A Week in Hong Kong and a Week in Japan: Apple in Tokyo and Other Strange Fruits

Back here in New York, I reminisce about Tokyo's exhilarating unusual ways. I have many pictures left to share!

It's very hard for me to go to a big city like Tokyo and not visit an Apple Store. Or two - I visited both stores in Tokyo (Ginza and Shibuya). This is the Apple store in Ginza, Tokyo.

The store was busy but not as frantically packed as the Apple stores in NYC. No line outside either.

The store had the complete line-up including the iPhone 4 and the iPad. It still sold the previous-generation iPods (touch and nano) a few days after the announcement of the new generation of iPods. The new models weren't available immediately in the States either, but there the older models were withdrawn from stores. It is in Japan's spirit to be thrifty.

A couple of glass elevators with a big bright apple logo will take you to the other 4 or 5 floors.

A "multimedia" showcase display in the Apple store.

Plenty of iLiterature available in a bookstore. Japan is only starting to catch on the iPad/iPod/iPhone craze.

SoftBank is Japan's official iPhone carrier. The 16GB model is free with a 2-yr contract. The 32GB model costs almost $6 times 24 months (under $140) with a 2-yr contract.

iTunes gift cards in yen, anyone?

I couldn't resist posing next to the big iPhone on the bottom (see right below).

If the Japanese iPhone is this big, I can't wait to see their iPod!?

If you speak Japanese, this is a great way to stay on top of NFL news.

Even if you like Cleveland Browns. (Does anyone other than my friend Ian like them? Perhaps in Japan? No, I didn't think so.)

Ice cream in a convenience store (the sandwich and stick varieties)

Other types of ice cream in the same store.

This craze is about a Russian 1960's children's character named Cheburashka.

Some Cheburashka products for school kids.

This liquid trifecta consists of 1) a tomato juice, 2) a Suntory brand apple juice (Suntory is known to the fans of "Lost in Translation" as the brand of whiskey for which Bill Murray's character was shooting commercials.) and 3) a cup of sake. My iPhone loved the "I ♥ Apple" on the metal Suntory juice bottle.

This cup of sake (really a glass jar) has some subliminal imagery and messages on the back of the label ("A Cup of Happiness" - for drunkards like me?). I was fascinated that it opens like a can of tennis balls.

The tomato juice found a buddy in this squeeze pouch of yummy mango pulp by Minute Maid.

The beginning of Takeshita Street in Harajuku, an area known for it's fashionable youth.

Urban cool chic, Japan style: hamburgers.

50 ways to become a crepe lover.

Here you can dress as an outlandishly fashionable Harajuku girl.

Another cool shop on Takeshita Street.

A food truck.

If your own outfit is not cool enough for Harajuku, why not dress up your dog?

Plenty of fabulous canine fashion.

Check out the costume in the lower left - it says Samurai on the back.

The crepes were hounding me.

And more crepes.

They smelled so good, I had to try one.

This was my crepe of choice (from the display in the previous picture). Since I couldn't order it in Japanese and the choices were not numbered, I took this picture with my phone and showed it to the person who took my order. It tasted fantastic.

A condom store.

You just don't see cartoons with condom characters every day.

This frozen mango pulp slushie was very smooth and delicious. (I'm holding the cup in the foreground.)

A huge Tower Records store in Shibuya at night.

Surprisingly, CDs are still very popular in Japan. The transition to digital music is running slightly behind North America and Europe. I wonder if this music megastore will share the destiny of its American counterparts.

Entering the iconic building.

J-Pop and K-Pop (bubblegum pop in Japanese and Korean) are huge in Japan. They occupy the prime floor space in most music stores. And if I had a yen for each time I heard Katy Perry's "California Girls" in the bars, cafes and restaurants of Japan, well... I would have enough money to buy a bubblegum.

I was surprised that the Brandon Flowers album was out in Japan before its US release date. CDs are notoriously expensive in Japan and record labels add additional tracks to Japanese editions in order to entice customers who could opt for the cheaper import CDs from the US and Europe.