#12 Visiting Shibuya and Yoyogi Park

Transcript

Hey yo, let's start off with Keith from the future, so I'm still in Japan, but this is further along in the journey, and I just wanted to start with a quick little pre-note that one of the things with this podcast is I've just kind of recorded a bunch of audio, but then I'm editing it and releasing it much more slowly. Aiming for Wednesdays, one episode a week on a Wednesday. So since I'm not just recording episodes and immediately putting them out, I'd say some mistakes were made in the sense of loudness. I'm like, I had to be cool to record a podcast out in the world, you're really there, travel, whoa, but this is a different recorder than I used to use. I'm not as used to this one, and I just really didn't realize how loud traffic noise was through this recorder. So I definitely noticed it in those Montreal episodes, listening back, I'm like, geez, I mean, I guess the traffic was loud, but was it really that loud? I mean, I think it was, it's just my old recorder for whatever reason, it just smooth things out better. But I'm noticing this now in Japan also, whenever I'm on a busy street, I'm like, oh my God, what is wrong with you, Keith? Get on a quieter street, why are you doing this right now? Why are you recording this while there's cards going by? This sounds like shit, dude. So I haven't edited this episode about Shibuya yet, but I definitely remember that day, and I mean, it's God damn Shibuya, it's crowded as fuck, there's shik going on all over the place, and I was just, don't do, I'll just walk along and do over a podcast. I mean, I guess it's kind of nice in a way to record an allowed environment because it's the next best thing to being by yourself. No one's paying attention to what you're doing, it's just you sort of disappear into the mass. But the resulting sound is just like, God damn, this was not a good idea. So I just want to say that as this podcast continues, the sound's going to keep getting better and better because I'm a lot more mindful of it. At this point, I'm much more aware of who's making noise around me, and maybe it's the right thing to just stop for a moment and let the noise pass. Sadly though, at this point, I was not doing that yet, so that's all. I just want to record a little preamble to say, sorry if this is loud, sorry if they have been loud, sorry if they will continue to be loud for a bit. But as things go on, I definitely get my footing and figure out what the heck I'm doing.

And I don't know, maybe there's a certain charm to it. I mean, the world is loud. You know, it is an accurate representation of the kind of noise that exists in the world, but it's just one of those things that in real life, even if you are walking next to traffic, and even if it is loud, it doesn't seem as bad. Your brain just does a good job of compartmentalizing experiences and just like ignoring it. Like, yeah, that's fine. That's loud. Just don't focus on that. Focus on whatever else. Focus on the person who's talking to you or whatever. But it's different when it's just flat, when it's just sound. It's just one sound going in your ear from a podcast. In that case, the noise is just, it's just mixed in in a way that sucks. So anyway, live and learn. Apologies in advance. That's all I wanted to say now. Let's go to the episode proper.

Good morning. So one thing I forgot to mention about the Airbnb where it's just, you know, it just feels like the cosmos, like the universe. It was on my side during the flight and all that was so awesome and so weirdly easy. And then the cosmos just starts dumping weird stuff on me. It just showed me something went wrong with this Airbnb where it's just so packed in and you can hear every little noise and the automatic lights that continually turn on and the automatic locks that are continually grinding. And then the bed bugs were the big haymaker punch, but the other thing in the morning is like, I mean, I was already, I was already like, okay, I took my lumps cosmos, I get it. I shouldn't have booked this place. I fucked up. I got the message and then literal jackhammering started happening. The whole neighborhood shaking, crazy loud noise. And it turns out they're like fixing a manhole cover outside of the place. It's just like, well, okay, let's not sleep in. So that was on a Friday. And then for the weekend, it stopped. It was like, ah, nice. But then I sort of forgot about it. So today, I woke up crazy early and I started doing some computer-y type crap. And I was like, yeah, you know, let's do some of this and go back to bed, get a little nap. 5:00 And then it sort of hit me like, wait a second, though. Oh, I forgot. It's Monday. What's going to happen? So I tried. I did my little lay down, shut my eyes.

