This morning I set off on a desperate search to find a bank to change my travellers’ cheques. I did find such a bank fairly easily. My near downfall was when they asked me where I was staying or for a contact telephone number or to see my passport. It is quite disarming to learn I was casually strolling about the city without such basic knowledge, Quick-thinking, I managed to remember the area that the New Koyo hostel had been in and wrote that down and it was accepted – phew!
Next, I decided to meet up with two German brothers who were staying at Yuji’s because they were meeting their Japanese friend. Who spoke English. It was the equivalent to dollar-signs in my eyes. After a few frantic phone calls from some poor Japanese teenager’s phone, I managed to meet them at Ueno. The guys went off to visit the National Museum and so R and I sat down to interview. Details to follow in another post.
Later on we wandered through Shibuya and all its high-rise buildings and flashing signs. Highlights:
- one of the brothers buying a Tokyo flask at HMV and being told to wait whilst they filled it with the most delicious iced mocha latte I have ever tasted
- posing with scenester kids (see photo)
- Condomania – the novelty condom shop with the slogan “safety can be fun”. I was so tempted to buy a condom dressed up like a lollypop but at Y525 for one…*cough* rip-off *cough*
Phrase of the day:
“SO cute!” – R loves everything with a smiley face, or that’s sparkly, or glittery. Judging by the other enraptured faces of teenage girls in the Disney store admiring kids’ dress-up costumes, or looking at a bejewelled mobile phone in an electronics store, she was not alone.
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