ladynox25

Saturday evening,

hoya99 and I did laundry. However, due to language difficulties, we had some trouble operating the nifty little washer/dryer, with the end result that our clothes came out wetter after we'd put them in for a second dry cycle. We still don't know what we did wrong, but we hung them up and hoped for the best.

Sunday morning, I was up around 5 am[1] and checked on the clothes: still wet, but drying, slowly. I put on the last clean, dry pair of socks (which happened to be

hoya99's) and puttered around, cleaning and straightening up the place. His folks were due in that night and I wanted to make sure the place was clean. I stepped out onto the balcony to water the plants there and saw that the moon[2] was very clear in the sky and so I went up to the roof to see how clear it was up there. I made my way to the corner of the garden and my jaw just about dropped. Mt. Fuji, which you almost never see from Tokyo, because the weather is almost never clear enough, was even *clearer* than it had been the first morning we saw it! And with the sunrise touching the snowcap, it was gorgeous. I ran down to get my camera, but, alas, my batteries were dead.

So it was that I woke

hoya99 up early in the morning to tell him that Fuji was so very very clear this morning and he had to get up and see how pretty it was and oh by the way couldn't he take a picture for me since my batteries were dead. Anyone who knows

hoya99 knows that he is not, repeat, not a morning person, but he got up anyway. Now *that's* true love. *grin* I gave him the pair of socks I had on and stayed indoors while he went up to the roof and took pictures. When he came back, he agreed that it had been well worth it.

Once our clothes were dry and put away, and breakfast consumed, we headed out, back to Shibuya. The first time we were there, I was so beat that we didn't get any further than Hachiko Square before we had to leave. But today I was fresh off the mark, and

hoya99 led me up street and down, into some shops he likes to frequent when he goes there, through the love hotel district[3], and into a unagi[4] restaurant for lunch, which was quite delicious and tender. That was a bit of an adventure, actually, since

hoya99 was having trouble with the kanji on the menu, he wasn't sure he'd ordered the right thing until it got to the table! *grin*

After lunch, we headed to Harajuku, to see the "beautiful people" (as

hoya99 likes to call them; I call them "pretty people") on parade, wearing some of the fashions I'd seen displayed earlier in the week. The costumes were daring, striking, some were sexy, some were cute, but the one thing they all had in common was their outrageousness. It was so totally extreme, it was funny and a little bit awful, too, but you had to give the girls (it was mostly girls) credit for the balls it takes to wear something like that, not to mention credit for sheer creativity.

From there we wandered around and through Yoyogi Park, taking in the various groups relaxing or playing or indulging their hobbies, as the case might be. Of particular note were about 5 or so groups of young men, numbering about 5 each, dressed like some extreme version of the 50's James Dean's Rebel, with monster hair, dancing endlessly to LOUD raucous music. Also in the park were several bands, all playing pretty well, but, unfortunately for my ears, all playing very LOUD as well. I hope none of them thought me impolite, but, really, I had to put my fingers in my ears. We swung back through Harajuku on our way back to the station and caught some more "pretty people" as we went. At the station there was quite a crush of people trying to get in but we managed to make it in good time.

On our way home, we picked up sushi and enjoyed it and sumo until

hoya99's parents arrived, at which point, we were busy helping them with their bags, etc., and had a little bit of a chat until it was time for me to go to bed.

[1] I know I'm an early riser, but 5 am is still super-early for me.
[2] Which was almost full, and starting to set.
[3] We saw an older gentleman with a goofy look on his face escorting a younger lady with, as

hoya99 said, a "professional" look about her, go into one. Which caused us much amusement.
[4] Freshwater eel, filleted and lightly grilled in sauce, served over rice.

To be continued...