I did about quarter after nine, though. Telltale rumbling starts. It was quite low this time. But it was clearly a sign of death of jackhammering to come. So I was like, okay, hold on, never mind. It's kind of good anyway. It gets dark so early this time of year. 930, quarter to 10, whatever it is now, is a not unreasonable time to get up and get out. You know, to actually experience the daylight. But as I went out, there was a construction guy getting ready to block off the street. It's like, yeah, jackhammering coming in.

You know, there's already enough for me to put this Airbnb in the, you know, I have actually very few bad Airbnb experiences. I can count them on one hand. But it was enough for me to add this to the hand and jackhammering. Are you fucking kidding? What the fuck in a sweet fuck?

Super crowded, too. All the washrooms were taken up because, yeah, the place I stayed kind of like this near Ikebukuro when I first came to Japan. I mean, it was a way bigger place. There was a lot more space between people. And I was largely there by myself. There was something weird about that place. Now that I think back, because, you know, it's just gone. It's listing. It's just gone. But now that I think of it, when I was staying there, there was a note on the door that said anybody who booked, you know, through the previous owners got to call this number because it's different people now. It was clearly some kind of like, just hot potato property. And one reason why it was so great is the vast majority of the 40 days I was there. It was just me or maybe one other person. So it wasn't at all how it was intended to be. It was supposed to also be jam packed full of people. But instead, it was a two-story building that I had to myself a lot of times for like 27 or $28 a day or whatever it was. That place was insanely awesome. Like that was an accident. It's not surprising that it's gone because economically, clearly the something wasn't calibrated, right? Something wasn't working. So I learned that lesson hard is, you know, as I get it went so well, staying at a little communal bunk type place the first time. I'll do that again. And this one has just been the total 180. But this is probably more how things are supposed to be. Maybe not necessarily with bed bugs and jackhammering, but overall.

And yet now that I'm recalibrating to the sort of post-COVID world and how things work now, it's also, yeah, it's not like it was a great deal. If it was really cheap, that'd be one thing. But it really is. I have definitely fancy pants to myself up to the world where it just seems worth it to pay more for a place that's more or less to yourself, because it's not actually that much more expensive. Because that's kind of, it's a weird catch 22. I noticed this when I was booking stuff in Fukuoka also the exact same thing happened. I was looking at the communal places and I ended up getting two different apartments to myself that, you know, they weren't cheap. They're unfortunately expensive. They're like $40 a day. But the really crappy, you know, just stay all crammed together, hostile-style places were $30 a day. They weren't a good deal either. So I mean, what's $10 or $11 a day to have a whole place to yourself? That's very worth it when you look at it that way.

And yeah, the thing with communal type places is, is they're kind of expensive because of location generally. It's like, they're in good locations. That was the case in Fukuoka, all the hostile type places were like right down by Hakata Station. And in this case, I mean, I'm right by Shibuya. I looked it up, actually, because I've seen how I've found that name. So strange, Sengenjaya. It means three T houses. And yeah, this is a very fancy pants neighborhood, very desirable because it's so close to Shibuya, but it's actually pretty quiet. It's the best of all worlds as far as Tokyo goes. So yeah, I'm paying kind of a lot for a terrible place because it's in this awesome location. But you can't really find hostels in the middle of nowhere, because I'd be willing to try that. That'd be interesting. I don't mind being way out in the outskirts. I don't mind traveling. 10:00 If I could get a really cheap, weird, crappy, hostile out on the outskirts, I would totally try it. That'd be neat, but they just don't exist. Because again, I guess for their economics, they got to be in a good spot or no one's going to stay there. So yeah, from here on, after this place, it is mainly much more individual places that are off the beaten path. And that's, I've learned my lesson. That's the way for me. That's the way forward. Yeah, it's so busy in there, like all the toilets were busy and the showers and it's just like starting to get a bit of scruffy, starting to look a little disheveled, but it's like whatever. It'll be so easy once I met my own little place to just spend the morning shaving. For now, I can just be a rough customer. Oh yeah, that big gorilla building, too, I was describing. Apparently that was built 40 years ago. No one's quite sure why. You know, just as it's sort of a tourist attraction. Let's just make a two-story giant gorilla hanging off this building. And then the building is just a storage unit, a gym, and a family mart. It's just fucking weird. But today I thought I would finally go to Yogi Park unless something else comes up because those were the two reasons I booked this place. The one was just that I could get here. I knew basically how to get to the area. So that first arrival from the airport would be a little easier. And I just saw in the map, like, oh, Yogi, I like that. That's one of my places that I like. You know, Shibuya itself, I'm not sure how much I like, but I like that park. And it's like an hour walk, which, to me, that counts as close. I'm hoping I can find a Lawson's on the way. I want to try another one of those bitter coffees that I found yesterday. But in this neighborhood, it does seem like Lawson is a lot more rare than the other convenience stores. But I'm sure now that I've said that. I'll turn the corner and there'll be three of them. You know, like, it's Japan. They'll be one somewhere. And I think as far as my little daily routine goes, you know, I've given myself these first few days to just wander around and do literally nothing. That's fine.

