Ginza, Maranouchi, Shibuya

Ginza's shops range from the pink pock-marked Mikimoto building (selling pearls) to buildings that are strangely curved to those that look like they have a spaceship landed on the roof to wonderful toyshops that sell giant Totoros, Cat Bus purses, Princess Mononoke playing cards, Neon Genesis Evangelion ears, Pacman key-fobs, Monchhichis (Chicaboo), Moomins, dancing plants and cool little robots.

After wandering through Marunouchi, and seeing strangely decorated cows on random street corners, we headed to the Imperial Palace Gardens. It rained that day and women who passed me exclaimed "kawaii!" when they saw my frog umbrella.

That evening in Shibuya, we were curious to see if HMV stocked Merzbow CDs, so browsed the Japanese loud and punk section and found that they did. I listened to some random Japanese punk bands there, but the listening section did not seem to be playing any noise. I also listened to some pop music - YMCK - "8-bit Nintendo meets jazz and pops!"

Nagi Shokudo, a vegan restaurant in Shibuya, was where we ate dinner that night. The food was fairly cheap and tasty, and did not contain shark fins.