The Hills are alive with the sound of money

Last full day in Tokyo. Started by getting off Meiji-jingu-mae subway station and walking along the long tree-lined path to Meiji-jingu shrine. Even early in the morning, the main shrine building was crawling with tourists. Parts of it were closed off and I'm told it's often used for weddings. There was a huge display of sake barrels along the path, I wonder what they are for? If you have time, there is a huge garden nearby that is said to be quite beautiful, especially in summer.

It was still too early to see the display of street fashion at the bridge near the station, so I walked south along Omotesando-dori. Along the way, I saw this street performer who was doing an incredible trick involving a floppy cardboard character. It danced on the street while he walked around. When he said "Jump!", it jumped. When he said, "Play dead!", it dropped to the ground. When he mimed cutting an invisible string above the character, it fell over. Many people were dumbfounded and walked away in disbelief, while others forked over the 3000 yen to buy the figure and presumably the secret. Now that I think about it, there might have been someone in the audience helping him. Anyway, the mystery remains.

YouTube link

YouTube link

Had lunch at Maisen (English review here), a tonkatsu restaurant. Big lineup, but a single seat at the front counter came fairly quickly. Ordered a standard pork cutlet set lunch. Nice variety of condiments including fresh lemon, mustard, worcestershire sauce (?), tonkatsu sauce and seasoning salts and herbs.

Retraced my steps and walked north along Omotesando-dori. Dropped into Oriental Bazaar, a souvenir shop popular with tourists. Roll-your-eyes stuff like T-shirts with annotated sushi items on them. But apparently a good place to get reasonably priced kimonos or yukatas. I found some decent chiyogami here. Braved the noisy crowds at Kiddy Land and spent some time browsing toys. There were these neat modular cubic toys with an LCD screen and connectors on all sides that do different things when connected to other, similar cubes. Very high kawaii (cuteness) factor here, especially on the "girls'" floors. Farther up the street, could only tolerate a few minutes on the main floor of Laforet.

Wishful thinking: I hope my (future) daughter does not get caught up in fashion.

Inside Omotesando Hills, I wandered all the floors along the gently sloping walkways and had a tea and snack at R Style. Was given a "shooter" of plum-flavoured water in a beautiful opaque pale green shot glass, nice touch. You know it's a destination when there's a brochure called "Gourmet Guide | Beauty Guide" that lists all the restaurants and salons in the mall. In the basement, there's a very cool wine tasting bar called Bisty's which lets you buy a prepaid card then go up to bottles of wine behind glass with a spout attached. Press the button for the amount you want and it fills up your glass. There's a rinsing station and a sitting area that serves light accompaniments.

It would be awesome to inline skate inside Omotesando Hills.

The fashion scene is on full display at the bridge near the subway station in Harajuku on a Sunday. I knew this ahead of time which is why I timed my visit to be on this day. Tourists snapped photos of, and with, the outlandishly dressed teenage girls (and a few guys too). Apparently, many parents do not know of their offspring's fashion choices, so there were more than a few toting luggage containing their "regular" clothes.

Next stop was Roppongi Hills, a huge planned megacomplex of shopping malls, residential highrises, hotel, TV studio, cinema and more. Walked through the Mohri Garden and the confusing layout of the mall. Went to the Mori Art Museum in the big tower and took in their modern African art exhibition. Mostly large-scale video installations including one of a video screen of a guy playing a tabla in front of a hundred, smaller drums. The sound shifted back and forth between the screen and the instruments on the floor. But, on the whole, the exhibition was too modern and slightly disturbing for my taste.

It was too cloudy and too late to see the sunset from Tokyo City View but the nighttime skyline is still breathtaking. From the 52nd floor you can see the whole city. It's not as distinctive as the Hong Kong skyline, but still impressive.

Hadn't had dinner yet, and the restaurant was packed earlier, so I went to Toraya Café a half hour before closing. Meal options were slim so I had a cold squash soup with soda bread (buckwheat, adzuki bean, walnut) and goat cheese spread, followed by a dessert sampler plate. Wow. Some of the most interesting cakes I've ever had, and they were all made with white or red adzuki bean paste. I bought a jar of an paste to take home, and a pricey loaf of one of the cakes so that I can reverse engineer this wonderful confection.