Lazy Day Lacking Sumo (Wed 17th)

Despite the fact that Josh was meant to be leaving later in the evening Wes and him had decided to get up at 6:30am to head over to get Sumo tickets for the day. The thing about Sumo tickets is you can book them in advance, and they’re really expensive, or you can buy them on the day which are the cheapest very back row of the hall. But the problem is is that these start selling at 8:30 in the morning and then sell out really quickly. The other problem with these is the morning fights are rookies and aren’t as good as the ones you see on TV (which Wes told me). The one good thing about the Sumo tickets is that there isn’t a specific time, just a specific day. So you can spend all day in the hall watching the Sumo, and you’re allowed to leave and re-entre once. Which is what Wes and Josh did so they could try the food the Sumo wrestlers eat which is a tomato ramen that is supposed to build up stamina.

Harajuku has some weird shops (that's a mannequin)

While this was going on Gabe and I just washed a bunch of our clothes and then headed over to Harajuku which I really wanted to see. We knew Wes would be back about 3:30 so spent a good 3 hours in Harajuku. I found a thrift shop at the very end of the shopping street which I’d been to 3 years before, and even better, they’d expanded their stock to include second-hand kimono and obi which were all clearly labelled what was men’s and what the difference between the difference types was!

I like shopping in Harajuku, mostly because once you get off the main street you get all the more interesting, alternative shops with the Lolita, visual-kei/punk clothes, as well as some fun toys/merchandise. I actually ended up getting a hat and some fake glasses, and Gabe got a bunch of Totoro stuff for his mum.

When we got back to the apartment we didn’t have to wait long for Wes to show up because it turned out that he’d left the Sumo early because the more advanced fighters were turning up later on after 4pm and Josh needed to go to Narita airport. But he’d killed some time in Shinjuku because there were camera shops there he had wanted to see. But exploring a place when you don’t know it well or don’t know what to see is a bit difficult and Shinjuku (especially its station) is massive and a bit overwhelming. So all 3 of us went back to Shinjuku and spent the evening there looking at electric stores (I got a case for my 3DS) and wandered around a bit. Shinjuku isn’t the most exciting of places, I’d describe it as a very grey area and not a place you want to be too late at night.

But if you are in Shinjuku you should try the 11th floor of one of the department stores where there is the most amazing okonomiyaki resturant ever! They can cook it for you or you cook it for yourself in front of you  and the trick is to cook it for 4mins with a lid on top, flip it and cook it for another 4mins with the lid. Then flip and add mayo, sauce, nori and bonita. Omnomnomnomnom soooo gooood!