Tokyo Day 1 - First Stop - Shinjuku 新宿区
After spending a day in Yokohama I was gonna say bye bye to this great and vibrant city. It was a pity I couldn't see any football match but there will always be another visit and now I have the perfect excuse.
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| Shinjuku street overlooking at the Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower (新宿区とモード学園コクーンタワー) |
That evening I was going to stay at another friend who I met more than 20 years ago in Venezuela. She was an exchange student who stayed at my cousins house. But it was also going to be the last day I was going to spend a day with Kenya, my friend, who took me to walk around some parts of Tokyo.
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| Shinjuku Street - 新宿区 |
Finally I was here, the massive neon-light metropolis of Japan. There were so many things to see that I've got admit I was overwhelmed by all the different elements I saw just when I got out of Shinjuku station.
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| Hello Kitty on a motorbike helmet in Shinjuku |
Shinjuku is very commercial and that's what it's known for. It doesn't matter which direction of a street you take, there will always be shops to get in and the streets are busy, nothing else, unless of course it is a very narrow alley that it's either pedestrian or only for suitable vehicles (yes, those very narrow ones).
Hanazono Shrine - 花園神社
Whilst wondering around the streets we visited this very well hidden shrine, located in the middle of Shinjuku. Since it was the beginning of the year a lot of people where visiting the shrine to ask for good things on the new year.
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| Entrance to the Hanazono Shrine - 花園神社 |
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| New Year prayers at Hanazono Shrine - 花園神社 |
This shrine was built in the mid 17th century and it honours the Inari goddess, that of fertility and success, and since it's close to many offices you can expect a lot of salarymen visiting the shrine to ask for good luck in their businesses.
Shinjuku would also be the place where I would have lunch, my very first sushi in Tokyo. For my friend it was nothing special and he said that it was overpriced but when comparing to the restaurants in Kyoto my pocket didn't feel any difference.
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| Fish eggs sushi roll |
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| Sushi with Natto - 納豆寿司 |
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| Chirashi Sushi - ちらし寿司 |
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| Green tea |
I had chirashi sushi (seafood on top of a bowl of sushi rice) and a couple of normal sushi and a green tea which to my surprise it's free. You have a cute tap to serve yourself as much as you want, so it was wasabi and ginger.
Harajuku 原宿 - Takeshita Street - 竹下通り
After a well-deserve lunch and break we took the metro from Shinjuku to Shibuya, more specifically to Harajuku. If you haven't heard of this street then I'm sure you've heard of Takeshita Street a place where the most geeky, colourful, eclectic, vibrant and surreal things happen Tokyo. Some say that's the street where Japanese fashion comes from and you have to agree that this street is somehow different from the rest, although I doubt the commercial fashion comes out of that street. Perhaps it can be an inspiration to other designers from around the world, but it's just not that kind of fashion.
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| Entrance to Takeshita Street - 竹下通り |
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| Is this Japanese Fashion? |
If you can't imagine this street, let me describe it. Imagine an alley, probably a bit wider than a normal car where people walking, noise, colourful billboards and girls or boys dressed like an anime are just the norm. Actually if you're dress normal, you're the weirdo or a tourist. The good thing about Takeshita street is that nobody cares about what they are wearing or doing and pickpockets are not around or at least not when I visited the street.
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| Yep - it is the fashion city of Japan |
This street is something that even if you don't like anime or weird Japanese culture you should experience it and walk it through from the beginning to end. It will show you that despite all those salarymen and salarywomen you see in the news and in the TV, Japan, and specifically this part of Tokyo has decided to function in a different way.
Word you need to use and learn before coming to this street are: kawaii (cute) , sugoi (cool, awesome) , kirei (pretty)
Meiji Jingu - 明治神宮
After experiencing the weirdest side of Tokyo, my friend took me to the other side of the street to visit another shinto shrine. At first, I thought he was joking but once we came back on the same Takeshita street towards the station he asked me if I wanted to see a nice shrine that was located in the deep of a forest that surround Harajuku. I nodded, how could I say no to that?!
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| Torii - Gate - 鳥居 |
As far as I remember we walked some 20 minutes until we got to the first Torii or gate and after that some other 5 minutes until we got to the temple where everyone was praying, mainly families and couples.
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| Inside the Meiji Jingu - 明治神宮 |
If there's something that I really like about this Shinto shrine is the location of it. It's very uncommon to see such a vast forest in the middle of Tokyo. The shrine was built in the beginning of the last century to commemorate the Meiji emperor as well as his empress Shoken. The original shrine was destroyed during the WWII but after the war it got funds from the public to get it rebuild.
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| New Year is a Good Occassion to Wear a Kimono - 着物の冬 |
Shibuya - 渋谷区
After such a great day I asked my friend if we were close to the Shibuya crossing, yep, that one. Since he said yes and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to wait and cross that street.
The crossing is well known for its super crowded moments where the traffic light turns to red for the cars and green for the pedestrian.
The first thing I did was to wait one turn to see everyone moving and crossing and after that we crossed it.
The crossing is next to the metro stop, which also happens to be next to the statue of Hachiko, the loyal akita-inu dog that waited for his owner outside of the station even though the owner never came to pick him up, because he passed away, as the dog did. There's even a movie about the story if you're interested. There are two versions the one of the 1987 and the one from 2009. I prefer the one from the 80s because it was the Japanese original the other one is just an American copy with Richard Gere. As crazy as it sounds I didn't take a picture of the dog, don't ask why, since I love dogs, but this one of of the few things I didn't take a picture of and I'm still regretting it a bit. I could have taken one from someone else, but that's not my style, better check it out in google.
Shibuya is one very crowded place in Tokyo, perhaps the one that has surprised me the most, because of the amount of high-street brands and also plazas, malls and small shops, they are all together in the city neighbourhood.
There's nothing much of history to see, but if you want to see neon lights and the vibrant life of Tokyo, Shibuya is the place to come and stay.
I didn't take too many pictures of the crossing but I did record a cool video crossing it, that you can check at the end of the post.
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| Shibuya Street Lamp |
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| Shibuya 109 - Department Store |
After that I we went back to my friend's house to pick up my luggage and head to another place in Yokohama where I was going to meet up my other friend.
Here is the first evening at my friend's house with her family.
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| Dinner at my friend's house with her parents - Don't ask what happened to my hair ^_^ |
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| Cozy Japanese Room - 100% Minimalistic |
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