Georgie-Time!

Wrote this yesterday; I’m posting it now due to having free time later in the day. XD
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Where to begin with today?

Well, today we had to meet Georgie at Tokyo (the city; yes, we’re already in Tokyo) train station at about midday. We only had her until 7PM, so we decided to make the most of her and give her a mini tour of Tokyo’s hot spots.

Although, of course, I hadn’t been to half of Tokyo either. So it was all new for me, as well.

It was very surreal meeting Georgie in Tokyo – a familiar face in a country halfway across the world is always pretty jarring, I suppose – but lots of hugs were given round and we decided to go take photographs around the imperial palace in Tokyo while we were here.

It was swelteringly hot again after the brief respite of the typhoon. We were yet again serenaded by scores of cicadas while we wandered from photo location to the next, but the area in general is very beautiful; kind of a melding of concrete and greenery with all these beautiful, angular buildings tucked away in nooks of the landscape.
Pretty.

Then we decided to get moving on the tour so we headed back to the station and onwards to Akihabara!
I tensed a little, seeing an unfortunate glimpse of a building completely covered in two scantily dressed anime maids (eewwwww), but when we arrived in Akihabara itself it was easy enough to avoid skeevy stuff.

First off, we had lunch. Katsudon = OM NOM NOM NOM. It was delicious and not too expensive.

We then went to a camera store to buy me a new camera; found a very awesome new camera for the same price as my lost darling Lumix.
In fact, this one is also a Lumix.

I LIKE LUMIX CAMERAS.

So we took it up to pay for it, and someone pointed out ‘oh, you can get it tax free with a passport!’
But sadly I did not have a passport.
Georgie, however, did.
Thus begins the TAX-FREE CHRONICLE:

Georgie: /pays for the camera tax-free, then receives a slip of paper in her passport that says she’ll be taking it home with her
Georgie: Wait, what.
Me: Oh no, that’s not good.
Georgie: I’ll go cancel it, maybe? Because obviously I can’t take it back with me, you’re still gonna be using it.
Me: Yeah. I’ll just pay the extra!
-toddle up to the desk-

Georgie: すみません、タックスフリーをキャンセルしてもいいですか？ (Excuse me, is it okay to cancel the tax free payment on this?)
Clerk: Of course! /returns the money and voids the passport thing)

Georgie: 日本人の友達のプレゼントですから、タックスフリーは・・・ (Since it’s for a Japanese friend, the tax free won’t really work…)
Clerk: 　うん、うん。 (I see, I see.)
Me: また買えいますか？ (Can we buy it again?)
Clerk: Of course! Let me change.
-Clerk gives us back the change, passes us over to Clerk 2-
Clerk 2: 日本人お友達ですね? (Japanese friend, huh?) Please follow me. We need to change.
Me: Uh…?
-he starts taking us to get a Japanese camera)
Me and Georgie: いいえ、海外のモデルを要ります！友達は英語だけではなせます・・・わかります！ (No, we need an overseas model! Our friend only understands English!)
Clerk 2: Ehhh? Oh, okay! So this one is okay.
Us: Yes!
Georgie: And to make sure….これはタックスフリーじゃないですね？ (This isn’t tax free, right?)
Clerk 2: Tax free…?
Georgie: はい。 (Yes.)
Clerk 2: *wanders over and brings some forms over*
Georgie: いいえ　いいえ　いいえ！ (NO NO NO!)
Me: タックスフリーが欲しくないです！ (We don’t WANT tax free!)
Clerk: (explains the sitaution to Clerk 2)
Clerk 2: OH.
Us: *eventually buy the camera and go on the exercise machines, still with our brains fried*

Returned to the station to go to Shinjuku. On the train there I saw some dude with a little Luke mobilephone charm, which made me nerd out a little more than I should have. : (
So! Shinjuku, where we sped along to go up some very tall buildings and look out over Tokyo. The view from there is breathtaking, and also the elevators are so fast they make your ears pop. Woahhh.

There wasn’t really much else to do in Shinjuku, so we moved onto Harajuku.
Harajuku is a little like Camden Market, but amped up to ten, Japanese’d out, and with much more bizarre shops.
God, it was kickass. So many strangely dressed people there.

On the way through the train station to get our next train, some random guy came up and started helping us with using the ticket machines (which we already knew how to use). At first we were like ‘awh, what a friendly dude, helping out foreigners’ but then he was like ‘OH BY THE WAY CAN I HAVE 200 YEN?’

…I gave him 100 yen because I felt bad. Miles gave him money too and went and looked at a map with him.

Then we went to Shibuya, and thankfully we took a momentary detour so I could see Hachiko-guchi.
The entire time we were in Shibuya I was internally freaking out over how perfect the team who developed The World Ends With You got all this stuff. The scramble crossing? Hachiko? 104- I mean – 9? PERFECT, man. It’s so cool.
I’m going back there on Saturday to meet Kaoru and see Yosuke, so that should be cool.

Anyway, after Shibuya, we went back to Tokyo to see Georgie off. She’s in Japan until Friday, when she goes to start her year abroad in China :>
BAWWWWW I’m gonna miss her.

After that we took a long train ride home and finished up the day with dinner in a little ramenya near the guesthouse. I had katsu curry. It was deeeeelishus.

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