Meiji Shrine and Akihabara

Today I spent the day in Harajuku and Akihabara. EK and I decided that since I haven’t been there, that it would be a good place to go. It really wasn’t something I was planning on doing soon, but I guess it would be better to get it over with. I was actually waiting to go another time and didn’t really want to go now. But, I was happy that I did. I mean I was able to see many marriage ceremonies at the shrine and the weather was very nice too. I mean it was a nice day to go so I guess I was lucky to go today. It wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too cold. But the problem I did have was that we planned to meet at Shibuya station and I ended up having to walk to Harajuku station, which got to be a little warm during the walk and the wait. I walked from one station to the other and knew that I would still have to wait for EK’s late ass. It was interesting to see the few Goths that hang out there and the few Panda Eyes girls that still remain from ages ago. I think that in itself is worth going there to see, but they aren’t there in the big numbers as they were before. I think that it’s still interesting and I would like to go back to get a picture with them. I think they are really nice people and that they are willing to take pictures with people, so I’d like to do that. I was able to get some pretty good pictures from around Meiji shrine. It’s a nice place and it’s surprising that it’s right in the middle of a major metropolis. There is far too much green for a major metropolis, but that’s the special thing about it. It’s Japan’s most treasured shrine and the largest sitting right in the heart of downtown Tokyo.

After the nice little walk around the shrine and the many pictures that I took. We went to Akihabara to help EK’s dad start to build a new computer. We were just looking at the parts and the prices for them so that when EK really starts to build it, he would know where to go to get it. Walking in that town makes me feel awkward. I really didn’t feel comfortable there. I mean we went from place to place and spent about an hour looking for parts. I think that was past my limit and I wasn’t able to handle it anymore. After checking out a few places and running into endless amounts of nerds, we decided to get lunch at a nearby place. They had a nice lunch special and it looked good from the outside. It really wasn’t enough for either one of us, but it was enough to calm our hunger. We stayed there till the afternoon and then I needed to get back home so I could go to dinner with MTki and one of her friends. She had mentioned her name and I didn’t understand who she was talking about. It sounded familiar, but it didn’t register.

Then I came home for dinner, and we went to a restaurant not too far from my house. I found out that one of my friend’s name was different than I thought it was. I guess I heard it wrong the first time and imagined that it was similar to my other friends’. So all this time, I’ve known her by the wrong name. That’s embarrassing. I mean I met her on my first trip to Japan so that’s about 2 years and I finally realize what her name is. Well the place we went to wasn’t too bad and a place that I wanted to try. It was weird because when we walked in there were more of MTki’s friends. So the party grew from 3 people into 5 people. Then after a little while and some eating and drinking, the party expanded again into 9 people. It became an interesting evening and one I didn’t feel too comfortable with, but I didn’t care too much about either. It was fun and I met some new people, too bad none of them were around my age and most of which couldn’t speak English. I couldn’t understand their Japanese either, not because I didn’t understand what he was saying, but because no one understood what he was saying. He has a slurry speech, partly because he was drunk, so his wife had to translate this Japanese for everyone. That was interesting. We didn’t get home till a little late, but it was ok because I wasn’t in any hurry to get home.