Never underestimate the herd mentality! Saturday June 6th, 2009 was our free day. Nothing on the itinerary for the group, and to be honest, I was looking forward to having some time where Jaime and I could wander around together and do our own thing. We had planned on taking the train to Shibuya and do some shopping. Apparently everyone in the group had the same idea. Dr. Johnson had told us that Shibuya had lots of department stores where we could shop for all kinds of things. As it turns out the "department stores" are closer to what we would think of as malls. They are multi-storied buildings with different stores on each floor. Most floors even have a "theme" such as women's clothing or men's clothing or accessories etc.
The group walked out of the train station and tried to figure out a plan that would make everybody happy because so and so wants to go here, so and so wants to go there. This is exactly the kind of thing I was trying to avoid. Finally the group decided to go off in smaller groups and then meet later at the Starbucks across the street from the station. I nodded in agreement and told them not to wait for us if we didn't show up at the designated time. It's not that I didn't want to spend time with everyone, I just didn't want to spend time with
everyone.
Jaime and I crossed the street (along with maybe a hundred other people) at the all way cross-walk. I had been wanting to use a diagonal cross-walk ever since we got to Japan. We went inside one of the department stores with the hopes of doing some clothes shopping. It would be fun to come back from Japan with something chic and new- maybe a skirt or cute top for Jaime, maybe some designer jeans or hip jacket for me... It became clear rather quickly though that we were not going to be purchasing any clothes for ourselves in Japan. We are both just over six feet tall and nothing fit! I tried on a couple pairs of jeans, but even the biggest pair only covered half of my calf so it was time for Plan B.
We decided to get our hair done. The first step: figure out where. As we stood there in one of the department stores, I noticed a guy in his early 20's or so with some wild anime hair that was dyed red in parts. I guessed he probably knew of a good place for us to get our hair cut and dyed, so I went up to him and told him I liked his hair and asked where he got it done. He said he went to a place in Harajuku. I asked him where in Harajuku, and he went back behind the counter and pulled out a brochure with listing for various dance clubs and salons and pointed to one of them. It was a place called Peek-a-Boo.
Jaime and I hopped on the train and headed towards Harajuku. We figured we would just walk down the main street where all the action seemed to be and hoped we would find it or at least find a hip looking store where one of the employees might be able to give us directions. As it turned out, we didn't even walk more than one block before Jaime spotted a sign across the street that read Peek-a-Boo. Score! Now hopefully we didn't need an appointment.
The salon was actually below street level, so we walked down stairs to get to the front door. We were greeted by a very nice girl who spoke English really well. We told her we both wanted to get our hair cut and dyed and asked if we needed appointments. She said "no." We sat down and began looking through some magazines to maybe find a picture of what we wanted our hair to look like so we could show it to the hair stylist, but nothing in the magazines was exactly what we were looking for. First Jaime's stylist came over and introduced himself and asked what Jaime wanted to have done. The girl who initially greeted us stayed on as translator. Since we didn't have a picture from the magazine to show them, we tried to explain what we wanted. First I told her that Jaime wanted something "wild," but they didn't really understand that word. Then I tried using "crazy" but that didn't seem to work either. Then I remembered an expression Dr. Johnson had used to describe that chic/hip/glamorous/eclectic way of dressing. I told the girl that Jaime wanted her hair done "Tokyo Style." It worked! "Ah," she said with a big grin, "Tokyo Style." We pointed to a bottle of red nail polish to show them what color Jaime wanted her hair and with a few more gestures to describe the actual hair cut she wanted, Jaime was taken back to get shampooed and start the process.
Next, I was introduced to my stylist, and with the help of our translator I was able to tell him that I basically wanted to keep my regular cut; I just wanted to get some blue streaks put into it. The whole process from the time we walked into the salon, discussed what we wanted done with the stylists, and then actually getting our hair cut and dyed took about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I have to say it was a fun experience. Luckily Jaime and I sat next to each other and we were able to catch some sideways glances at each other and see how the process was taking shape. The staff was exceptionally friendly and eager to make us comfortable and happy. They brought coffee and magazines while I waited for the dye to set, and made pleasant conversation (albeit limited conversation which mostly consisted of "where are you from?" "California" "oh, wow, California"- for some reason it seemed to be a big deal that we were from California).
We were really hungry by the time we were done at the salon. It turned out that the place we had eaten at with Dr. Johnson and Daniela a couple days before (The Apartment Cafe) was just a few doors down from the salon so we decided to eat there. This time I had something that was like a calzone. After we ate, we took the train back to the department stores in Shibuya. After Jaime bought some earrings and stockings for herself we went back to our rooms to shower and get ready for our evening out. We wanted to go see Ginza.
Dr. Johnson had told us about Ginza the previous night (in fact I think it was when she was telling us about Ginza that she used the term "Tokyo Style"). She said that up until a few years ago Ginza had the most expensive real estate on the planet. It was the area of town where all the lit up buildings, flashing lights, and fancy dressers were (which is not to imply that other areas of Tokyo did not have their share of fancy dressers or were not lit up, it's just that Ginza had a higher concentration). Dr. Johnson gave us directions on how to get there from our dorm (or rather from the train station a couple blocks away from the dorm) and told us it was a "must see" in Tokyo.
After showering (and being careful not to get our hair wet so the dye would not rinse directly out) we walked over top the local Himalayan restaurant and had the best nan and curry ever. Then we took the train for about 30 minutes and got off at Yurakucho. I asked one of the people working at the information center where Ginza was and he just smiled and waved his arm in the direction of the train station exit.
We walked the exit and into the heart of Ginza. There were more lights and people than I imagined, but then again it was a Saturday night. We strolled around for a little, took some pictures and then headed back to our rooms. It had been a long day.
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