Shibuya
Step count: 23,864 Km’s: 18.79
10.03.2024 - 10.03.2024 24 °C
Chris and I woke up at 4am sharp in our tiny bed. Trying to live by the wise words of Taylor Swift: jet lag is a choice!
At 7 we wandered to Starbucks for their local vegan selections. A blueberry bagel with cream cheese and a donut plus much needed coffee. We hit the conbini for more coffee on the way back to the hotel.
From here we got ready and then headed out for the train station. With Google maps + excellent signage we easily got to our platform and station no problem in about 20 minutes. Walking out we found the famous Shibuya Scramble crossing!
After this we wandered to an onigiri shop where I tried a salted ume plum onigiri. It was rich and salty and delicious.
Next on the itinerary we were perfectly on time for Nintendo Tokyo. Like I mean to the minute. And you all know how much joy that brings me!! For all those itinerary haters, you can suck it, we’ve been nearly perfectly following my itinerary. Failure to prepare is preparing to fail!!
Nintendo Tokyo was in Shibuya Parco, another massive mall. We made our way to the sixth floor and were both feeling emotional seeing all of the nostalgic stuff! We started off browsing the other anime shops, then we hit up the pokemon centre. We spent about half an hour just browsing and Chris bought some super cute charizard chopsticks.
Over in the Nintendo shop I spotted some gachapon machines that had some old school Nintendo controller keychains in them, so we both decided to try it. The machine made Nintendo sounds when you put the coins in and when you pressed the button for your toy! Cute. I got one of the grey ones I was hoping for. Chris also got Ryder some Nintendo origami papers.
After shopping the sixth floor we wandered down the mall floor by floor and browsed. We had time to kill before our lunch spot opened and so we walked around and window shopped. Saw some beautiful items, 90% of which were outside of our budgets.
Down in the basement level we were still early for the restaurant to open so we wandered around and saw another spot I had pinned for a food option, Jikasai Mensho, which had 4 vegan options. We thought we could split one, but they had a one item per person rule. But because the bowls of ramen were so cheap ($11.50 each) we decided to go for it. I put on my bib and mentally prepared for two meals.
This did not disappoint. We ordered miso ramen and a tonkatsu ramen. The miso was earthy and rich and the noodles were thicker than the other one. The tonkatsu was made with that tingling sichuan pepper and it was even more rich and full of umami. We slurped our way through the bowls no problem, both loving our choices but sharing sips of each others’ broths.
Still wanting to try the vegan spot I had pinned, we headed over to Izakaya Masaka for some kaarage. We ordered gyoza that were super smoky and nicely fried. The karaage had a yuzu black pepper mayo sauce and came with cabbage. It was really juicy and chickeny! I also got a fresh squeezed lemon sour which was refreshing.
Digesting our two meals, we wandered out of the mall to hit up another Tower Records. This one was 9 floors tall, so I decided to leave Chris to browse while I checked out some vintage clothing stores and Zara. We also hit up another Disney store, this one shaped like a castle, and another Onitsuka Tiger.
Back to Shibuya Crossing we were ready for our free walking tour, but the guides were nowhere to be found! We found various group members, then I messaged the hosts who replied that they were two guys in black t-shirts. Typically these tours will start with bright coloured shirts and a cheerleader type guide with a backpack on and it’s super obvious who you’re meeting. Our group came together with about 20 people and we started the tour by learning about Hachiko, the dog who waited by the subway for his owner every day after work, including for 10 years after his owner died.
Unfortunately it seemed our guide was in training and was just reading off of his phone for most of the tour. His trainer, Oscar, kept jumping in to give us more tips and stories, and then as we walked to our next location I could hear him giving our trainee guide feedback. We kept this in mind as we enjoyed the rest of this mildly clunky tour.
We walked around Shibuya and went to the top of Miyashita Park to see the greenery, a tiny skate park and volleyball courts. We also saw a park worker cutting the grass BY HAND with scissors to get around the fencing and the signage. Wow!
Next up was Shibuya Nonbei Yokocho, a drinking alley much like Golden Gai. We learned that these watering holes are an important part of salary man culture where business men are expected to go out after work for team building and heavy drinking. So much so that they will often miss the last train home, sleep in the street and pickup a fresh button down shirt from the combini the next day! Once they down one of the many varieties of hangover potions they are ready to go for another day of work.
Next we wandered through Harajuku and saw Cat Street with plenty of boujee shops and bright lights. Before heading into Takeshita Street, the guides told us about the welfare issues surrounding animal cafes and while they said they couldn’t tell us what to do, they wanted to implore us to do research before supporting these types of things. We loved this!!
Next we walked down the Omotesando which is the lead up street to the Meiji shrine. We also saw (and later rode) the famous mirrored escalator!
Last stop on the tour was Meiji Shrine. We learned the etiquette for entering which was to bow at the Tori gates and walk through on the left hand side. The middle of the gate is reserved for the deities and spirits to walk through.
We saw the offerings of French wine and Nihonshu part way down the walkway to the shrine. Once at the end, we learned about the pre-praying cleansing ritual of washing your hands and mouth, and participated, though not all members of our group did. Inside the shrine we learned about a few of the things to do including the prayer sequence, the plaques for good wishes, and the fortunes, which I had read about and was hoping to try. We said goodbye and paid a tip to our guide.
