After Meiji Jingu, our next targeted destination was Kiddy Land, or rather the famous 5-story branch of the toy store in Harajuku. Although as of current, it's no longer in the 5-story building due to a renovation project and had been temporarily moved to a nearby locationsince September 2010. So yeah, no pictures of the 5-story building, and no, no pictures of the Harajuku girls and their outrageous fashion either :P
A closer shot of Harajuku Station from the pedestrian foot bridge at the closest intersection.
On the other side of the bridge is this beautiful tree-lined street leading towards the downtown area. And of course, being December the trees were festively decorated and it was a fantastic short walk!
One of the larger intersections in Harajuku.
Crossing the street, I spotted this curious store and just had to snap a shot. My brother is...ahem...underage so we didn't go in :P
Aside from being a famous toy store, there was a reason why we had to see Kiddy Land on Christmas Eve. Hubby came up with a fun gift exchange idea, that each of us would search the store and pick out a fun and unique present for the other 3 people but cannot spend more than 2,000yen combined (about $24) for all 3 presents. Then on Christmas day we would put all the presents into a basket and each of us would take turn to randomly pick. If we ended up picking our own presents we would have to put it back and pick again. Kiddy Land would wrap all our gifts for free anyway, no matter how big or small, super awesome or what?!?
Anyway, during my search I stumbled upon a few funny and eyebrow-raising things:
This is a mouse pad with a cushy "wrist pad." And if you look closely at the one on the left, you'll notice that the packaging is squished ^.^ I guess someone had been testing it out LOL!!!
I was really tempted to get this USB toy, but it would have taken up half of the allocated budget of 2,000yen, and it's not even a memory key!
I laughed out loud at this toy display. I guess the little baby figurine is cute, but, umm...erh...if I were collecting these I would probably hide them in a locked safe before someone calls the police on me. But hey, that's just the uptight American in me speaking and no where else in the world cares much about displaying a bunch of plastic naked little boys with a tiny nub of a...umm...erhh...oh nevermind...Only in Japan, I tell you. Only in Japan...
Anyway, on our way home, we stopped by a patisserie to get some Christmas cake, after all, it was Christmas Eve.
There was even a Christmas choir right outside the Harajuku Station that night! It was very festive and one of the coolest Christmas ever for me!
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