Harajuku and Sayonara

Saturday was the first day that had decent weather, so we decided to walk around a bit. One of my favorite walks in Tokyo is from Omotesando to Harajuku and then on to Shibuya, so that's what we did.

Omotesando is an area of high end shops, roughly equivalent to Madison or Fifth Avenues in NY. There is a cool looking mural at the beginning of the main street.

Harajuku is pretty famous for its trendiness. It's known for people congregating on weekends to show off their interesting attire (which strangely this time around there wasn't a lot of). There are eclcetic shops along narrow back streets.

Note Spiderman and R2-D2 unit statues.

This is one of my favorites.

It's as if you had the Village right behind Madison Ave on the Upper East Side.

We stopped at the Leforet Center to have a quick bite (the coffee shop has some of the best cake on the planet). Leforet itself is a collection of small boutiques and is so trendy you have to be careful not to cut yourself...

We then sauntered down to Shibuya. The Yoyogi National Stadium is along the way, and the architecture is quite impressive.


Shibuya has a unique vibe, kind of like Times Square and the Lower East Side rolled into one. Many of the English language signs on Japan are outstanding.

A couple of my friends have a very cute cat named Stormy so I needed to take this picture.


We stopped at a sidewalk bar to relax, have a drink, and watch the world go by. Some of the things you see on the street in Tokyo you will see nowhere else.


One of my all-time favorite corporate logos is of a parcel delivery company.

Certainly more impactful than what UPS or Fedex put on their trucks...

I think Shibuya has the most human energy of any neighborhood I've ever been to. It's always packed and there are always tons of things happening.



Waiting to cross the main street outside the train station in Shibuya is a total experience - you stand with a few hundred people to either side of you and face a phalanx of people on the other side; once the light changes everyone surges forward and you are amazed that anyone can actually reach the destination of the other side. Times Square seems desolate in comparison.

We went back to our hotel and had some time to kill before dinner so sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. Here's a shot of the Tokyo Midtown tower from the nearby park.


Here's a shot of the Roppongi Hills complex from the top of our building. Note how Roppongi Hills is written in circles on the top of the building at the bottom left. The (in real life not really) little circular structure is the cover to escalators down to the Metro and is called Metro Hat.


Here's a shot of the helipad from earlier taken from a different angle. It seems designed to accommodate Chinooks or other huge helos. Very impressive.


I will leave you with a picture I took right before departing on Sunday.


As you can see it's a pet store right by Roppongi-dori. The animals in the window are unbelievably cute kittens and puppies. Surprisingly, it's open until very late (or early...) - I saw a lady leaving the place late at night carrying a pet carrier. I wonder how many people are surprised by their new companion when they wake up the following day after huge night out...