My first visitors

My first visit from Switzerland has come here this weekend, a blog reader by the way, so take this as a good example... Joanna and her boyfriend Raphael arrived on Saturday and we met up on Sunday noon at Shinjuku station. They arrived hungry and so I took them to an Okonomiyaki place, since this is a dish that probably most people would like and is very unknown in Europe. Seemed to be a good pick.
After I took them to the Imperial Gardens near Tokyo main station. The park is really vast, it`s just that the Emperor is bloking visitor from most of it, so only a small part is walkable. Only twice a year you can visit some more and also parts of the palace from what I`ve heard. It`s December 23rd, the Emperors birthdate and some other random date. We were talking about the unhappy princess Masako who`s living inside those walls when walking around.
We then went to Harajuku station and Raphael asked to go to a cafe and sit down for a while. I may have been a little thoughtless chasing them around right away. If I remember how I was jetlagged the first days... We went to a little French cafe near Omotesando. The waiter was French and confirmed our previous conversation about the French and how they can sometimes have their arrogant ways. (P.S.: if you want to protest against this racist remark, both Joanna and Raphael have French roots and a French passport). He made it quite clear that someone just drinking something was not quite welcome.
To see some of the much talked-about cherry blossoms, we went to Yoyogi park. Walking there the two of them could sample some of the local weirdos of Harajuku, Goth Lolitas and Co. posing for the cameras. Then at the entrance there were some 50s dancecrews performing, with very 50s hairdos and outfits, that was cool. Yoyogi park was crowded with picknickers sitting under the cherry trees and mostly drinking. The blossoms are not yet fully open, but already a nice sight.
To see some more Harajuku fashion we walked down Takeshita Dori and had a look at some of the clothes stores there. Then we took the train to Shibuya, Joanna and Raphael could enjoy the sight of the famous Shibuya crossing and we went for dinner in a Yakitori restaurant. On the way back to the station we saw three guys that looked suspiciously Yakuza-style, so another good sight...
We had dinner again last night, this time tempura. The main event and an embarassing one for me was when I used the ashtray as a plate for tempura... I just picked one of the empty "plates" in front of me and put my fried vegetable in it. The waitress was quick to come to our table and explain to me that I should not use THAT as a plate. We had quite a laugh... Well, I think it was really clean anyway, so not much harm done. Joanna and I went for a drink after. She was quite staring at some dolled up guy with hair dyed in blonde on the street. As she had said before, some of them "sont un peu effeminés".
Joanna and Raphael unfortunately leave Tokyo for Nikko now. But they left some Swiss goodies for me: Gruyere cheese, Swiss magazines and the Maggi Mix for "Zueri Gschnaetzlets", so I can cook that here sometimes.