Day 2 - Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku

27 March 2009

After a wonderful night of sleep, we got up at 8am, ate a breakfast consisting of apples (mummy insisted, you know, for fibre content) and green tea (free from the Ryokan), and set off for the more "happening" places - Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku. This was undoubtedly our longest day out. :)

First stop - Shibuya (渋谷)

Shopping district! Not that we planned to shop that much (since we were on miniscule budget). Not that the clothes sold there would suit me (too glam! too small! too stylo-mylo!). We went there just to witness the 5 way crossing under giant buildings and tv screens. You can really feel the hustle and bustle of city life when standing there.

Shibuya Station - that's Ohno's handsome mug on the top right

A herd of wildebeest humans :p

Walked around looking for Tokyu Hands - the multi-storeyed decorative DIY store. (Asked for directions quite a lot throughout the whole trip. Thank goodness my limited Japanese didn't fail me. And the people we spoke to were always so nice and accommodating). On the way there we found Choco-Cro - home of the delicious croissant with an entire bar of chocolate baked into it. You can't beat that (unless you're a croissant with an entire bar of butter inside... mmm sinful). The chocolate bars come in milk chocolate, dark chocolate and green tea chocolate. All good (yes we tried all, they have a shop in Harajuku too). They even have strawberry croissants! We didn't eat this though - it was sold out on the day we wanted to try it. :(

So that's all we did in Shibuya - gawk at people crossing the road, gawk at people in shopping centres, and eat croissants. Haha. ^^

Yummy melty chocolatey goodness!

Next stop - Harajuku (原宿)

Home of the outlandishly-dressed teenagers! We didn't see that many oddly dressed (by Japanese standards) people around though - to see the extremes you have to go on a Sunday, to the bridge that leads to Yoyogi Koen. That's where the freaks come out to play (and pose for strangers). And I mean freaks in the nicest possible way. :)

Lunchtime - so we ate at Kyushu Jangara Ramen, which has the most amazing and satisfying Ramen ever. So, so, so good. I cannot rave about it enough. Mummy and I ordered the Kyushu Jangara soup (you can choose from different types) - Zenbuiri (all toppings included). It comes with the most chewy (in Hokkien I believe it's called "kiu kiu", hehe) noodles, chasiu pork, spicy cod roe, mushrooms, a boiled egg and amazingly flavourful stewed pork belly. Normally I'm quite averse to fatty meats... but this was so good I gobbled all of it down. Mmm. *licks lips* And the best part is the tonkotsu (pork bone) broth. Warm, rich, and hearty. *drools*

The epitome of comfort food

So, bellies fed and completely satiated, we walked down Omotesando street in search for Kiddyland, Uniqlo and Oriental Bazaar. I LOVE Kiddyland. I think mummy and I spent 2 hours in there, exploring every nook and cranny of every floor. Everything was SO CUTE I wanted to bring the whole store home with me. In the end we settled for a Domokun for Wenshi and some Totoro merchandise. On to the pictures!

Domokun roxxors your soxxors xD

Yes, those are thumb drives

Adowable

You have saved our lives, we are eternally grateful!

Freakish Elmos - imagine if a horde of this visited you at night - Spooky!

These are peas (out of their pods) - Edamame. Haha. How'd you like to have a vegetable for a softtoy?

After the cute-fest that was Kiddyland, we traipsed off to Oriental Bazaar and bought some Japan-inspired souvenirs for our friends and family back home. Was tempted to buy a Yukata but refrained... coz what I am gonna do with it here? Wear it to fancy dress parties? Heh.

Next up was Uniqlo, which is a super cool casual clothes store with row after row of bottled t-shirts. Bought an anime-inspired tee for Wen Shi and a cutesy Unicorn flying over a galaxy of stars tee for myself. The tees range from 1000-1500 yen, which is considered cheap in Japan. Ouch.

Bottled tees are cool.

Walked down Takeshita street next - jam-packed with people. Had a delicious crepe at the Angels Heart crepe stand - Strawberries, strawberry cheese cake and cream. おいしい！

Crepes galore!

Last stop - Shinjuku (新宿)

Arrived at the hugemongous and confusing Shinjuku station, somehow found our way to the Odakyu sightseeing centre to purchase our Fuji-Hakone passes, then made our way out of one of the many exits to look for Mentsu-Dan, an Udon shop that this blog recommended.

Mummy had an atsukake udon and I had a cheese-egg udon. We topped it up with some eggplant and prawn tenpura. Yum yum! This place was cheap too!

Cheese + Egg + Udon = happy well-fed me

As we had the directions to all the places we wanted to go defined by Shinjuku station exits, we went through the station again to exit near Takashimaya Times Square (note: they charge you a minimum of 160 yen everytime you enter through the station, even if you didn't travel anywhere). Takashimaya Times Square is hugemongous. We went straight to the 14th floor and had a second dinner at Katsukura (I know I know... GLUTTONS). :D Again, this place was recommended by Camemberu and For the Love of Food.

Katsukura sells Tonkatsu - a deep fried pork cutlet which you dip in yummy sesame-soy based sauce. We had the yummy fillet cutlet and snow crab cream croquette set. It came with more pickles (I love Japanese pickles), miso soup, sushi rice and tons and tons of cabbage (which was yummy too!).

*drool*

Right before tucking in

Mummy mixing the sesame and soy-based sauce

After that we went to the basement of Takashimaya to drool at the exquisite and unique food items that were crazy expensive but oh-so-tempting. Beautifully crafted cakes, sweets and biscuits, cherry blossom-themed food delicacies, grilled seafood of all sorts, creatively designed bento sets... we were in heaven. Obviously couldn't eat anything after 2 dinners though. Haha.

Decided to walk off our bloatedness by walking to Kabukicho in the slight drizzle - the red light district of Tokyo! Kabukicho was just like we expected - lots of bling, "girl's bars", pachinko parlours, drunken people, and tourists out to experience the night life. Didn't see any Yakuza, or wouldn't recognise them if we did anyway. There were lots of men standing around holding umbrellas... random men (mostly in suits, looking like they just came from a long day at work) would pass by, duck under their umbrellas and disappear "discretely" into one of those girl's bars. I shudder to think at how many of them have wives and children waiting at home. No sight of the famed host clubs though. Not that I was looking. Haha.

Bling bling. The hot guy on the top left corner is a host! I only found out after I googled "smappa". Heh.

Tired after a long day of walking, we decided to return to our hotel... got back around 10.30pm. Zzz. After bathing, mummy promptly fell asleep... and it is here that the adventures of Domokun begin! MOOhaha.

Domokun escapes the scary clutches of the plastic bag and surveys the strange land before him.

Domokun tentatively approaches the huge head, waiting for the right moment to prance.

"PREPARE TO DIE, HUGE HEAD!"

The huge head is a bit too big though. Hmm...

"I shall FEAST on TOES instead!"

Err. Yes. So. Ahem. After a nice and fulfilling meal of toes... Domokun drifted off into peaceful slumber, and so did I. ^^