this weekend we went to shibuya and harajuku, since the last time i'd been to shibuya in 2018, they were building it up like crazy, but everything was still in the midst of construction in the city's rush to finish everything in time for the olympics that...weren't on time.
the parco mall was the main thing i wanted to take ryan to in shibuya, because it has the floor packed with game/franchise stores--they have a nintendo store, a pokemon store, a capcom store, a final fantasy anniversary pop-up store...all sorts of stuff relevant to our interests. the nintendo store was predictably too crowded, and you need tickets or something to even ENTER the store, so we mostly passed by and watched people browse through mario goods while the OoT shop theme played in the background.
so we went to the pokemon store instead, since it was surprisingly way less crowded than the one in ikebukuro. they had GIANT TURTWIGS!!! they were super cuddly and i was so tempted to get one...but i can't justify a giant turtwig right now, as much as i love them. (we're getting our boat shipment back from the states next week, so i have to unpack all my currently owned plushies first and see how much space is left...)
we stopped by the capcom store next because ryan wanted to check out the megaman battle network stuff and the monhun stuff. he was very tempted to get a megaman.exe figure that they had at the store, but it was a bit expensive, and he would have had to carry it all day, so we held off. the monhun goods were really nice though--lots of cool/high-quality shirts and plushies... many of our friends like monhun so at least i know where to take them if we ever have visitors!!
we moved on to the FF anniversary store, and ryan was like a kid in a candy store, because they had the final fantasy xi anniversary goods. (ark angels t-shirt, the jeuno zuber and glyke pub glass, the little mog house keychains...) anyway this was very fortuitous because life had been so busy that i never got ryan any birthday presents last month, so he was like "i don't know which ones to get..." and i was like "get all of them!! happy birthday!!!!" and treated him. needless to say he was very happy about that.
anyway, after that we left the mall and browsed a bunch of small stores in shibuya, and there were a bunch of ads for suletta sunday season 2 (which i am very excited for) but eventually found ourselves walking over in the direction of harajuku and meiji jingu. ryan wanted to check out meiji jingu, so we took a walk over...and it was very peaceful despite the huge crowds of tourists. i couldn't attach any other pictures to this post, but walking through the park is always relaxing--once you get to the wooded area of the park, it's hard to tell you're in the middle of tokyo.
other than that, harajuku has changed quite a bit from the last time i visited in 2018, which is to say, i am Too Old for harajuku now. fashion has moved on without me and i am content with this. i used to love going here as a student, because i could find clothes i liked and enjoyed just wandering around... but i think in a post-covid world, i have mostly outgrown this part of the city. takeshita-doori is still uncomfortably packed, if not more so now that tourists have returned. the station is newly-built, but that probably didn't help the whole "uncomfortably packed crowds" thing, and the stores i used to like buying clothes from didn't seem to have survived the pandemic... really, the saving grace of our walk to harajuku was the all-you-can-eat yakiniku place where we got a view of the main intersection and lots of tasty meat.
from here on out, masks aren't technically required in japan anymore, and they say it's up to an individual's discretion whether they want to wear them or not...but japanese hayfever season is still hitting most folks pretty hard (me included!!), so i won't be unmasking anytime soon, and i think if we go wandering anywhere else on the weekends, it'll be further off from the central parts of the city for a while.
despite this, i do want to mention the sheer difference in pre- and post-covid japan communication... when i was here last time, i never usually had issues communicating during regular tasks, at stores, at the town hall, etc... but it's honestly been a bit of a challenge this time around, because of the thick plastic covers between counters and the masks muffling everyone's voices. i've been trying to speak louder, slower, and clearer, but even that doesn't always work, and i already have a hard time processing muffled voices like that to begin with... so it's been an adjustment, but i have to try and be more patient with myself, because 2023 me in japan lives in an even weirder, more exhausting world than 2018 me in japan did, and i am just trying to take it a day at a time.
but i've talked enough for now!! next week we'll be busy sorting all the stuff we get back from our boat freight, but i think the 21st is a holiday, so maybe we'll wander around again then.