We then stumbled upon an actual record store. You know, that sells actual records… in Japan! I thought it was really neat. They also had an entire floor of house and trance records, isn’t that cool?
Although I don’t have a picture of it, we found this store called Tokyo Hands. It was kind of like loft (you know, Erin’s newly found most favorite store ever) but not as hip. Still, it had all of the different kinds of stuff Erin likes so we spent a while in there.
I got kind of bored after a while and wandered down to the Household Games floor, thinking it might be interesting. Believe me, it was. There happened to be a man from a card company giving a demonstration of Texas Holdem’ (sp?). I was inclined to sit down and join the game with a couple of Japanese men. The dealer/man giving the demonstration tried to talk to me in English, which was hardly understandable, so I quickly told them that I understood a little bit of Japanese. The three men were astonished and then began to ask me questions about my learning Japanese and if I was an exchange student. They asked a whole slew of questions and when I answered, or tried to sometimes because I have a limited vocabulary, they would always tell me that my Japanese was really good (Yasu says I have really good pronunciation, so I guess that helps). I then asked them if I could take a picture, they happily obliged. Oh yeah, they asked me how old I was too; I told them I was 19 and then they announced their ages. The two men on the right were both 29 and the dealer was 38.
The dealer asked me if I knew the rules of the game, I said yes and we started playing. While we were playing he explained a lot of things to me and I think I understood most of it. Apparently it is illegal to gamble with money in Japan, or at least play poker for money, so poker isn’t very big and therefore not many Japanese know the game or the rules. It was at this time that the two men I was playing with asked me if playing for money was legal in the US. I told them that it was and that there were a lot of casinos (like the ones in Vegas so they would understand me better) and that there were also online poker sites where you could play with money, like poker stars and full tilt. By this time we had gotten started playing. The only people who knew the hands at the table were me and the dealer, so winning was pretty easy. The other guys had to check cards all the time to see if they had a hand. We played a few hands and I was slowly taking a little off of their stacks. After five or six hands I had knocked out one of the guys. Then a hand came where I had an open ended straight draw and I went for it and pushed the other guy all in. The dealer called too, but he wasn’t all in. I landed the straight on the river and took all of their chips. The dealer was left with a few chips, but I had knocked out the other two guys so the demo was pretty much over and the dealer declared me the winner. I asked if I could take a picture and they let me take another one showing that I won. They also asked if they could get a picture with me (I guess to prove their side of the story =P) and I gladly obliged.
It was at about this time that Erin found me and laughed at what I was doing. I explained to them that she was my sister and that I had to go. They said good bye and I told them that it was fun playing with them, it really was, it was also a great experience.
Erin and I continued to walk around the store. There was a Darth Vader.
Erin tried on a sumo cap.
Here is another random picture of Shibuya.
We stumbled upon a DJ store and I felt I had to take pictures for Derek.
Oh! And for those of you who want to see the cell phone and my cool little strap (which is what the Japanese call the phone dangles) here it is.
We decided that we were done with Shibuya. Yasu suggested that we go to Harajyuku since it was a Sunday and there would be a lot of cosplayers out, so we headed to the station. The train maps are confusing. This is just the JR map, there are several other companies with trains too.
Erin stands out, doesn’t she?
On the train.
Right as we got off at the station.
There was a cool 350Z.
These are the first people we saw in costume.
Girls in the street.
There was a store called the Mighty Soxer, I thought the name was cool.
A couple pictures of the street.
There were Japanese Idols in a box. They are called the Vanilla Beans and were apparently releasing a single that day.
We finally made it to the bridge where the cosplayers hang out on weekends. They were sooooo strange. There was also a mime that was really cool and very animated. I liked his facial expressions. Here are the “twins”, at least that is what I call them.
The mime making a cool face, he was doing a skit called Devil and Angel.
Here are some random pictures of costumed people.
Yes, that is an old man in a dress.
They were giving out free hugs.
We found out that there was a really cool, big temple across the bridge. Here is the entrance.
Temple pictures.
Those were wine barrels.
Another hand washing place. You were supposed to wash your left hand, then right, and then drink the water (I think).
Hey, it’s Yasu!
We went to a Japanese restaurant that Yasu said was pretty good. The bowl of rice was really large.
Nighttime Harajyuku.
We went to the Hostel after than, I blogged for a bit and then went to bed.
