Sundays are all about having a lie-in for many and I was most looking forward to one last Sunday until I was awoken by my friend Keisuke (a guy who I travelled with in Australia) mailing me to say he was in Tokyo. He had travelled from his home in Osaka through the night and had given me no warning of his arrival!

I met him early morning and he wanted to sample a Maid Cafe (something I wrote about in one of my first ever blog entries) so there we were waiting like losers for this cafe to open at 11am. He was on a tight schedule as he had a concert to attend at 12.30 which was why he was in town for 24 hours. Anyway we had four maids attending to us which sounds far more exciting than it actually was! In reality we paid a ridiculous price for two drinks and a high price for two photos with a very pretty maid before leaving within about 30 minutes!

 

I had arranged to meet up with another Japanese friend in the afternoon and, after some food with him, we both met up with Keisuke in Harajuku just in time to catch the end of the Sunday parade of cosplayers as well as some break dancing (still fashionable in parts here despite going out of fashion in the UK in the 1980’s!) performances on a stage in Yoyogi Park.

              

We then went to Shibuya and the statue of Hachiko which is Tokyo’s most famous dog (a loyal dog who waited for its master to return every night for many many years after he had died) followed by the 8th floor restaurant overlooking Shibuya crossing which I went to the previous week.

      

On the way back to my house later, we met up with my girlfriend and stopped at a place which is very famous for its ramen. This place is on the corner of the main intersection near where I live in Ikebukuro and in true Japanese style, always has a long queue of people waiting outside to go in just because its been on TV. To be fair though I was curious as to why so many people felt the need to wait when I’m sure theres many equally good ones nearby but thats the Japanese for you! I have to say that it was very nice though maybe I was too drunk to really be able to taste it properly!

 

Keisuke crashed at mine (in return for the many times I stayed at his) and when I woke up he had gone as he had to get back to Osaka.