Day 6: Shibuya + Ginza (November 16th)

I ran to the 7/11 for breakfast and to withdraw more money from the ATM. Apparently the usd had gained on the yen, so I got an exchange of 100.22 yen per $1 usd (when I landed I got 97.31 yen per $1 usd). I grabbed more than I should have of breakfast breads and coffees. I have made a habit of walking around Chofu, every morning to familiarize myself with the area. Chofu is very traditional and has many temples, farms, and old homes. When I got back to the apartment, Matt invited us to his second job. On some weekends he teaches English/American cultural classes out in Shibuya.

Shibuya Crossing

Crossing diagonally over the intersection is madness

After leaving Shibuya Station, Matt took us to an udon restaurant. They had several dishes other than udon; I grabbed vegetable tempura and some kind of root tuber tempura, to go with my kitsune udon. Kitsune udon, means "fox noodles," in folklore foxes ate fried sliced tofu called aburaage.

Kitsune Udon

(It tastes completely different than expected)

After lunch, we went with Matt to his class. Only half of the class showed up, so Troy and I were welcomed to join in the discussion. The class was encouraged to speak only in English. After a long period of introductions (there was a new student and two visitors), they started the topic of "Do you believe in karma/luck/etc.?"  We stayed on topic for maybe 20 minutes of the hour long class, while the rest of the class period involved discussing some cultural differences. The students seemed amused by our experience in Japan compared to America. One student was so surprised when we mentioned that "Yahoo! isn't everyone's homepage in America," that she nearly fell out of her seat.

Notes from the class

After class, we walked around Shibuya and saw a peaceful protest on the streets. The group was protesting against TPP and Nuclear Power. Their chants were kind of catchy; Troy joked that some of the chants we got on the streets of Shinjuku were more to his liking.

They had a monkey mascot

And people dressed as the "TPP"

After following the peaceful protest to the nearest station, we parted ways with Matt. Troy and I took the train to Ginza. Ginza is a world renowned shopping district, everything was expensive. Fortunately for Troy and I, we didn't lighten our wallets here as many of the stores were tailored exclusively to women. We did end up grabbing a small snack in a cafe.

Once again capitalism saves Christmas!

A very classy establishment

Almost as manly as a steak...

From Ginza, we took the train back to Shinjuku and then switched lines and returned to Chofu. When we got back to the apartment, I tinkered with my phone using wifi and apple maps. Apple maps, reminded me that there was a curry restaurant nearby, so we walked over for dinner.

The back of the menu, used to order spicier curry and more rice.

Egg, tomato, asparagus curry

Matt had still had some work to do, for his third job (he translates manga). So then instead of doing anything else, Troy and I decided to turn in early.