Harajuku & Omote Sando, Tokyo

A visit to Tokyo for me would not be complete without pursuing the following itinery. Because we tend to be based in Asakusa we take the Ginza line all the way to the other end alighting at Shibuya Station.

We take a quick look at the Hachiko statue. Hachiko was a Japanese Akita dog. He was owned by a Professor Ueno who worked at Tokyo University. Every day Hachiko walked to the railway station with his master as he set off to work. Then he sat and waited for him to return to walk him home. When Professor Ueno died unexpectedly, Hachiko continued to wait for him every day for the next 9 years. (This story was recently Americanized and turned into a movie starring Richard Gere). The statue is now a popular meeting point for young people in Shibuya.

As well as taking a look at Hachiko, while visiting Shibuya it is worth having a look at Love Hotel Hill. Go to the crossroads past the Hachiko staue and wander off up the hill to your left. This area is filled with love hotels, which rent rooms by the hour to amorous couples. The interesting thing is that many of the buildings are built in colourful and over -the -top ways, for example, with bright purple and pink outer walls, or made to look like mediaeval castles etc.

Shibuya is a shopping area and while I'm not big on shopping, I do love to have a wander round the Tokyu Hands Department Store. This sells everything weird and wonderful including clocks that tick backwards. On my last visit I was fascinated by some little models of a rock group which play instruments and dance to whatever music is played to them. I could have watched them for hours but would have needed to take out a mortgage to buy them.

From Shibuya we then take a stroll up to Yoyogi Park. It's much quicker to reach Yoyogi Park from Harajuku Station if you want to go direct. Yoyogi Park was once the site of the American base and was nicknamed Washington Heights at that time. After the Americans left, it became the site of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Then it became a park. At one time it was a popular venue for youth sub-cultures such as the dancing teddyboys, but the police began to move them on, so there are no longer as many.

I strongly recommend a visit to this park at the weekend, especially a Sunday, when the park is filled with people out for a stroll, or picnicing under the trees, or sword fencing, or practising other sports. Not to mention, a group of friends that meet up there to provide impromptu drumming concerts and throngs of youngsters who set up mics and electric guitars and perform near the park's main entrance.

This park is also filled with stunningly beautiful cherry blossom in spring.

Between the entrance to Yoyogi Park and Harajuku Station there is a little bridge which on Sundays becomes a popular spot for Cos-play. Cos play is some weird Japanese thing which results in young Japanese school girls dressing up bizarrely as anything from French maids to Pokemon characters and posing for photos with passers-by. Fascinating, but strange.

Richt next door to this is the Meiji Shrine which could not be more different. It is a beautiful Shinto shrine set in acres of green woodland( it also has a famous iris garden). At weekends it is a popular venue for traditional Shinto weddings or child blessings. Certain numbers are considered unlucky in Japan. A child going through an unlucky number year must be blessed by a Shinto priest to cancel the bad luck.

A wonderful place to take photographs of people in traditional clothes and watch traditional ceremonies.

This is the other it place to be in Tokyo...the other being Ginza.... but Omote-sando, is a beautiful tree lined street with tons of high end shopping stores and tons of high end cafes !!!! A great place to spend an afternoon shopping and having coffee... A must see street, as beautiful as the Champs D'Elysee in Paris, 5th Ave in New York....

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the busy Japan Railway Harajuku Station, Tokyo's Harajuku Station, just one station north of Shibuya on the Yamanote Line. The Harajuku Station is in the center of Japan's most extreme teenage cultures and fashion styles, but also offers shopping for grown-ups and some historic sights. The station consists of a single island platform. A temporary platform is located on the west side of the station usable by trains travelling towards Shinjuku which is used when major events occur in the area, especially around New Year when many people visit Meiji Shrine. The main entrance is at the southern end of the station. A smaller entrance in the centre of the platform is convenient for Takeshita-dori, another famous area in Harajuku. Takeshita-dori is a popular shopping street and Takeshita-dori entrance is often very crowded, creating a bottleneck on weekends when scores of tourists and locals arrive and leave Harajuku generally and the shopping areas in and around Takeshita-dori specifically.

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Japan's Champs Elysees! if takeshita dori street which lies 200 meters away from Omotesando and is parallel to it is the funky teenage shopping heaven, Omotesando is the Center of Luxe in the Shibuya district (yes, harajuku is part of Shibuya ok!). Omotesando is broad, tree-lined avenue leading downhill from the southern end of the JR Harajuku station. This is the other side to Harajuku Fashion and its challenge to Shibuya and Ginza. Not only is the street full of cafes and international brand clothing boutiques, but now features the very up market Omotesando Hills. If Paris or Milan is the center of the world of fashion design, then Omotesando is the center of world fashion consumption! But don't buy luxury good like hermes of Louis Vuitton here since the prices are 20% more expensive than in other countries due to the large japanese tax on foreign luxury items!

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the teeny booper street famous around the world for japanese teenage fashion and the goth subculture unfortunately when I was here was a weekday so I saw no goth characters. In order to experience the teenage culture at its most extreme or the Goths, visit Harajuku on a Sunday, when many young people gather around Harajuku Station and engage in cosplay ("costume play"), dressed up in crazy costumes to resemble anime characters, punk musicians, etc. The focal point of Harajuku's teenage culture is Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street) and its side streets, which are lined by many trendy shops, fashion boutiques, used clothes stores, crepe stands (see my Angels' heart and Marion's Crepes restaurant tips) and fast food outlets geared towards the fashion and trend conscious teens.

Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street) is a narrow, roughly 400 meter long street lined by shops, boutiques, cafes and fast food outlets targeting Tokyo's teenagers. Takeshita-dori represents the cutting edge of fashion in Tokyo where you can see all the latest in Japanese street fashion and then buy in the boutiques.

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I was so impressed by the stylish shops and fashionable Japanese in the Harajuku district. I had a great time wandering around the shops, viewing all the different fashion-styles, and trying on (and buying) a Kimono and Tokyo 135.

The fashionistas come out for viewing on the bridge on Sundays. Be sure to ask before taking photographs of fashionable people.

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Harajuku is the center of Japan's most extreme teenage cultures and fashion styles. Costume play (cosplay) teenagers resembling anime characters are around the streets of Harajuku on sundays. The main street crowded with people shopping and cosplay characters is Takeshita Dori. On this street and its side streets you can find many trendy shops, fashion boutiques as well as some historic sights.

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If you're in Harajuku to see what all the fuss is that Gwen Stefani is always on about then you are probably looking for Takeshita-Dori which is a pedestrian only street opposite Harajuku station.

It is here where you are likely to see some of those world-renowned Harajuku girls (and boys) apparently they all come out on a Sunday and unfortunately we weren't in Tokyo on a Sunday but we still saw a few eccentrically dressed people.

Takeshita-Dori is good for shopping if you're into the whole scene (this is where you will find all the cosplay, crazyness and kawaii). This is also where you will find the Harajuku crepe (yum yum separate tip about that later!)