But yesterday was the first day I didn't squeeze in. Oh, my goodness. What's this? It's not a Lawson's, but...

This is boss-brand coffee that I've heard people say boss isn't good, but I don't know. I can't tell the difference. I feel like it's all the same. But boss has one called bitter and tasty. And... Oh, my God. This is insane. I shouldn't do this. Where's a washroom around here? This is going to fuck me up, so I need to... I'm going to need to know where I can go to a bathroom. Oh, I do know where there's one. Okay, I'm going to buy these, and then I'm going to walk toward there. Because they have the bitter and tasty, but they have a hot and a cold version. I'm going to get both, fucker. I'm going to get them both. I should do this. I think I should drink the hot one first, and then the cold one. And I'll drink them as I walk to the washroom. I've got to plan this out. Because I mean, yes, this is, you know, ludicrous that I left the house without peeing. And now I'm buying two coffees. This is dumb as fuck. Run and low on coins. Gotta use a bill.

Hey, actually, I'll drink the hot one first and then, yeah, I shouldn't buy them both, that's fucking dumb. I'll drink the hot one first, see how that feels. Maybe I don't even like this. Yet still like 17 degrees out. It's a nice breeze. It's not hot, but it's not cold. I shouldn't probably have a hot coffee, but again, this is just novel to me. Like, I really didn't get to try the hot drinks when I visited last time, because it was in the summer. They still have like a little hot drink section in the convenience store, so I did get like hot tea sometimes, because I kind of like, you know, I don't really like all the sugar in the coffees, but in the tea, I can go either way. I like the bitter teas, but the really sweet sugary tea works better for me than sugary coffee. Anyway, this thing's really fucking hot, which is why I'm rambling to myself and not drinking it.

Hmm, bitter and tasty, eh? Is it either of those things?

Not really. It's sweetest fuck. What's wrong with you, Japan? I don't know. I don't know how everyone's so skinny in Japan. They love sugar so much.

Yeah, I think this is good. I won't get the cold one, because it's not bitter at all. It's not even a slight bit bitter. It's fucking just sugar. But I hate whatever's still pretty fucking good. 15:00 Oh, there it is. I got a little aftertaste. I can taste sort of on the back of my tongue at the top of my mouth. A little bitter aftertaste. So I mean, I do like that better than your average out of the machine coffee. But this is not bitter. It's all too bad. I don't like black coffee, but black coffee is so acidic. I got to have some milk or some cream. And Japan just doesn't, they don't fly that way. They don't want coffee that just has cream or milk. But anyway, yesterday it was the first day I didn't even get any writing done. I was distinctly, I do remember I was standing between podcasts. I did two yesterday. I did the one about the Maguro River. And then I finished the one about coming from the airport. And in between, I was standing outside of 7-11. The sun had just gone down. I had my first can of soup. I just had just the corn soup. I haven't tried the fancy crab soup yet. But I mean, it's what they label it as. It's corn soup. It's got little corn kernels in it. It's not the best, but it's not bad. And I took my phone out and everything and I just didn't do it. Oh man, see, now this is where maybe I should have just hit a convenience store right away. Instead of looking for a Lawson's, because now I'm like obsessed with every little machine I've had. Caramel tea latte. I mean, that's going to be sweet, but caramel. That could be good. That's also a hot drink. And I don't even know what this soup is. Onion soup, maybe. Fuck it. I want to try these things and transform my book bag into a can repository. But yeah, I didn't get any writing done. So I got to start making myself do it, forcing myself a little more. Because I mean, if I'm just going to be wandering around every day, I mean, that's kind of the idea, right? As I'm wandering, I can just stop places and do writing. I just write on my smartphone. I just got to establish the habit, establish the routine. And I think I should also maybe walk a little less far. It's been a little tough on my body carrying my book bag and everything. The amount I've been walking lately. I mean, it's fun to walk to the middle of nowhere, but then I've got to take the train back. I got to stop going so insanely far and then walking back. It's just it's breaking me down a little. But I guess that's another downside to Shibuya. If I take the train back to the outskirts, that's fun. I like those train rides. They're nice and empty. Calm. Taking the train into Shibuya, you know, just fucking horrifying. That's one of the few stations, you know, I think I couldn't escape from the Pory station the other day. Shibuya station, I actually couldn't just find the exit once. I was walking around it for like seven or eight minutes before I could figure out how to leave. It's just fucking crazy. I don't look forward to going back to that. So again, this this Airbnb was an okay call for that one day to just just to be near the airport. But after that, it's not paying off. I got to stop complaining about the Airbnb. Who cares? It'll be over soon enough. I'll be somewhere else. All right, how much are these things?

