Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo

I'm sitting here watching "CSI" on AXN, a local channel we get. They show mostly American television shows but with Japanese subtitles. The commercials are in Japanese, and as I type there's one for "LOST" on. I'm not sure exactly how the announcer is saying it, but it sounds like "Losto."

Anyway, we had a very fun day on Friday, and it began early for us. I say, "for us" because we're not morning people...and it's worse when Bob is here. Julie had been wanting to go to a store up in Tokyo in search of bento goodies. The particular store she wanted to go to is near the famous Shibuya Crossing. Shibuya can be compared to Times Square in Manhattan. I've told her countless times (at least!) that I want to walk through there with my video camera and wanted to see Hachiko Statue on one of the corners. It was a meeting point in season nine of "Amazing Race," and that one particular place has always stuck out in my mind. On Thursday we had talked and I knew she was heading up there, but around 8 am on Friday she called and said, "Hey, this store is right near that intersection, so if you want to go we have to catch the 9:40 train." So off we went!

My birthday is coming up and since Bob won't be here for the third year in a row, I bought myself a little camera. I have my Canon Digital Rebel XT and adore it, but since it's an SLR it doesn't take video. We're doing a couple of ITT trips this month and I want to be able to take some video. So I bought an Olympus FE-340 last week and since it's about the size of my cell phone I can keep it in my wristlet...perfect! We had a great time, the kids did too, and we did a pretty good amount of walking. Normally for trips like this I'd bring the umbrella stroller for Sydney, but want to get her used to walking...and me bringing along less stuff, so she had to be on foot like the rest of us.

Walking on the sidewalks through the busier areas people hand out fliers or little packages of tissues (I always make sure to get one because they're great for the car, backpack or purse) as advertisements. The tissues are just like the travel Kleenex we have in the U.S., but these have a print ad in the packing. When we took the mandatory four day class when arriving, one of the speakers said to get them when you can because not all the bathrooms have towels. one of the best words of advice! So anyway, getting back to it, I've seen the tissues and fliers, but never ice cream cones. That's right, they were handing out ice cream cones for free! So here are some pictures from Shibuya Crossing and I'll try to throw in a video too. FYI, the video will have sound, so adjust your speakers accordingly.