The patient is hopeless

The patient is hopeless, originally uploaded by haruspex.

Day Two: Tuesday 11 April 2006

Slept in till 10am without hardly realising, since our hotel room is almost pitch black with the shutter closed. Sandwich and coffee for breakfast (not very Japanese!) at a "French" chain coffee shop called DuTour. Then off to Asakusa to see the Buddhist Sensoji Temple. The oldest temple in Tokyo, built in 628. Bought a random I Ching fortune. R got a great one, but I got the exact reverse:

No. 59 BAD FORTUNE
Your mind is unsettled wondering to leave or to stay. All your deeds and works are both indefinite, suffering from so many troubles. The moon want to be clear and brilliant but dark clouds come to cover it. Your mind doesn't stay sill and will loose right way.

*Your request will be hare to be granted. *The patient is hopeless. *The lost article will not be found. *Let's stop building a new house and removal. *Stop starting a trip. *Stop marriage of any kind and new employment.

Not a very good omen for someone on the 2nd day of a 6-month overseas trip!

Taking the train to Yoyogi, the rain start to come down quite heavily. We walked to the Meiji Jigu Shrine, built in 1920 to commemorate the reign of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. To enter you have to walk down a path through a forest of cedar trees. In the rain and mist it was all very Totoro. We definitely needed a big leaf on a stalk to use as an umbrella. It was all so beautiful and serene.

It was a completely different scene at nearby Harajuku. We walked along the famous Takeshita Dori - the colourful laneway packed with teen and fashion stores - including lots of punk, goth and lolita clothing stores. Lunched at the Double Tall Cafe on Omotesando (mexican on rice - again not very Japanese).

More window shopping down Meiji Dori. Found the Pink Dragon rockabilly store with crazy interior design mentioned in Tokyo Damage Report - the website which we're basing much of our Tokyo itinerary on. Wandered around Shibuya a little more before taking the train back to the hotel, to drink some Kirin beer, upload some photos to flickr and write up my journal.