$1.30 each. Let's try the soup first and then I'm still not stated. I'll try the caramel tealate. Oh yeah, I see it's like it's one of their main products. This is a curin machine. They got a big image of the caramel tealate. All right, soup time.

There's a guy named Jared Petty who used to do a podcast called Pockets full of soup because he used to live in rural Japan and he would buy these hot soups and put them in the pockets of his coat when he walked home to keep his hands warm and they would they would do the job. They're very warm. I'm trying to use the Google translate on this soup. Italian Tuscany definitely corn is part of it. The packaging definitely has the feeling of like mom's home recipe and yeah, this translate does not enjoy handwritten butter. I found it in the Italian Tuscany region. I was able to hint the home cooking potential. So I mean it's probably basically just the corn soup but this is the the downhum cooking version. I really hope somebody besides me likes this podcast because it really is fucking stupid. I don't know, maybe this could have been on NPR or something back in the day, right? Like just extreme pointless slice of life travel audio. It's almost like a field recording except there's a guy who won't shut up in it. Yeah, it's just corn soup but it's good. It's very good. I want to know from my rambling for now. Your yogi park is the plan. Making sure I do some riding is the plan. If something else happens then that will become the new plan. Beautiful day, a little less hot than it's been. I would say if the other days were perfect, 20:00 this is perfect plus. No clouds in the sky. Just that few degrees colder to keep you from sweating. Fucking perfect.

There's some traditional Japanese music.

There's a really good Miley Cyrus song by the way. Man, what is it called? It's that album Miley Cyrus and her dead pets. It's just called the dream song or something like that.

I had a dream. David Bowie taught me how to skateboard and we. With something, something. I don't remember the lyrics at all but man it's such a catchy song and when she belts off it was just about just having weird dreams that she doesn't understand what they mean and when she belts that part out. And what did it mean? What did it mean? It's fucking amazing. It'll send chills down your fucking spine. I think it's called the sparkle song actually.

Anyway, there's our Miley Cyrus moment. I'm an approach in the Shibuya scramble crossing. I thought I missed it but of course I did it. How could I? I'm drawn drawn to this crossing against my will almost. But yeah, Shibuya in general, this was the first place in Japan where I noticed people stepping on my heels which hadn't happened since like junior high school and back then I think it was just obnoxious kids trying to be annoying. Here, I gotta assume it's because I'm too long-legged. My stride is longer than everyone else's but I noticed people stepping on my heels a lot.

And I don't love this neighborhood because it's just so crowded.

