BootsnAll Travel Network



A Walk in the Park II: Yoyogi-Koen

Since the internet café didn’t have a shower this time I started my day heading to Roppongi to find a cheap sento (public bath only… not a full fledged onsen) recommended by Lonely Planet.  The ¥400 sento turned out to be closed, so I broke down and used the upstairs onsen for an outrageously expensive ¥1280!  

I was even more surprised to find that this place was an overpriced dump, unlike the elegant onsen I found in Yamanashi!  The faucets hardly worked; if it wasn’t spitting out scalding hot or freezing cold water it wasn’t working at all!  The sauna and bath were both unbearably hot.  I couldn’t stand more than a few seconds of it before getting out and regretting the shocking sum I spent to endure this unpleasant experience.  Please heed my advice and avoid the Azubu-Juban onsen like the plague.  It is overpriced, dysfunctional, and if it will give you the worst impression of this sacred part of traditional Japanese culture.  

At least I was clean.  I escaped without charring any flesh, and took a pleasant stroll through Roppongi Hills before catching a train to Shinjuku to meet Megumi.  We planned to go to another show by my friend Nabe, but once we found out the round trip would take three hours and cost ¥3000 each we backed out.  We took advantage of the perfect weather and made the best use of our backpacker/student budgets by stopping at a convenience store, buying two bottles of whisky, and walking to Yoyogi Park.

This visit brought us through the Meji-Jinju shrine and we were lucky enough to catch a couple traditional wedding processions through the courtyard.  Once in the park I was also able to shoot a couple of great skate photos at a temporary ramp some kids had set up.

We spent the rest of the remaining daylight relaxing in a grass field while finishing off the two bottles.  As dusk set in, we strolled through Harajuku as Megumi pulled me into nearly every shop in search of new summer clothes.

We stopped in Shibuya to dine before venturing back into Yoyogi at night.  There was a much different vibe than before.  Gone were the cosplay kids and cliché hobbies.  An older hipster crowd now played guitar and danced to boomboxes.  I somehow got into a conversation with an older Japanese girl who hardly spoke English.  Luckily Megumi was able to translate =)  Mika, has been traveling around Japan staying with friends and camping in parks.  She makes these cute little toy animals out of leather, and promotes music festivals that here friends throw.  After drawing an elaborate page of contact information using every color marker she had in her possession, Megumi and I had to part ways to meet Megumi’s friend.

Her friend, Matthias was returning to Germany soon and his friends were gathering at midnight near the famous Hachiko statue in Shibuya.  Their plan was to head out  to party at the best club in Tokyo until dawn.  Unfortunately, my tattoo was fresh and I decided to call a rain-check.  A night of thinning my blood with alcohol and bumping shoulders on the dance floor didn’t seem like a good way to help the heal process.  We parted ways and I crashed in another internet café for the night.

 

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One response to “A Walk in the Park II: Yoyogi-Koen”

  1. george says:

    tell megumi to watch out, that ghost of adam shane is a trickster i hear…….

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