Tokyo Eats - Shibuya Area

Shibuya was another under-explored area for me and hubby. Believe it or not, we went to Shibuya more often while living in Yokohama than we did while living in Tokyo. I blame the same big, dense city exhaustion, because being a suburb Yokohama was nowhere as crowded as Tokyo.

Tokyo Eats - Ebisu Area

Another area hubby and I occasionally strolled through was Ebisu, most of the time for coffee from this Sarutahiko Coffee shop. The place was always busy, so we often get ours to go. It was only every once in a while that we actually found ourselves a seat. We liked the place enough to have bought 3 mugs from them and proceeded to lug all home as souvenirs ^.^

Tokyo Eats - Omotesando area

Hubby and I, and our friends too for that matter, only went to Omotesando a few times when we were in Tokyo. It wasn't because we didn't like it. We felt--for lack of better words--out of place there. Why? From our view Omotesando is really poshy, the all-grown-up-and-super-successful big sister of Harajuku. Ginza? Pffft, too touristy, which was why we spent a lot of time there because we could blend into the crowds of tourists. But there at Omotesando, our decidedly "un-hip" appearance stuck out like a sore thumb.

The Prada Aoyama branch.

Meiji Jingu, Shibuya, Tokyo, Part II

It's been a while since hubby and I last saw Meiji Jingu, since 2010 when my sister and brother visited us in Yokohama! So we took mum and aunt-in-law there when they were here, and joining us was mum-in-law's old college roommate, Mrs. H.

Harajuku Station on a cloudy, cool day.

Happy Lunar New Year!

新年快樂 - Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!

Did you do anything fun for Lunar New Year?

Hubby and I celebrated our Lunar New Year's Eve with a Mogwai concert in Ebisu, Shibuya, Tokyo. It was our very first concert in Japan and it was a really neat experience. The music was great and the crowd was shockingly civil and orderly. I've only been to 2 other concerts, Radiohead and Big Head Todd and the Monsters and the crowds were quite different and definitely a lot more obnoxious then. The Mogwai concert, on the other hand, was on a much smaller scale than those grandiose stadium ones. Somehow, they fit everyone into a regular size dance floor with standing room only on the ground floor of some club. Our tickets had numbers on them, and based on that number we guessed there must have been a thousand tickets sold. How they managed to fit a thousand people onto that dance floor is another mystery to me.

When I showed my friend M. my ticket, she told me in Japan the number 7 is considered luckiest (as opposed to the number 8 in Hong Kong) ^.^ Hubby got 7's and 8 on his ticket!

Harajuku and Kiddy Land, Shibuya, Tokyo

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.

Meiji Jingu, Shibuya, Tokyo

Next stop for me, hubby, my brother and sister was Meiji Jingu, where the deified spirits of the Meiji Emperor and Empress was enshrined. You can also read more about the shrine on itsofficial website. Meiji Jingu was quite easily accessed - it was right next to the Harajuku Station on the Yamanote train line!

Looking back at Harajuku Station from the pedestrian foot bridge at the intersection.

A Night Out in Shibuya, Tokyo

Went to K.'s bday party in Shibuya - first time in Shibuya for hubby and me ^.^ and only a 30 minutes train ride away too!

Getting out of the train station, we were greeted with the sight of this famous scramble crossing (as in all traffic stops and pedestrians pours out onto the street in all directions)! I know my picture makes it look a bit quaint, but trust me it was super crowded and chaotic with all the flashing lights. It is one of the busiest crossings in the world, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people come through here daily!

Makes me nostalgic for Times Square :(

So what do I do but take a video of the crossing? xD I thought I had found myself some space to take pictures and whatnot, and then -doh- someone walked by and knocked me on the elbow while I was filming the video -.- Just to give you some sense on how crowded it was there!

We had to wait for several more people to arrive, so what do we do but gather and wait by the famous Hachiko statue like everyone else and their brothers?

We had all you can eat yakitori ^.^