Spelled With a J: Shopping, Shopping, Shopping and More Shopping

Christmas Day was a late start for us. We began the day with a Skype call home to see the family. It was great to see everyone and to be able wish a Merry Christmas – considering this is the first one I have missed and one of the few that my Dad has missed it was nice to able to share it with everyone in a small way.

After the quick call it was off to the subway where we headed for Harajuku. I had decided that it would be a shopping day and we would visit a couple of the major shopping areas within Tokyo.

Line up for Ben & Jerry's

The last time that I had been in Tokyo I had looked forward to going to Harajuku, however on that trip it started to rain so my friend and I didn’t get the chance to really explore the area, this time though Dad and I got to see the area. We started off walking down Omotesando road where they have more of the high end shops. Here we stopped into the Oriental Bazar and purchased a few things. Dad bought a Yukata and Happi Coat, I bought a Happi Coat. We also stepped into Kiddy Land which is a huge toy store.

After walking along that road we then turned off to head into the main shopping road of Harajuku. Takeshita Street is where there are a lot of stores that are small and cater to the fashion senses of those who frequent Harajuku. The other place that I wanted to stop into in Harajuku was the Daiso. It’s one of the biggest Daiso’s in Japan – and since I love Hyaku en shops I had to see this one. After my quick stop into the Daiso it was onto the JR train and heading north to Shinjuku.

Takeshita Street

Shinjuku is the world’s busiest transport hub with well over 3 million people using it a day. This area is also has a huge collection of the skyscrapers in Tokyo, it’s even known as Skyscraper district. It was here that we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. On the 45^th floor there is an observation deck that is open to the public. From here you can see the entire city spread out below. Also on clear days you may have the chance to see Mount Fuji. We went though after dark, which was cool. It’s nice to see the whole city lit up, the Sky Tree and Tokyo Tower and all the wards give off this glow.

After seeing the city all lit up we got back onto the JR and this time we went east. We got off at Akihabara, which is affectionately known as Electric Town. In this area you can find great electronics, comic book stores and the AKB48 theatre. If you are into anything to do with electronics or Otaku goods (a Japanese term that is applied to people with obsessive interests particularly [but not limited to] anime or manga) this is the place to visit. We stopped into a Don Quijote – a discount store found across the country. It was another great place to look around a pick up some small things. This building is also home to the AKB48 theatre. AKB48 is a J-pop group made up of over 60 girls… I’m not really into J-Pop but they do have one song that is quite catchy so I wanted to see where they perform almost daily.