On our own now we thought we’d try the prayer. Since this was a Shinto shrine, it’s the place where you can wish for things to happen in your life. We’ll also visit Buddhist temples which is more where you ask for forgiveness or give up the heaviness you carry from your past. For the prayer, you offer a small amount of yen to the shrine and our guide had told us the 5 yen coin with the hole in the middle was said to be the most lucky. I had two of those in my purse so I gave one to Chris and we pondered what we should wish for before we approached the window. Chris said he thought we put the coin into the white boxes at the beginning, so we did, but it seemed a bit weird because they said they were for earthquake relief funds and the Red Cross. We approached the window only to realize that we were supposed to put our offering in the slotted boxes in front of us, and so we had accidentally put our two most lucky coins into the earthquake relief fund. We backed away, knowing we did it wrong and searched for more coins. I had one yen coins, perhaps this would be 1/5 as lucky?! Shoot. We once again approached the window. We put our one yen coins in the box, then bowed twice, clapped twice, and bowed again. Then we were supposed to say our prayer or wish. We looked around and walked away, and it would be 15 minutes later as we were walking back to Harajuku that we both realized we forgot to wish for anything! I said this is probably because we have all that we need in life already.
I drew a fortune stick, number 18. My fortune, I thought, was quite pertinent for me. These poems are ones of the two emperors who founded Meiji. They wrote a combined 130,000 poems and now 30 of them are written on beautiful paper ready to be someone’s fortune. We also read a few of the plaques for well wishes, and we headed back to the gates to carry on with our day.
Walking around Harajuku we saw repeats of all the luxury stores, including a massive lineup to enter Chanel. I am floored by the wealth in the world and the many tourists who come here for this kind of elaborate shopping. The people and fashion watching has been excellent though!
We wandered in and out of shops as we wished as we had plenty of time to meander. One of the shop owners let us know his vintage t-shirts are internationally imported. We saw late 90’s Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys tees ranging from $60-$200 CAD. Even a lightly stained Chiefs zip up! I showed photos of my trip to KC and pictures of the stadium. We also saw Carhartts, either intentionally painted or just truly someone’s old work pants, for a ridiculous $230 CAD. Chris is wondering if he can start his own business with his old work crap he usually throws away!!
As we wandered, while waiting for a light, Chris and I were knelt down rummaging through our bag. A woman wearing a white shirt and blue cardigan circled us, while staring straight down at me. It gave me chills instantly, and as I watched her circle all the way around us I grabbed our bag and said, “Chris, we’re walking.” He responded “What?! Why! I’m not done with the bag!” And stood in place. Sense the tone man! As we waited amongst a larger group of people she kept staring straight at me, or straight through me it felt like. It was completely chilling. Weirdly, during our tour we were told legends of ghostly women in Harajuku who stand on street corners and stare at you, making you feel sadness and dread. Perhaps I had one of these experiences! Even after we crossed the street she was still staring.
We made plans to meet for drinks with our travel buds, and our tickets for baseball fell through (long story, Kara was probably scammed but it was worth a shot to try for a sold out game!), so we stopped for dinner at Vegan Bistro Jangara. We ordered the ramen Kobonshan, a fried garlic oil ramen, and the Karbon, the tonkatsu ramen. Both were excellent, and Chris and I both preferred our respective soups which has become a pattern. Another pattern we have noticed is that wherever we go, folks follow and there is always a lineup behind us. Trend starters?! They probably know I’m a travel blogger.
After another excellent meal and not feeling too full we walked around the perimeter of a closed park to get to another area of Shibuya which seemed more subdued and quiet. We had time to kill so we walked around, but it being our twelfth hour out and over 18 kms walked our feet were very sore. We then waited in line at SG Club, one of the pinned bars on my itinerary, and Kara and Zain joined us. The anxious host kept checking in with us to see how we were doing waiting, but we were happy to chat about our day and oogle the fabulous looking menu. Host came out and turns out, it’s our lucky day! He has a table for four in the basement, a very nice place. It was very nice, all foreigners, and $5 extra per drink, plus a different menu. Ok, we’ll take it! Down the skinny stairs and sat at our table, this menu was far less intriguing, but we picked a cocktail each and continued catching up on our days. My cocktail was a yuzu bath water, and it came in a beautiful clear flask filled with citrus wheels and chrysanthemums. It was very light, with whisps of floral and citrus.
Close to 10:00 we decided to make our way back “home” and the rain was just starting as we approached the hotel. Both Chris and I wanted to soak in our tub; he went first so I went out to the combini for a beer so I could sip and write and wait for my turn in the bath. When I got to the hotel lobby I could see it was POURING! I crossed paths with Z+K as they were headed out to another bar and I was graciously offered a spot under Zain’s umbrella. I grabbed my beer and then walked the one block back to the hotel in wild, thick, warm rain.
Our tub is maybe 3 feet long by 18 inches wide, and then at least 2 feet tall making it nice and deep so you can soak in the fetal position which is what you need to be in to fit. But it was perfect for a quick soak for my aching legs. First full day in the books!
I hope you are getting our comments because reading this blog every morning is amazing. Looks like you guys are filling your days and I feel like I'm right there with you. Love you guys
by Connie Stang