The One With The Glasses

Today was Meiji Shrine and Harajuku and Omotesando and ramen and coffee and various pictures of Harajuku Girls slash cos-play kids and--oh, yes, possibly crossing paths with other Tokyo-ite gaijin bloggers. (Hi, Kirk!)

Honto ni. I've been to Meiji before, but today was hilarious because Dave and I were accosted by a group of college students from a couple of Tokyo universities who offered to guide us around Meiji so that they could practice their English. Being American, my first response is usually: Well, what do you really want, some kind of donation, right? But the kids here are just ridiculously earnest and polite until they turn about...hmmm...sixty. Anyway, so these kids dragged us around and tried to feed us little facts about Meiji shrine while I asked things like, "Do you come here to pray before exams?" and "Is it true that it's only five yen for a new girlfriend?" Then I sort of goaded everyone into taking five yen out of their pockets and praying for a new girlfriend or boyfriend at the shrine. One guy--who it turns out is the president of the English club at his university--missed the coin toss (you have to stand back and throw your five-yen coin into the box from several feet away) but he prayed anyway. After, I teased him, saying, "Since your coin didn't go in, I prayed for a new girlfriend for you!" The other students thought this was hilarious.

After our quote guided tour end quote, we offered them coffee (they refused very politely). They asked if they could take our picture. I joked, "This is evidence, right? That you talked to the henna gaijin, right?" (Henna gaijin is the word for crazy foreigners, but it's chotto rude, ne?) They cracked up and one of them found it so funny that he did that slap me on the back move that people don't really engage in here--not with crazy foreigners anyway!

After that, I told them that I lived and worked in Tokyo and that I would be happy to guide them around Tokyo sometime. I did give them my email address (and actually heard from one of them! "I'm the one with the glasses!" his email begins).

Since Dave and I were a bit hungover, we had coffee and "went to shopping" in Omotesando for a bit then we just came home and collapsed. I was going to make nabe, but honto, I just ate about six bananas and a big carton of yogurt and went to sleep.

Tokyo? Is a city full of surprises, ne?

Ne.