Yeah, I guess I'm kind of skirting along the edge of this scramble crossing. It's sort of over to my right so I'm not going to go over there. I basically know one route through this neighborhood and I'm going to see if I remember it. I think this is the right. You know, it's like spokes that jut out from the scramble crossing. Basically, there's one route that I know that if I go down the right one, which if this isn't it, I'll get lost for sure. I've gotten lost very easily in this neighborhood. Although now I got the map things. It should be fine. But the major landmarks were a family mart which, you know, there's a lot of stuff that's very obvious. Once you know it, just stuff everybody else knows. But I just had to pick up by observation. And I remember this really busy family mart near here is the first time I noticed somebody, you know, when you buy noodles like cup noodle from a convenience store here that there's hot water and you can just fill up the noodle thing right there and eat it. And I was like, wait, is that guy doing what I think he's doing? And I waited till I was somewhere obscure at a non-busy convenience store before I tried it myself. But from there, I haven't done it yet on this trip. I'm still just fully in onigiri mode. But I figured out that you can get, I mean, they have just really good noodles in general. Way fancier than anything we have in North America. If you get the real fancy kinds here, even the cheap ones are really good. But the fancy ones come with all these different little packets, tons of different little packages. There might be like a circle of freeze-dried pork or something that comes with it. But on top of that, you can get sides. Specifically a family mart is where I always seem to get those. But I think they all have them. Where it's kind of like picnic sides. It's just stuff, little bits of stuff. So I just get hard boiled eggs and chicken breasts and just put them in my noodle bowl. And it was like so good. It's just like this is such a good little ramen meal for convenience store food. It's amazing. However, I'm not seeing that family mart. So that's a bad sign. The other, the next step is I remember if there was a street west of the left, there was a Disney store. And I mean, you can't miss that. That's extremely good landmark. And if I see the Disney store, I'm home free because I know if I just follow that street 25:00 because I know if I just follow that street straight up, it'll take me to Yogi Park. And that's the extent of my knowledge of Shibuya. It's just how to get to Yogi Park. Other than that, it's just a big crazy mess of stuff that I don't know what the heck's going on.

Not good. Not good. Not seeing the Disney store. Maybe this is because I didn't actually exit the station and go across the crosswalk. So the street that I exited from, not the right one. Should I keep going or should I go back? I've been lost in this neighborhood many times. I think I'm going to go back. I'm going to try again. Because the Yogi Park street, again, for my purposes, all I needed was shallow stuff. But on that street is a family mark where I just think they remember doing that thing, like making the whole super ramen meal. And there's the super huge three story Starbucks. There's a big Starbucks overlooking Shibuya crossing as well. I've never gone in there. I got to assume it's busy. I mean, it's like the perfect auto-op. From out the window, you can see the whole crossing. I've never gone in, but I just got to assume it's busy. Everything's busy around here, and that's super insane. But there's one up toward the top of the Yogi Park street. That one was cool. It's surprisingly not too busy, at least for me. Maybe I just got lucky, but I think just because it's a little out of the way. But then there was also a public washroom up there that always had alcohol cans kicking around. And I just found that kind of endearing in a way, because this is such a fancy pants part of Tokyo. But you just get up toward the edge a little bit, and it's just old guys that just spend their days drinking. That's something I'll have to do at some point. Get some strong zero. Certainly not until I have my own Airbnb to go back to. Speak of the devil. Just walk by a sleeping homeless guy. He's the first one I've seen. But yeah, that's definitely the mix of this neighborhood. And then above that was an NHK building, which I was like, oh yeah, TV. I recognize those initials. And then above that is your Yogi Park. So I just especially like that stretch, the stretch to escape Shibuya. And it's got all the stuff I like. It's got convenience stores. It's got it's got a recognizable landmark with the Disney store, an unmistakable one. It's got a big Starbucks. It's got the local flavor of drunks leaving the Shitland everywhere. And then you can escape into a big park. What's not to love?

Whereas my other experiences with Shibuya are exactly what's happening right now. If I get off that path even remotely, I don't know what the fuck's going on or where I am.

But anyway, while I wander around here, my continuing coffee adventures. So I didn't find a loss since. I was walking for like 90 minutes and didn't see a single one. But because I got so much cans of soup and random stuff. Super sweet. Caramel latte, which I won't be repeating that one.

But then also, I saw this machine that had like fancy pants cola.

