It was completely packed with females, ranging from teens to middle-aged women. The clothes looked as though they were aimed more towards young females, so maybe the older women were just there shopping for their daughters. After looking through some of the floors, I decided the clothes weren't really my style and headed over to the other store MrMan5.5 pointed out - H&M. I was amazed that I could find what I thought to be suitable work clothes for 1000 yen a piece - that's about $12. I bought a whole bag full of stuff for what I paid for one shirt back in Australia. I really don't understand why clothes are so expensive in Australia compared to Japan. It's all the same material, right?
Anyway, I would really recommend heading to Shibuya, if not for the tasty ramen, or cheap clothing stores, at least to see Hachikō. Not to mention MrMan5.5's other reason for wanting to go - it was where the popular Nintendo DS game The World Ends With You is set. It's also amazing to see the main intersection in front of Shibuya station at night on a weekend. The Elizabeth/Flinders St. intersection is nothing compared to this, it's a huge mass of people crossing in all directions, and yet everyone seems to make it to where they want without issue. It amazes me how people can get around without problems in a country with such a high population density. I guess one of the contributing factors is Japan's great infrastructure. Nobody is running for a train because the next train will be 3-4 minutes after that one, so it's not really a big deal if you miss it. The stairs at the station have arrows indicating which side is for walking up and down, so it is a lot more efficient.
The biggest adventure MrMan5.5 and I had today though, was trying to wash our clothes. There wasn't a coin laundry in the area we are staying in currently (Ginza), so we were told to head to Tsukiji to find one.
[Short tangent. I mentioned this before, but my number one warning for people planning to go to Japan is that there are almost no rubbish bins anywhere. Not only that, but Japan is really into recycling things, so even if you do find a bin, it is probably a recycle bin and not suitable for whatever it is you're holding. Every time we find a bin while out and about, I feel the compulsion to empty out my pockets of all rubbish, because it's unlikely that we will encounter another bin until we are back in our hotel room. In fact, the bin in our hotel room seems to always be overflowing.]
Finding our way around Tsukiji was a bit difficult. There weren't many notable landmarks that we could find, and seeing as neither of us was very good with kanji, we weren't really able to read the signs around the place. After walking around for a bit, and even stopping to ask someone for help, we managed to find the place, only to find it was completely deserted. All the washing machines and stuff were there, just nobody tending the store or anything. I read somewhere that the crime rate is really low in Japan, so I guess people are quite trusting. Quite a few times, I've seen boxes of stuff stacked outside stores completely unattended, and thought how easy it would be to walk off with a box or two, but maybe it was Japan's aura of dutifulness (to the society) that wiped any criminal compulsions from my mind.
It made me realise that although we are getting by on hiragana and katakana alone (it is super important to learn katakana, it makes life so much easier as you can usually guess the meaning of everything else), there are a few kanji that would have made things easier had I remembered them sooner. It's probably a bit late for someone who hasn't learnt Japanese or Chinese to learn all of the 2000 or so kanji that most Japanese are expected to know, and I don't really fancy spending the rest of this trip studying, so I tried to find a list of important ones for travelers. This site has a few, but I thought I'd add some of my own.
小 SMALL - This might be a really obscure way of remembering it, but MrMan5.5 described this kanji as a 'J' with wings, which reminded me of Jenny's nickname in Gossip Girl "Little J".
大 BIG - I like to think of this as a person stretching themselves out to their fullest to try to make themselves appear bigger.
(The toilet we have in the hotel room seems to have the kanji for small and big in place of the "half-flush" and "full-flush" icons.)
電 ELECTRIC - To me, this just looks like one of those Chinese-style lanterns, which are now probably powered by electricity.
車 VEHICLE - This one is another obscure explanation, but to me, it looks like the kanji for middle (中) that I know from mah jongg, only with extra lines above and below, which makes me think of a car driving in the middle of two lanes. Co-incidentally, this kanji alone is the kanji for car, though I believe the meaning is intended to be vehicle, as combined with the kanji for electric, you get the kanji for train (ie. electric car/vehicle). I believe this is also the kanji used for elevators, but I can't remember the word off the top of my head right now.
英語 ENGLISH - I learned this so that I would be able to see if the DVDs/Blu-Rays I wanted to buy had English subtitles. Then MrMan5.5 reminded me that they would be region-locked anyway. I was so disappointed, because I had found the Densha Otoko special box set. T_T Anyway, I can't even remember this kanji myself, I just wrote it down in my notebook so I could compare it with other kanji on the box, but the second one I do remember, because part of it is the kanji for five (五) which is pronounced "go" which is the same pronunciation for the kanji 語 with the meaning language. It's a nifty kanji to know, because you can easily find languages, for instance, 日本語 is the kanji for Japan combined with the kanji for language, with the meaning Japanese (the language, not the nationality). The first part of the kanji is also the kanji for the verb "to say", 言, so more stuff about talking. The last part of it is the kanji for mouth, 口.
Some useful katakana words that I have picked up:
カレー curry
バーガー burger
メロンパン melon pan
ラメン ramen (also found in hiragana)
ギョウザ gyouza (dumplings)
パスタ pasta
チーザ cheese
ドア door
ホテル hotel
ビル building (not to be confused with ビール which is beer)
グレンラガン Gurren Lagann
MrMan5.5 just went to our local convenience store and tried to buy some weird flavoured pringles. He wanted the store clerk to read the flavour for him (because MrMan5.5 didn't know what it said), but he wasn't able to get his meaning across, so he wanted me to add a part asking how to read something.
Sumimasen. Kono (kanji/katakana/hiragana) wa dou yomimasu ka?
-Excuse me. This (kanji/katakana/hiragana), how do you read it?
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