Free and important destination: Meiji Shrine

The Meiji Shrine is another place to go which is also free. It is located right by the Harajuku station and where the Harajuku kids hang out.



The Meiji shrine is dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken

The only thing I did that cost money was write down a prayer and donate 100 yen to the shrine.

Here is a video of me writing out my prayer:

Barrels of wine...

Barrels of sake dedicated to the shrine...

Write your own prayer and make an offering to the shrine.


Other visitors' prayers on display...

We even got to see a wedding!

The central sanctuary

Smart, cheap shopping in Ameyoko!

Before we even came to Japan, Steph and I had been so excited to hit up Ameyoko, "Candy Store Alley". After World War II, Ameyoko was basically the black market. Now it's a bargain area (think flea market but better) where people can get imported products for cheap. Ameyoko is in Ueno, a district in Taito which is a ward in Tokyo. I know. It is set up right by the Ueno Train Station.

We were very careful about spending our money though. I mean, HELLO, we didn't come to Japan to spend our yen on American stuff when we live there. And to us, it's not that much cheaper. However, we WERE able to get some other cool stuff.

Now because this is an HONEST, budget blog, I will say that personally, it's a bit hard to shop for authentic Japanese souvenirs here as this place seems to cater towards shopping for Western products.

Here are some photos to give you an idea of the things you can find in Ameyoko:

Yummy street vendor goodies with friendly, cute kids. They're so adorable!

Lots of different types of fish for good prices.

See this dress? It cost only 599 yen. You bet your ass I bought it! I've always wanted to look like those cute Japanese women on those game shows who are dressed up to look like obedient little schoolgirls! Kidding.

Big crowds. I got a little overwhelmed at one point actually. It's okay to take breaks.

We took our break at Mister Donut on one of the side streets. Now Mister Donut wasn't cheap at all. It cost me about $5 for all this. And the donut wasn't even that good but that's probably due to my spoiled, unhealthy, American taste buds. I think it's a bit more health conscious here in Japan because it wasn't sweet at all - at least not to me. Although it did taste VERY FRESH. Maybe that's why fat people don't live in Japan. Maybe we Americans can learn from them heh? I'm not kidding this time.

Now we did come across some really beautiful postcards for 86 yen each. That's about 86 cents. I think it's 100 yen for 97 cents so do the math yourself. Now, I have only been in Japan a few days so I don't know if this is cheap or not. To me postcards seem to all be the same = pricey. But whatever. I did pick some up though just because they were just too freakin cute!

Coin-operated restaurants in Tokyo

I actually got here last night with Stephenie and man that was a long flight! We're in Asakusa right now at Khaosan Smile Guesthouse. It's so cute here. Tokyo is really pretty but I'm even more excited about going to Shibuya and Shinjuku!

Last night we had our first taste of coin-operated restaurants here in Tokyo. Apparently, they have some too in Japantown in San Francisco but I never really knew that so I'll probably check it out once we get back.Surprisingly, the food here is rather cheap! And when I say cheap, I mean at the coin-operated restaurant, a dish can be as low as 350 yen! That is equivalent to about 3 dollars and fifty cents. Forgive me for not using the proper symbols but I really can't work these Japanese keyboards well!

So you're probably wondering....what the hell is a coin-operated restaurant? Well, here's how the process goes like this:

You look at their huge menu and for every item comes a number and a picture of the dish.

 

You choose which dish you want.

You go to a machine with a bunch of buttons which resembles a vending machine. (Note: this isn't the same vending machine as the one in the above restaurant. I forgot to take a picture of that one. This one is from another coin-operated restaurant called Pepper Lunch, but I posted this pic to give you an idea of how it looks.)

The buttons have numbers that match the numbers on the menu (or it has a picture of the dish on the button), so all you have to do is put your coins (or bills, they give change) in the slot and then punch the proper button number to print out a ticket of what you want. 

Then you take your ticket to the counter so that they can start preparing your dish.

Your food does not come out of the machine. It is not a food vending machine.

Your food is prepared hot and fresh by real people. 

You don't really talk to them except for saying thank you (in Japanese of course!) I wonder why this is. To eliminate an extra step in the process and make it faster? To discourage speaking? To prove that if your dishcomes out wrong you have no one to blame but yourself -"hey buddy, you pressed the wrong button!?" Haha, or is it to simply and smartly encourage efficiency?

Well, whatever the reason, it's A WONDERFUL THING. I am all for coin-operated restaurants.

Mmmmm. It was huge! I definitely got full off of it. And it was not only cheap but DELICIOUS. 

Whoever said Japan was expensive? Everyone, apparently. They so do not deserve that reputation because everyone gets all spooked when they go to Japan and people scare them that it's so-called expensive.

Stop spreading rumors, yo. Japan is awesome and NOT expensive. If you were there and think it's expensive then your ass was probably ripped off. Haha!