Two week trip to Tokyo and Tokyo Disney - day 5

[fifi500]

Day 5 – Harajuku - Sunday 2nd September

A late start to the day as DD slept until 11.40am. We got sorted, had some brunch and then walked through Sunshine city and Ikebukero to the main station where we caught the JR line to Harajuku. From here you simply come out of the station and cross the road and you are at the top Take≈≈≈≈a Street – the famous fashion street. Our first stop was the huge Diaso (100-yen store) but today was not a buying day we were just looking to see what we could buy, and it would be a lot, however we did pick up some Disney print shelf liners for her new accommodation tomorrow.

The street was rammed with people, but we did manage to visit all of the stores on DD wish list. Closet Child (2nd hand Lolita fashion shop), Bodyline (Lolita store) – cardigan purchased for ¥300, Disney Store (which is on the 2nd floor of the Harajuku Alta store) and Wego (regular fashion store).

Take≈≈≈≈a Street was extremely busy, extremely colourful and extremely loud. The shops are piled on top of each other. It also has plenty of street food including amazing crepes and giant rainbow candy flosses. This was the very first place in Japan that we encountered people smoking in the street, we thought it would be more prevalent but it’s quite the exception.

At the end of the street we spied the clock on the side of the Moshi Moshi Box which is the Harajuku information center. This is aimed to help foreign tourists and is a free Wi-Fi spot, they also give free maps of the area. The clock is a time capsule clock designed by Sebastian Masuda, a Japanese artist and many of you will recognize his work from the “Kawaii: Japan’s Cute culture” exhibit in the Bijutsu-kan Gallery, Epcot.

We then made our way along the main road, Meiji Dori to see what we could find, and we did find a couple of DD must visit shops on the way including Kinji Used Clothing. This was a huge second-hand store although it was much more main stream vintage fashion than she was looking for, so no purchases were made.
We also visited Laforet a department store full of high-end boutique type stores, which were really interesting to explore but too expensive for us to buy in.

Next was Kiddyland a 5 floor Japanese character goods store, with departments for Studio Ghibli, Miffy, Snoopy, Rilakkuma, Hello Kitty, Star Wars and Disney plus probably more, it was huge and busy, so we certainly did not see everything but a must if anyone is looking for any character products, you will probably find it in here somewhere.
This is along Omotesando (street) and is much different from the anticipated Harajuku. For us it’s very reminiscent of Orchard Road in Singapore and has lots of high-end shops. For example, Kiddyland is next to Chanel and other nearby store Vera Wang, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton etc.

As we came out it was now dusk, and we got to see another Japanese iconic sight the Mario Kart racers, apparently an experience you can pay to dress up in Mario costumes and race around the streets of Tokyo. I guess like most cities, driving is not the standard we are familiar with, and after a couple of scary taxi rides, it is not some thing I would want to attempt but the participants looked to be having fun.

It was getting fairly late by now, so we retraced our steps back to the station and back to Ikebukero. We did stop in the Ikebukuro branch of closet child and DD purchased an Angelic Pretty Disney back pack for a good price.

I will gloss over the rest of the evening as unfortunately been a disappointing day for DD. Visiting Harajuku had been a dream of hers for many years and her expectations were high for a paradise filled with Lolita fashion and everything pink, where her Angelic pretty dresses would be the normal attire. Instead it was busy, noisy and filled with tourists and shops of tourist tat.

She expected this;

And found this;

The bubble had fully burst, and she wanted to stay not a moment longer in Japan. I think over tiredness and hunger had a large part in her reaction but with her big move into student accommodation to take place the next day we had a late night with lots of talking and tissues.

Next - moving day and Typhoon Jebi

[Pumpkin Pie]

Thank you for this. It looks really busy and I think I will give that street a miss as I am a bit long in the tooth to wear anything like the above!

[StorybookCircus]

I’m sorry your daughter was disappointed, I’d heard that you need to go to Harajuku on Sundays to see people in Lolita gear but still not to the same extent as the 90s and 00s. I think by the time we heard about Lolita fashion in England, the Japanese had moved on! Good to see there are still lots of cool shops to visit though. I love the (somewhat creepy) drippy statue in Epcot, thanks for teaching me more about the artist!
I know a couple of people who did the real-life Mario Kart...you need to have a driver’s licence but that’s the only restriction! There are lots of videos on YouTube that were filmed with GoPros. I can’t drive, but I wouldn’t do this if you paid me!

[AntonyJ]

Your poor daughter - crushed like that.

Is it the folks dressing up on a Sunday, stopped long time ago do you think?

[kk20]

really good reading your days so far. We have a DD who has the same expectation regarding Harajuku nut have a few months to try and temper the expectations...