And I don't really like cola, but this thing just has the fanciest can, and it was by Asahi, Asahi brand cola. And the can looked so cool. Just like this is the best. This is the super premium. You'll never have better cola than this. And I just bought it. I'm like, yeah, dude, I believe you. Oh, man, am I literally... See, this is bad. That street I was talking about, it's an uphill street. But going up the hill is on the wrong side from where I expected it to be, so I held with it, and we're going to go into the map. Assuming that Disney Store is still here. It's all I need is the Disney Store. Where's the Disney Store? And then I'll be fine. I don't see Disney, but it does seem that I somehow, yeah, I got my left and my right literally backwards. I wish I could say that's never happened before, but that happens all the time. That's how bad my sense of direction is. So I guess I approached the crossing from just from a direction that I didn't realize I had. In fact, Shibuya in general, a couple of days ago when I was like walking towards Shibuya, quote unquote, I was not. I don't know what direction Shibuya is in. I was walking very much the wrong way, not fully the wrong way, but like 40 degrees with the wrong way. 30:00 So yeah, I couldn't find a license to get the fancy cool coffee I like, but because of all these liquids I was drinking, I eventually hit a point where it's like I just got a goal wherever I can take a pee.

So I went to Family Mart and just got to know Nagiri, a pork cutlet, sandwich, some pizza potato chips. Because I remember them being the best of the potato chips. They have like actual cheese on the chips. They're still not great, but I do think they're probably the best of the chips.

And then coffee update, there's this brand called Mount Rainier, which I only know from an Allison Chainsaw. It's a really good Allison Chainsaw, Rainier fog. I believe Mount Rainier is a mountain in Seattle, so I think that keys into the Starbucks Seattle vibe. But it seems to be franchise, agnostic. I'm pretty sure I've seen it at all of the convenience stores. So I was like, why don't I try this one? Is what if it's got something that I want? So just to happen to be, because they all have their own version of the bitter coffee except for some reason 7-11. So if I'm stuck at a 7-11, maybe I can get one of these instead. So they had a non-sweet latte, and I'm like, okay, maybe. But then they had an espresso one with the telltale green packaging. And I was like, okay, I think that's the one. And yeah, pretty good, pretty good. Still got some sugar in it, but not a crazy amount. And it's counterbalanced with that kind of tough espresso, you know, bite, pretty good.

I liked it. And they had a little counter to sit at. And I was just sitting there chilling, eating my food. And I was like, oh, this could be a perfect opportunity to pull out my phone and do some work. But then, boom, all of a sudden, it got crazy crowded. And I was like, you know, I bet it's noon. And I got all my stuff and got out of there. And yeah, it was 10 minutes after noon. So I was like, oh, yeah. Lunchtime. I definitely got to get out of here.

I cannot be taken up space. But that'll be another thing that's nice once I get further on the outskirts. Is if you're just at some random convenience store that's, you know, in the southern part of Fukuoka, not even near a train station.

When they have the little counters, you can sit at. I've never seen another sold air in my life. It's just me. In those cases, I will easily be able to get a barley tea and just sit there and do some writing. There'll be no problem. But a convenience store anywhere near Shibuya. Hell no. Once I got up to Yogi Park though, it's pretty spacious. I should be able to hang out there with no significant problems.

Man, it seems inconceivable that a Disney store would be gone. But maybe it is. I don't see it. And now that I'm oriented properly, I'm almost sure I walked by where it used to be or was supposed to be. But it would be, again, who knows. If anyone ever trusts me for navigation, we will all die.

Ah, there it is. I knew it had to still be here. Okay, so I got to add to my mental map, my mental list. Just exit Shibuya crossing, go to Disney store, is not good enough. That could lead, that could be like eight different directions. You got to walk parallel to the train, the above ground train, toward tower records. And just before you get the tower records on your left, the Disney store. Alright, I made it. I made it. I'm on the walk up to Yogi, so now I'm gonna put this fucking recorder away till I get there.

I had the bright idea to come sit next to the fountains right at the entrance of Yogi Park because this is the first place when I visited in 2019. And I was doing my writing podcast. This is the first place I ever recorded myself in Japan. But since I'm right at the entrance, people are walking by. It's actually not an uncomfortable place to sit here and talk to myself. But I am here technically, and now I'm gonna walk somewhere else. I was gonna put that audio in the podcast, actually. It's the very first episode since I was just talking about my first time visiting Japan, originally I ended with. 35:00 And here's some audio from the first time I was in Japan. But I listened back and I was still sick at the time. And I was just rambling about my novel, you know. I do exclusively self-indulgent podcasts, so it's just not relevant at all to traveling. I was listening back to it and I was like, shut up. What this guy to shut up, which I'm sure is an experience you've had yourself listening to this series.

