Lunch Counters & Counter Culture

The next morning we headed for late breakfast/early lunch in this tiny tangle of streets. There was a line to this corner noodle stall with only counter service – about 8 or 9 stools – and a fast turnover of mostly men, slurping quickly and loudly. I sat down in the middle of all these guys and looked to see what they were eating. When the guys behind the counter offered me a choice of udon or soba noodles, I chose the brown ones (soba), because that’s what everybody around me was eating. The guys behind the counter laughed, said what I can only assume is Japanese for “great choice!,” made other approving sounds and gave me the thumbs up. They asked me if I wanted tempura, then egg, then broth and each time I said “of course!” since that’s what everybody else had around me. I’m not sure what the tempura was, exactly, a jumble of vegetables maybe? We all had to eat separately due to the counter situation, and even though I was the third one to sit down, none of my other pals got that kind of reception, which was fun for me. :)
At this counter there was no time for good manners. Also no time for spoons! You have to eat quickly before the tempura gets soggy. So I was trying to keep up with my neighbors, but I’m not good at slurping and I was a mess. Broth, egg and scallions everywhere, including all over my shirt and the guy next to me’s shirt (sorry, dude!). I was doing the universal sheepish-shrug-and-smile to basically everybody about the mess and the guys behind the counter just kept laughing and handed me tissues. It was a fun interaction with just a great, great dish of noodles, even though we still aren’t sure exactly what it was!

Later we went on a Harajuku hunt! It’s a shopping neighborhood where young people with a certain visual style gather. We didn’t have much luck – but we found an interesting character in a MAC cosmetics of all places! She was an older woman with wire cat ears, rainbow tights, pink hair, beads and sequins everywhere, even on her face, platform pinks tennis shoes and a crazy rainbow back pack. There was so much going on I didn’t even notice half of it, and it was so quick none of us could snap a pic. We’re hoping to try again on Sunday morning (a supposed day for harajuku hang outs) before we fly out.