Harajuku dreams and Shinjuku sakura

 Following up on the Yamanote line, the green line that we tourist adore, as we aimed to visit 3 landmarks on the west side (Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku), I could not resist taking them to schoolgirl mecca for some reason so we walked from Shibuya crossings to Harajuku's Takeshita-dōri. And from the get go we went into full puricula mode. We did 3 of them after having some trouble understanding what to do. They turned out superb and memorable, in the style of this one.

 And we also queued for the choux creme - churros snack at zakuzaku, which always cracks me up as it means 'me too me too' in Malagasy.

After lunch we continued on to Shinjuku to briefly check out the Metropolitan government building and its surrounding architecture.We could not really go up since we had scissors with us but the sunset casting its orange lighting was pretty enough.

Luckily for us as well we got to see our first sakura in the sunset, amidst a concrete forest.

Soon it was time to go back our hotel to grab our things and take our first Shinkansen leaving the eastern capital for Kanazawa, on the west coast of Honshu island. The shinkansen route was new that year and took 3hours.

Experiencing culture in Harajuku

Because there are different kind of fun to be experienced in Tokyo, after the sobering view of the landscape, I opted for a frivolous experience to make us forget about our smallness in the immense spread that was Tokyo megalopolis.

Where else would you laugh out loud and forget your insignificance than in Harajuku Takeshita dori.

The place is a destination for crepes, but also all sorts of cute shopping by teenage girls (I guess I was really reliving my teenage years in an alternate reality), costumes, message t-shirts, hats, and all kind of souvenirs.

 

 

We came across some wol and other animals cafe as well but were not interested. Another time maybe. What we took from this street was some needed laughter and lots of socks.

As we counted our socks, we walked down to Meiji jingumae station and had some ramen before continuing on.