Oh, there's a way that I thought it was a lady dressed like snow white, reading to some kids. But no, she's just surrounded by people dressed like the dwarves. It's just a photo thing.

Nice. You know somebody brought up a good point about that when the evil stepmother asks the magic mirror who's the fairest of them all, who's the fairest in the land. And the mirror is like this flat-chested 14-year-old. It's like, what the fuck, magic mirror? You go to jail now.

And I noticed that because I mean, I watched snow white pretty recently. She's the least sexy Disney princess of all time. They got a lot of curvy after that. The evil stepmother, the dark queen, the evil witch, whatever her name was. She was way hotter.

So now that we've ranked the Disney princesses, does Jessica Rabbit count as a Disney princess? I mean, I guess not. She's half a Warner Brothers for one thing. She's not a princess. But she's the hottest Disney princess if you ask me, my sexy cartoon ranking. So that stretch up to Yoyogi is almost the same as I remember it. The family mark that I went to before whatever reason was just one of my family little family marks. It was weirdly, weirdly uncrowded for such a crowded neighborhood, which maybe explains why it's not there anymore. Anything I like, I like because it's not popular. So then it goes away. But anyway, now it's a place called Shark Coffee. The Starbucks, the vaunted three story Starbucks in my memory. That thing was like a towering monolith. And in a residential neighborhood, it would be huge because it's three floors. But the weird thing is my memory was backwards. It's actually the smallest building on that street. Every other building is higher than three stories in a neighborhood. So the giant Starbucks, it is big by Starbucks standards, but it's actually small by Shibuya standards. The washroom with empty booze cans did not have any empty booze cans, but again, it's like the middle of the afternoon. But it did very much smell like piss, the most. The only bathroom so far have been in this smells that way. So I assume the drink cans are coming. They're going to be there later this evening.

And then the walk into Yoyogi. Sometimes it's real crowded. If there's like a festival of some kind going on. Nothing like that today. Nice and empty. Just the way I like it. And then entering this park, it's a really big park. It's one of those things that I didn't know it. I didn't know the name. I just stumbled on it by accident, which was such a great feeling. I'm just like overwhelmed by Shibuya. And I'm like, I don't know how much I like this neighborhood. I might not be back here very often. And I accidentally stumble upon one of the biggest parks in Tokyo, and I love it. I was like, fuck yeah, because they're not all good. There's a park by Oeno that sucks. There's one part that might be nice, but you have to pay to go in like a botanical garden or something. And the rest of it is like weirdly concrete filled. It barely feels like a park at all. This one, it's got a lot of streets and stuff in. It's still a lot of pavement, but also a lot of park.

And it's one of those things that once I was here, and then I looked up the name, I realized it was deep in my subconscious. Like I have seen YouTubers talk about it, and it's come up here and there. I just, just nothing that would solidify it in my mind. But yeah, I mean, obviously there's nothing wrong with picking a target and going there. But just finding it by accident really made me just kind of fall in love with this park. It just becomes one of my unofficial places that it's like I found it, even though it's enormous. Strange number of helicopters are going by though. I haven't heard any helicopters yet. Today there's a bunch, but it's funny because I feel that same way about St. Joseph's oratory in Montreal. One of the biggest domed churches in North America, if not the world. But because I found it by accident, I stumbled upon it. I came at it from an angle where I didn't know it was coming. I just turned a corner and there it was. So I discovered it, and it just always felt extra special after that. But yeah, this park pretty standard issue. A lot of grass, intermittent trees, some fields, some roads that go around that people jog on or bicycle on. 40:00 Lots of washrooms, drink machines. That's all, but that's all you need. And this was the first place I was saying earlier how playing video games as a kid, I think embedded some Japanese vague Japanese stuff in my brain. But it especially did that with the Sega Master System. I had a Sega at least a year before I got an Nintendo.

