their 25 year anniversary I started feeling a little sentimental since I was there for the grand opening in 1983. In fact, in my pocket I was carrying a Mickey Mouse handkerchief (really a bandanna) that I bought at the grand opening. After having our photo taken we went inside and looked at walls full of photos from over the years. Nope, I wasn't in any of them.
For info and pictures of the Tokyo Forum click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_International_ForumMayumi had to go back to work so we said goodbye and headed over to Shibuya. Shibuya is known as a trend-setting fashion center for the younger crowd. On the train ride into Shibuya there were a few groups of Cindy Lauper-inspired teenagers. I will try to get photos of some of the crazy fashions this week.
In Shibuya we walked around checking out the scene and then had dinner in a fun izakaya establishment. Izakaya are drinking clubs that also serve finger food. They had a special: for $15 you can drink all you want from midnight until 5 AM. How come I didn't know about this back in my navy days? Well, I think they have it figured out pretty well though. If you are going to drink for that long you'll get hungry and order some food, lots of it eventually. They also make money from the electronic menus which double as game consoles. The games are more of the psychological profiling type where you answer questions about yourself, or some hypothetical situations and then you are rated on your compatibility, social skills, perception, intuition, etc. Fumiko kicked my butt on the couple that we played.
After dinner we checked out a couple of shops and then headed back to Sengawa on the subway. It was nice full day of exploration.
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