Okay, if i was tired the last time due to a lack of sleep, this time i'm tired for a totally different reason. (And here i am, making a post about it once again instead of doing the right thing and sleeping.) Late in the afternoon today, i went with my family from our hotel in Shinjuku to Harajuku - walking quite a long way from the hotel to the JR train station - and from there, we decided to visit the shrine of the emperor during the Meiji era, and walked and walked and walked until we finally reached it and did all the stuff that you normally do during japanese temple visits.
Then we walked and walked and walked all the way out and continued to walk and walk and walk as we explored the sprawling shops and malls in Harajuku.
After that, we walked and walked and walked all the way back to the train station, and proceeded from there to Shibuya, where we walked and walked and walked just to take a small peek at the women's fashion on sale at the malls there and the extensive pachinko and slot machine parlours crammed into the backstreets of Shibuya.
We then walked and walked and walked all the way back to the train station, where we took a train back to Shinjuku. We ended up at the wrong side of the station (and the station itself is HUGE because the trains just don't seem to arrive at the same location) and had to walk and walk and walk just to find the Takashimaya mall in Shinjuku.
We bought our dinner at the huge basement of Takashimaya Shinjuku (which reminds me a little of Takashimaya Singapore), and then carried it back to our hotel rooms, walking and walking and walking all the way.
Crud. My feet are still aching a little bit. And i must say that, although Singapore IS hot, Japanese summer is still comparable to Singapore at its WORST. I kinda wish that we had time to visit Japan during the autumn period instead of now, because the scenery and TEMPERATURES would be far better than they are at the moment.
Japan's been a real eye-opener though. Very interesting. Omoshiroi...
...although my japanese still needs a lot of work. I can understand what people are saying most of the time...but that's only when they speak a little slower. And i speak japanese pretty haltingly and slowly myself, and it's like...if i can't sound like a japanese person, why speak japanese at all, since most Japanese people can converse a little in english anyway? Why bother trying to fit in if it's easier for them to accomodate you? Not to mention that it's somehow much more embarrassing to try and fail than to not try at all. Like somehow, i feel like i'm troubling them even more by trying to converse in their own language.
Gosh, i really have some issues that i need to settle. Because it really sucks to just give up like this.
Anyway, to Jac and perhaps Diana too: i'm still looking for that cat thingee but i still haven't found it! Well, i found something that looked a little like it at the shrine but i didn't get it because i wasn't sure. In any case, i'll keep looking! I'll be going to Akihabara tomorrow (or rather today) so we'll see how things go!