And Sega was a much smaller concern. They didn't localize games to the extent that Nintendo did. They didn't try to alter them for the North American market. They mostly just left them as they were. And especially before Sonic's, their flagship series was called Alex Kid with 2D's. Not good games, none of them are good. They put out like a DX remaster of the first one, Alex Kid in Miracle World, which Alex Kid in Miracle World when I was a kid was the shit. I thought it was the greatest thing ever because I didn't have Super Mario. But then they put out this remaster and apparently they didn't change the gameplay, they didn't change the physics, and I was like, no thank you. I don't know who that is for. If it's not for me, I don't know who it's for. I have huge nostalgia for that game. I don't want to play that again. Fix it, fix that game, it's miserable. But the Alex Kid games were really varied and got weirder and weirder. And this park was where I first really thought of that. It just makes me think of Alex Kid like crazy because the first Alex Kid was quite fantastical. But then he had like a BMX game and just the way the trails and the paths here look with people biking around feels like that. Then there was like an adventure game. Man, what was it called? But you were going around in an ancient Japanese house trying to piece together clues. Alex Kid in High Tech World, I think? High Tech World is this arcade you're trying to get to, but the actual game is like super duper ancient Japan, Ido, Iroha type stuff. And next to Yogi Park is a big famous shrine. I think also the first shrine I went to, where even though there's all these little mini shrines all over the place, the first one I went to was this fucking gigantic, super overwhelming impressive one. Which I only just thought of now. Am I going to go over there today? I don't know. Maybe.

It looks like it's called the Meiji Jingu. I guess, to be honest, I never looked that up before because it's cool, but we'll see. Also, jeez, my poor shoulders. They are not getting stronger. I mean, I guess what I got to do is carry around my book bag every two or three days, you know, give my muscles time to recuperate, but I have not done that. So every day, my capacity to carry this thing is actually going down.

And then beyond that is Harajuku, which I contend is only famous because of Gwen Stefani. What you waiting for, it is her best solo song, but I never heard a Harajuku in my life until Osaka Tokyo, you Harajuku girls, when you got some wicked style.

I want you way, I want you way, I want you way, I want you way, I want you way, I want you way, I want you. Tik-Tok, Tik-Tok, it's a good fucking song. Sorry, I'm destroyed. Take my word for it, that's a good song.

And, yeah, I don't know. Harajuku sucks. It fucking sucks. It's one of the few parts of Tokyo. I can say, I absolutely hate because it is so crowded for no fucking reason. At least some of the other parts that are crowded are crowded for a reason. Or Zhuku's crowded just because people know what it is, just because they've heard of it. Because it's supposed to be the fashion part of town. But that's not evident at all. What little fashion stuff is going on there is completely blotted out by tourists. They're like nets that are so numerous, they're blocking out the sun. They're like locusts. So I'm sure there's places you can go. I'm no fashion expert, but I'm sure there are places in Tokyo you can go for fashion. Her Zhuku is not the fucking place. It's just a nothing place. It's pointless. And it's just insanely crowded. Literally I'm sure because it went Stefani. I'm 100% convinced because there's nothing fucking there. There's nothing there. That place blows. That just annoys me that everybody goes there. What are you fucking doing? Don't just go there because you're heard of it. Of course, that's why I went there. What? I got to sit down. I guess I think my shoulders, my aching shoulders are making me cranky. Man, another helicopter. 45:00 I wonder what's up with that. Why is there so many helicopters around here? What the hell is this?

I saw some benches that are kind of over here in an obscure area. I don't quite know what this is. There's some kind of building over here that doesn't seem to be getting used.

But there's a sign on this bench that says, no peeping and peeping photo. Police are now in special patrol. So I'm assuming maybe I shouldn't sit here. Maybe this is a suspicious place to sit. Maybe this building is a changing room or something? I don't want people to think I came here for a peeping. There's another bench pointed the exact opposite way. I'm going to go sit there. But anyway, last couple things I noticed were on the way in here. So many crows. And it feels like dark souls. It just like crows everywhere. And it's one of those things that it's like in that dark souls-y in way of like nothing bad is happening right now. Everything is quiet right now. But this is here for a reason. This is a sign to pay attention. These crows mean something. Something is going to happen. Luckily in real life, nothing is going to happen. But it feels like that. It's eerie.