... and it continues
Today was a nice trip through, Shibuya, Shijuku, Harijuku, and Akihabara,I got more of a sense of what's it's like to live in Tokyo. It feels just like any other major metropolis around the globe, kind of daunting to those that don't speak the language, but very friendly once to settle into the rythm of train hopping and speaking to others. The Harijuku was definately an interesting place, but it didn't live up to the hype... maybe because it was Wednesday, maybe because there weren't any music shows that night, nevertheless it was a bit disappointing but I'll be heading back Thursday to see if the scene changes. The stores there range from literally underground punk/metal stores that you'd see in certain sections of New York City to stores that looked like they bought out the entire stock of what the local Hot Topics were selling, along with a Claires and Body Shop combo at the end of the street. Harijuku Street itself was full of a wide variety of people, there were a few people reresenting everything extravagent, like punk rockers and the standard harijuku style of dress, to school children and business men. I guess the placement of the train stations and businesses in the area created for such a wide array of people.
Akihabara was also entertaining, but for different reasons. While I like technology and video games, going there gave me the chance to speak Japanese a little more then some of the other places we'd been. I had a goal when I got there, to get a shoulder bag with a SEGA character on it and I had put that off for the majority of the time there until we were about to head back so there was an influx of people. We wound up back tracking to the SEGA Club and walked down to the basement floor, played a round of Guilty Gear XX Slash, had our butts kicked thoroughly, and left. I got to actually speak Japanese to one of the people that worked at the SEGA Club and asked him where I could go to buy SEGA apparel. However in the conversation between him and two of the other workers that he had to consult because he actually didn't know of any place, the question got changed to where I could just buy video game apparel, and because the question had changed he directed me to a neat little set of stores that sold a lot of cool little video game and movie trinkets, t-shirts, movies, figures, etc.
I say that I got the chance to speak Japanese in Akihabara because while I could have spoken it in Harijuku and a few other places, they just catered to the fact that I was a Gaijin and spoke to me in English, I had to bank on the fact that the guys in the electronic district for the most part either wouldn't know English or just wouldn't be ready to answer a question in English that I had asked in Japanese. I also learned that there is a big difference in the communications between the customer and a clerk and then the clerk to another clerk and then the second clerk to the customer. When I talked to the first clerk at the SEGA Club I told him that I was looking for a store that sold SEGA apparel and then when he got the second clerk and gave him the synopsis of what I said he left out a part and I filled it in. I said I was looking for various SEGA apparel, t-shirts, bags, etc and that turned into various video game apparel so when the third clerk got involved and I got left out of the conversation, I was given directions to a place that sold various video game t-shirts and a lot of Anime apparel. I have to start picking my words a little more carefully next time...
In Harijuku, I talked to one of the clerks at an underground punk shop where I bought a bracelet and I noticed when he was helping a friend of mine that his English was just as broken as my Japanese was at some times so I catered to him and spoke to him in Japanese, filling in English with hand gestures (for things like shoulders because my friend was trying on a shirt for his brother and we were worried that his brothers shoulders might be too broad for the shirt). When I bought my bracelet, I talked to him for a little bit about why I wanted it, why I liked that kind of bracelet, which ones he wore, and how the previous bracelets of that type that I owned just fell apart because they were made poorly. In that store I was looked at as almost an equal because I catered to the clerks instead of the other way around and did a decent job of it. No where else in Harijuku was I given the chance...
５月１７日 水曜日
渋谷と新宿と秋葉原と原宿へいきました。渋谷はちょっと忙しくて、２時間ぐらい歩き回りました。コンビとSEGAゲームセンターへ行きました。天気が悪かったからコンビにでサムさんと「パンちゃん」がかさをかいました。SEGAゲームセンターへいって１時、大きい三角のコーンをみました。三角コーンの 中に小さい人を入れたくなりました。三角コーンで遊んだら面白いと思います。渋谷のSEGAゲームセンターは５階もありました。どのSEGAゲームセン ターにも１階にはUFOゲームがあります。でも、どのSEGAゲームセンターのゲームもおなじですけど、いろいろなゲームはちがう階にあります。後で、新宿へ行きました。渋谷駅と原宿駅のあいだに新宿駅がありよす。いろいろな店がありました。新宿駅におきなわの市場があって、いろいろなへびのはいっているウイスキーにはびっくりしました。でも、おいしかったです。それから原宿へ行きました。原宿はちょっと変で、ちょっとつまらないから全部の店が同じに見えました。次に秋葉原へ行きました。秋葉原 はとてもあかるくておもしろかったです。メイドカフェをさがしました。でも、どのメイドカフェもとても忙しかったからExcelsior Cafeへいきました、あとでSEGA CLUBへ行ってから私はSEGAの店に行きました。よっつの店へ行って、カクトーのぬいぐるみを買いました。最後にお茶の水駅へ帰りました。先生と友達とご飯を食べました。