Hello Ozzies!
The Wizard of Oz is forcing me into some extra hours in order to keep the blog updated. And it's woking, since now I'm really getting near to today. There are so many things going on, that I should write at least 2 hours a day to keep a record of all the things going around.
Today I'll talk about last Tuesday's afternoon. What seemed like another normal day turned out to be a quite interesting journey into Tokyo's life.
It all started in after our weekly lecture. This one was about "Cross cultural difference"...Hmmm, I don't want to be rude, but to be honest, I have better things to do than listening to a woman wearing a kimono and saying superficial stuff about Japan. It felt like listening to a flamenco dancer trying to sell the uniqueness of Spain by telling some funny facts about its people and its history. No in-depth analysis, no serious description, nothing but some nice "bar anecdotes" if you get what I mean.
So after 2 hours of that, we decided to go for a walk to Omotesando. Is one of the posh streets in Tokyo, where all the haute couture from here and overseas have a nice shop. Very beautiful buildings, that I will surely come to visit again. Just to give you a small taste of the place here are some pics:
This one is the Tod's building...
...this one is Burberry's (how could I miss the best brand ever!)...
...and to finish, our international ambassador, Zara (here it is veeeeery expensive. When you see the prices, you understand why the come to Spain).
By the way, here a very funny job they have in here. Japanese version of "one person, one job" means two people with funny swords regulating traffic at the exit of a parking. It's not just here in Omotesando: they're everywhere. (Last-minute modification: Apparently I didn't film that, and the one I uploaded was not good...Sorry!)
Since Jorge had to verify his mobile contrat (after our million ¥ comrade, you never know!). We stopped at the Softbank of Omotesando, and then headed on to Yoyogi's Park (Yoyogi Koen). By the time we arrived, it was already dark, so we couldn't see much. We made a short tour, took some pictures and went to have some beers at Shibuya.
The four musqueteers: David, Jorge, Guillermo and Jose, just next to Meiji shrine!
David's back, inside the park...
Now, how do you make Guillermo stay until late, when he doesn't want to go out a Tuesday night? Easy: you take him to a whale restaurant! Ganso Kujiraya, in Shibuya, is the only restaurant in Tokyo which only serves whale. I'm not going to discuss about the ethics of eating whale, it would take hours. The only thing that I can say, is that the owner has been stocking for many years now all the whale meat he receives from the government after the "scientific researches" have been performed, and then puts it in a freezer.
Young waitress, caught by surprise while I was taking a picture of the restaurant!
I very much enjoy the experience, I have to say. Whale meat is really different from other kinds of meat: something like a horse, but with a sea scent that makes it very pleasant to the mouth. But eating whale wasn't enough. In order to bribe Guillermo, you have to set the stakes high up: we ordered whale meat, but also whale skin, whale's smoked bacon, and whale's tongue. The whale skin was quite tasteless, but the other two were really fine. Specially the whale's tongue. Eating that, you can really appreciate the sea taste of this animal. A bit greasy, but very good whatsoever. Here is a photo of the dish:
And two of myself: one before eating it...
...the other after having eaten it. The funny face was because I didn't expect the whale's tongue to have that flavour!
All in all, it wasn't very expensive. We didn't eat much, but we paid around 1400¥ and were quite satisfied by the results.
That was a video of a typical Tuesday night at Shibuya...Seems nobody wants to go to bed in this city!
And here, a pic of the Disney store at Shibuya:
Now, what's next? Beers! We have found a nice spot in Shibuya (I won't tell the name, even though every single tourist knows it, since it's packed up with Westeners), where beer is cheap, and the folks are nice (and also a bit weird, which makes it funnier). A Japanese friend of Juanma (one of the Spanish Vulcanus) showed it to us last Saturday. By the way, I should also do a post about last Saturday! Well, I think it will have to come later...
The thing is, every time we go into this bar, we meet funny people. Funny, meaning a bit weird. But nice people! This time, it was a Japanese guy in his 50s who spoke English, French and Spanish. And very well! The first Japanese who speaks so many languages. Really impressive. Here's a photo of the mate.
We also got the chance to meet one of the guys working at the bar. A Japanese philosophy student called Kyu Oh who is planning to go for two weeks to Spain in October. This is good, since I think it's going to become our favorite spot from now on...
The exotic touch was put by two guys from Peru, pretty much in the Dark-emo fashion, who were having a beer next to us. I have to ask Jorge for the picture, it would be nice to post them here in the blog. Also very nice people: they had been living in Tokyo for the last 15 years, and they recommended us some good clubs to go. Good, nice electro for my Tokyo nights...
Sleep tight Ozzies!
No comments:
Post a Comment