~TOKYO~

Christmas Day in Shibuya



After waking to find the magical Ice Kingdom destroyed by the evil Meltor, (see previous entries) Team Christmas headed to the station to enlist the help of Mr Penguin, the omnipresent, misunderstood shadowy lord of the Tokyo rail network.



But before that, lunch. Christmas lunch was a tasty spaghetti concoction served in the cutest little establishment known as "Afternoon Tea", which came complete with adjoining tea-cosy shoppe so that you too can aspire to one day hide away in that cosy country cottage.

On to Shibuya. Famous for being, well, a really busy pedestrian crossing, there were many shops and interesting things to see around the area. Being the sad fanpeople that we are, we had to go to the (possibly world's busiest) Starbucks, in the giant building with the tv screen, because that's where the camera crew had to go when filming a scene at the junction for Lost In Translation. Turns out that they weren't allowed to film in the street, so they ordered coffee and sneakily filmed from the window above. It seems that they were very lucky to get a seat by the window - we did not get a seat, (as most people) but we did manage to get by the window, in an uncomfortable bent position below some sort of rafter. Basically, the place was crammed with people standing sipping their coffees, which it didn't seem we were allowed to leave the building with, yet it continued to become more and more full by the minute, as orders were taken in one second in the queue, and drinks only came in one size in order to minimise choosing time. Madness.







We shopped, we snapped, and we saved Pingu, ally of Mr Penguin, from his cramped prison, where he was being used as a building-block for the evil HMV empire. Literally.



By the end of the day, evil was banished, and I had conquered Shibuya at last.



Yes, that's real.

We headed back to the hotel, had an Italian Christmas dinner in celebration, and headed up to the 39th floor bar, where we accosted with our lethally strong cocktails. But we made it. And that's how we saved Christmas.