Where Will I Wander Next....: Tokyo Adventure IV- Day #5: Harajuku and Shibuya

OMG are you going to trip out over what we did yesterday! I was pretty shocked that Paul suggested that we hit Harajuku (Takeshita-dori and Omotesando) and then walk to Shibuya and shop there in one day. Let's just say I was very hesitant since I know how much shopping I can do in those areas,

We had a late start yesterday... Woke up at 7:00 instead of my usual 5:30. Paul and Grandma went to pick up breakfast at 7-11 (our usual) and then Paul went for a long walk. By the time he came back, we were ready to go! On our way to the station, we passed by a park to go Pokemon hunting. They have such neat things in Japan- Akemi found this at the park.

As you know, I am fascinated by signage in Japan. I saw this sign posted at the park.

Subway signs are my favorite. I have no idea why he's sitting on top of the train!

Oh and my favorite are the signs translated into English! You might have to zoom in by clicking on the picture to see what it says.

I think this one is funnier...

After we got off the subway, we headed to the Owl Cafe & Bar Owl Village in Harajuku to see if they had any openings since we didn't make reservations. We couldn't all get in at a decent time, so I just booked a reservation for 2 of us at 1pm. After that, we ventured down Takeshita-Dori to do some shopping.

That lady behind me in the red shoes was yelling (or was it singing) something on a microphone.

First stop was Daiso. Sorry no pictures... it was serious business! LOL! I'll try to do a haul video later, but no promises as we are probably gonna eat most of the snacks that were purchased there. I know for a fact that we ate some last night!

While Paul was finishing up our purchase in Daiso, Grandma and Akemi went to try the crepes. Harajuku is famous for their crepes, so they went to the first one they could find- directly across from Daiso. Sorry, I don't know the name, but there are several along that street. Akemi chose the strawberry banana and chocolate crepe. It was good!

We walked down the strip and saw these kids eating what looked like potato chips. This took us to Calbee.. They make good snacks! The packaged stuff in the store didn't sound so appealing, but the stuff they were serving sounded good.

So I got us some chips with Hokkaido butter and cheesy french fries. Honestly, I just pointed at the items, so I really wasn't sure what I was ordering. I had no idea the french fries were fries. I thought they were more like the packaged chips they sell. OMG it was so ono! We all recommend this snack if you are hungry!

After that, we had to head back to the owl cafe for our reservation, so I took Akemi with me, while Paul and his mom went to the shrine in Yoyogi park. Paul and I never made it all the way in to the shrine before since it was a long walk, but they had a good time so I'm glad they got to go.

I think this is as far as I got last time..,

It was a long peaceful walk but look what they saw! Grandma was so happy she got to go!

Look at all those sake barrels!

And these are wine barrels are from France. I think Paul wants to take them home to make drums.

They even saw a wedding in progress!

Meanwhile, Akemi and I were having fun at the Owl Village Cafe. I have a ton of photos from our time there, so I'm going to do a separate post for that. But here's a photo of all the owls they feature at their cafe.

After our Owl time, we headed back down Takeshita-Dori to meet up with Grandma and Paul at Cute Cube. One of my "to do" on this trip was to visit the Pompompurin Cafe. I was soooo exited!!!! We found it on the 3rd floor of the Cute Cube building. If you are walking down Takeshita-Dori from the station, its on your right. Across from Cute Cube is another animal cafe. I think it had cats and owls too.

We made it!!!!

Again, I have a lot of photos, so I'm going to do a separate post for this. But here's the menu that was posted outside in case you are interested.

Right across from the Pompompurin Cafe was Patty and Jimmy Cafe! For some reason I thought they were called PJ and Patty. Paul asked what happened to PJ- maybe Patty has a new boyfriend?!

That cafe looked cute too, but I wanted to go to Pompompurin instead. Here's what their menu looked like.

After eating at the cafe, we tried to find this pastry called Zaku Zaku. Everytime I tried to map Cute Cube in Harajuku, photos of Zaku Zaku kept popping up! It looked good, so I wanted to check it out. It took us a little bit to find it cause I forgot where it was located... Duh, its right on the street before the candy store. I think I missed it cause we took the escalator up before seeing the storefront.

The line was long, which is usually a good indicator of if something is good in Japan. It was worth the wait! Everyone else was getting soft serve ice cream with an almond topping, but it was too darn cold and we just had dessert at the cafe. So we only ordered 2 of the Zaku Zaku... it was a pastry with a creme filling. The outside was crunchy- looked like it was rolled in rice krispies. I would recommend getting this too!

After Zaku Zaku, we finished up Takeshita-Dori and headed to Omotesando area. I guess not that much photos were taken cause we were doing some serious shopping! We went to Pandora, Oriental Bazaar and Kiddy Land. It was starting to get really cold and dark, but it was now rush hour, so we decided to avoid the trains for a bit and walk to Shibuya. What?! I still thought that was crazy, but it really wasn't that bad. There's a path called Cat Street near Kiddy Land that leads you to Shibuya. There's a bunch of cafes and stores along the way too. I think it was about a 15 minute walk? We didn't stop anywhere along the way, but it was a nice walk. One day when its not raining, I would like to go back and check it out.

I guess Paul found this amusing... this was on the wall of one of the stores on Cat street.

Now, the Shibuya area is very confusing to me. Here's the famous Shibuya Crossing. You can't tell how many people were there since we were waiting for the light to change.

I really was turned around and lost my bearings there, but we finally made it to see Hachiko!

By then I was dying to eat real food. I had only eaten snacks all day. Everyone else was fine, but I was running on fumes and was going to resort to getting a musubi at 7-11. But somehow we managed to find a restaurant to sit down and have a warm meal. We settled on Tare Katsu. All I can tell you is that its on the left side when you are looking at the Shibuya Crossing... down a side street and then left on another side street. Sorry! As you can tell, I was hungry! So happy to sit down!

Yay! My food came!

Here's what Paul ordered. Biru-seto!

And Grandma's dinner- another Biru-seto!

See, look how hungry I was! Actually, I gave some to Akemi.

By then it was raining pretty hard, so we broke down and bought umbrellas. Only 2 at first, but sharing wasn't working out, so we bought a couple more. Then we headed to Loft, but navigating the back streets of Shibuya is so confusing! I really should've gone back to the crossing area to get my bearings, but because of the rain, we pushed on. Eventually we made it! It was fun once we got out of the rain.

After that we were tired and cold, so we decided to head back to the room. Luckily it stopped raining by the time we made it to our station. We got back to the room to unload and finish up our trip planning. Since we would need to get the bags via takubin to 7-11 tomorrow, we had to figure out what the itinerary would be for the rest of the trip. Once we had a plan, Paul and I headed to 7-11 for dessert!

OK I've been watching TabiEats on YouTube. If you like Japanese food, you should check them out before you go to Japan. They try out all different kinds of food and give their reviews, etc. One guy is from Hawaii and one guy from Japan. They are so cute! Anyway, when we were at Starbucks, I managed to watch part of their recent 7-11 dessert haul video and wanted to try some of it. So I made my own dessert buffet!

From left to right: some kind of cheesecake, some kind of pannecotta/jello with fruit, chocolate mochi with strawberry shortcake inside. They were all good!!!! Thanks TabiEats!