After a lovely week or so it was time to leave Kansai and head to Tokyo. We went by one of the slow bullet trains, which takes about four hours from Kyoto. I was a little bit sad to say goodbye to wonderful Kyoto. I really fell in love with this city. But going to Tokyo was also very exciting. When we arrived at Tokyo Station the chaos began. We had to go to Ikebukuro, a ward in Tokyo, but had no idea where to take the train. After a while we found while navigating our heavy luggage through the crowds. Arriving at Ikebukuro the crowds were still there, but it felt slightly less chaotic. It was a little bit difficult to find our hotel, but we found it eventually. We were quite worn out by then. Osaka and Kyoto are big cities too, but nothing really quite prepares you for the overwhelming mass of people and size of Tokyo.
Ikebukuro is quite a lovely ward to stay in. It isn't as crowded as Shibuya, Shinjuku and Harujuku. But there is still a lot of shops and restaurants. There is also a nerd town like Akihabara in Ikebukuro, but more catered to girls, mainly focusing on boyxboy stuff. I didn't know that while we stayed there and didn't come across those shops, so I can't tell you much about it. But for those interested in those kind of things, now you know! Basically, Ikebukuro has all the perks of a big city without being as overwhelming as some of the other places in Tokyo, and there is variety even within this ward.
It was around afternoon when we were done checking in and putting our luggage in the room, so we wanted to go somewhere. We were so excited to go to Kiddy Land, a big toy store in Omotesando, to buy cute Rilakkuma and San-X goodies, so we made a plan to go to Harajuku and adjoining Omotesando. I don't know how we did it, but we managed to get off at the wrong stop and had to walk a while from who knows where to Harajuku. But lucky for us; our good sense of direction led us to Harajuku eventually! Again we were overwhelmed by all the shops and people and colors. It was very nice to see but we were so dumbstruck that we didn't even enter a single shop. At the end of the street we debated whether to eat something. I said 'We are in Harajuku so we should try a Harajuku crêpe don't you think?' and that's what we did. I have no regrets. It might not be actual Japanese food but they are damn good and it's just something that you should eat when visiting Harajuku. I had a crêpe with whipped cream, cheesecake (yes, a slice of it!) and chocolate sauce.
We then moved on to Omotesando, full with brands that we can't really afford, but it's nice to see. And the street is beautifully lined up trees. It is also very bright and the stores are pretty and not just tall grey buildings. So it is very different from most of Tokyo. In Cat Street, which is also a cute little street, was the temporary Kiddy Land Store. There are also many fashion shops in this street, so it is worth checking out. But we just went wild in Kiddy Land over all the Alpaca plushies, Mamegoma notebooks and Rilakkuma stickers. But prices are steep and this was another case of being overwhelmed by all the choices, so we each bought a notebook and decided to come back another day when we were more calmed down. For those interested in Kiddy Land, it is back on Omotesando Street now.
This is a pretty short post because half of our day was spent on the train. Also, I didn't really take many photos in Tokyo. It just felt kind of weird taking photos in the middle of busy shopping streets. I didn't really like all the grey buildings of Tokyo anyway, and photos of shops didn't really interest me either haha. Looking back now I should have taken more pictures! But the few I had got lost anyway, so sorry for the lack of photos this time. If my friend sends her photos of Japan to me I will look for photos that I can include in this post :)
Notes;
- Shinkansen travels fast and pretty comfortable
- Try to take as little luggage with you as possible when traveling around by public transportation. We learned that the hard way.
- The bullet trains don't have a lot of space for suitcases. We left them in the front of the cabin.
- Ikebukuro is a nice base on Tokyo
- Go to Harajuku for fashion and fun shops
- Harujuku is almost always crowded though!
- Give Cat Street a try also.
- Omotesando is upscale and beautiful, but with all the high end shops you will probably end up just window shopping
- Kiddy Land is heaven for character goods! Their new store just opened so check it out for all the cute stuff of characters like Rilakkuma, Mamegoma en Sumikkogurashi.
- Eat Harajuku crêpes! Even though it's originally a French food, they are pretty damn good in Harajuku too.
- If you like purikura this is the place to go. There are special shops (usually in the basement) full of purikura machines.
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