Shibuya and the Special Melon…
Ya means valley according to our majestic Japanese CCW contact here Gen. Gen is a bit like the key to Pandora’s box. Not understanding any Japanese characters means that everything is unknowable. Although very pictorial in some ways – meaning is always floating out of reach. So I am surrounded by signs – but ones that have no signifier. It is easy to see the power of a translator here – a gatekeeper to meaning.
TWS Aoyama is in Shibuya – a central (and as mentionned before) extremely expensive area of Tokyo. About 15 minutes walk away is the famous Tokyo 5 way pedestrian crossing. We walked through this today as we orientated ourselves in the area a bit. After the snow of a couple of days ago – it was raining today. Yorkshire type rain – the fine rain that wets people through as Peter Kay might say. Millions of people got out their umbrellas and I was fascinated by the visual disruption and pattern these created and shot some nice videos using my little Samsung HD camera. I am hoping for more rain.
We had great fun in the supermarket afterwards. Food – expecially fruit and vegetables – are extremely expensive. There was a special melon in the supermarket. And when I mean special I mean 3,800 yen. According to XE.com that’s £29. It even had a special red ribbon rosette stuck on the top. Mushrooms and beansprouts were the only inexpensive items – about 100 yen – 80p. A single potato was also 80p…
I have a feeling I will mostly be eating beansprouts and mushrooms…
