Day 5:
"Today we woke up and went to Shibuya, the shopping district. On arrival I was so shocked at how big and busy everything was. We left the station down one of the many escalators and onto the famous Shibuya crossing. We stopped and watched 100s or even a 1000 people cross all at one. It was so cool. We then wandered off, not knowing where we were going or what too. I had planned to shop quite a bit in Tokyo, as I heard it was a fashion capitol (in the words of Tyra Banks from ANTM). The first store we entered was huge, I think 13 floors all together and all woman's clothing. I decided it would probably be good if Charlie and I split up as I wanted to shop and didn't want to bore him. He would have been bored for sure, as I spent most of the day shopping at various stores such as forever 21 and uniqlo to name a few places I visited before I moved to Harajuku. While I was still in the Shibuya region I decided to stop and have an ice green tea frappe from the Starbucks opposite the famous crossing, as a break from the constant trying on clothes and being in awe of the high lit up neon buildings.
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| Outside Shibuya Station |
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| The famous crossing view from StarbucksJust before moving to Shibuya, I went to a food market at the bottom of the station, where I bought some delightful bird shaped sweet buns for Charlie and I to have when we met up later in the day. |
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| One of the bird sweet buns. It had a custard filling |
I then went to Harajuku station and enter the tiny and incredibly crowded lanes of Harajuku. I had always wanted to go here after reading about it in magazines and online, and well admittedly from Gwen Stefani's song about Harajuku Girls! The shops ranges from pop cute candy lolita stores to dark gothic punk clothing outlets. It was all very exciting and also a bit too much in the heat (another day over 40'C). I wondered about for a good 2 hours until I started to feel exhausted and ill, so I decided to head to Yoyogi Park to meet Charlie early.
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| Entrance to Harujuku |
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| A selection of photos of the shops |
On arrival I was greeted by a massive shrine entrance, I don't know what they were called but they were impressive. I waited for Charlie for 30 mins, I thought he was late, but turns out I was massively early. It was nice to rest in the shade with a drink however.
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| One of Yoyogi Park Entrances |
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| Cask of wine or was it Sake given to the shrine |
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| Meiji Shrine |
We enter the park and walked to the famous Meiji Shrine, dedicated to and Emperor and Empress Shoken, who were beloved by the nation. It was very pretty, and thankfully not too crowded. I decided I needed a proper sit down by this point, and ended up sitting for more than 20 minutes on a bench. This is very unlike me, as I am usually a get up and go go go kind of person. We ended up not stay too long as I took a turn for the worse and decided to listen to my body. We headed back just in time before a massive storm occurred also, which was refreshing in the heat we had been enduring. We then had dinner and a few drinks in the hostels bar. All served by Take, who could not pronounce my name but he did make some lovely cocktails.
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| Nui's Bar at the Hostel |
Tomorrow is the last day.. Kinda sad. I could live here happily if I learnt the language properly."
Zoe
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