After Minori left, I decided to hang around in Himeji and do some exploring rather than returning to boring old Ako and chores. I like exploring cities, just wandering around, going down interesting looking streets and into strange looking shops, and generally being a genki gaijin. I kicked things off, as I always do, with a wander up Miyuki-dori. I hadn't even entered the arcade when I came across two young, brightly dressed guys standing around handing out flyers. When they saw me, I overheard one of them dare the other to talk to me, so I saved him the trouble, hehe. I wandered up and grinned at them, asking them what they were doing. They happily handed me a flyer and explained that there was a T-shirt sale on the 6th floor of the Forus building. I needed some new clothes and was heading that way, so thanked them and said I'd check it out.

From there, I walked all the way up Miyuki-dori, just checking out the shops and watching people. I wandered right up to the Chum where I grabbed a quick coffee and sent some long overdue messages to various people, then hit the streets for a bit more exploring. Eventually I came to the big east-west mall that intersects Miyuki-dori, and realised I'd never explored it on the west side of the main street. So I checked it out and discovered that it was mostly dead, hehe. That said, there were a couple of really nice looking restaurants over there that I wouldn't mind trying at some point. A semi-decent looking Thai, a very posh Chinese and a beautiful, modern Japanese.

On the way back I walked past what appeared to be a small beer garden, too, but which I later found out was the #3 oden restaurant in Japan. It's a hawker style open air stall place, where you buy your food from one of the stalls then sit and eat at the tables. Totally perfect for the summer, w00t! From there it was back to civilisation and to the mighty Forus building. The shops in the west side of Forus have heaps of totally crazy Japanese fashion and are awesome to wander around. It's not my kind of clothing, but it's fun to watch the high school and university students hunting through it all and also to see what they're wearing while they do it, haha. Japanese people definitely have a certain 'je ne sais quoi' when it comes to style, and most of them look fantastic even in very simple clothes. Not to mention when they bust out what, in a Western country, would be totally bizarre. I kinda wish I could do it, too, but that kind of fashion just doesn't work with my gaijin size and looks :P

I eventually made it to the 6th floor, where the t-shirt shop the guys near the station had been advertising was. I was really surprised by the store, actually. Here in drab Himeji, was a totally out there, massively brightly coloured and totally crazily genki shop. It had massive piles of t-shirts and accessories everywhere (some new and some used), graffiti on the walls, roof and floor, crazy sculptures here and there and brightly coloured plaster animal figurines scattered everywhere. Not to mention the strangely clad sales assistants, hehe. It was really laid back, really grungey and had heaps of life.

If you know me well, you know I'm not so big on the grunge/'alternative' thing, and admittedly I did have to force myself to go in. I was really glad I did though, as it turned out to be a lot of fun. I got talking to one of the sales assistants, in Japanese, which was great practise. While doing that, I found some crazy t-shirts I really wanted, but unfortunately they were all too small. So the guy ran around and found me some even crazier ones, haha. I ended up buying 6 t-shirts, which are all pretty out there. Very different to my normal style, but for some reason I feel the need for change. Perhaps it's just that I've become more confident (or more Japanese!) here and am more prepared to wear some crazier clothes :)

Anyway, after my crazy t-shirt experiences, I headed across to the big book store near Bon Marche. There, I chanced across a strange little book about Japanese fashion and my long searched for Ghost in the Shell manga by Masamune Shirou, and even managed to pick up two English novels (The Da Vinci Code and The Bone Collector). I headed back to Starbucks on the off chance of catching my friend Kazuyo, but she wasn't there. Since I was at Starbucks anyway, and had some books to read, I decided to grab a coffee and chill for a while. Yes, I have succumbed, somewhat, to Starbucks. The horror! I guess I realised it's true, though - good coffee is very hard to get in Japan. And Starbucks do do a good job. I wouldn't say I'm addicted, but it's certainly an attractive option.

It got really busy, though, so I headed off after about 20 minutes. After some more walking around, it was heading towards dinner time so I hit up Doma Doma for some good old fashioned, unhealthy fried bits and pieces. Good times! From there, I went to my final stop for the night, Tiger Pub. To my surprise, Hisako was working, so I had a chat to her for a while. A few people I knew came in, so I had a chat to them for a while, before calling it a night at just after 10pm. I had to get home for school the next day, hehe. I was glad I'd stayed in Himeji, though, and had a look around. It's like people often say, there's a lot more to a city beneath the surface, if you're prepared to look for it. I found a couple of interesting shops, bought some new t-shirts, found a new restaurant or two to check out and generally satisfied my gaijin curiosity. Good times indeed.