Shibuya and Harajuku Shopping Districts

Shibuya

Tokyo has many great shopping areas, Shibuya and Harajuku being the more trendy and popular among the younger crowd, Ginza and Roppongi focused more on high end goods.
With help from our hotel's front desk, traveling to Shibuya and Harajuku was just a short ride on the train.
We went from Shinjuku Station via JR Yamanote line and exited Shibuya at the Hachikomae Exit.
You will find the famous statue of the dog Hachiko!
This will be your view from this exit as you face the famous Shibuya Crossing.

You have Mark City shopping center to your left, straight ahead is where you'll head towards Shibuya 109 Womens, The Loft and Tokyu Hands Craft stores, and a bit to your right is a luxury department store Seibu and to your right is 109 Mens.

We started at Shibuya 109 which is a 10-story fashion store for young women.

 I found some really cool Tattoo stockings which seems to be a huge trend now.

 Fun stockings

 Plethora of crazy socks!

 Radios blaring, pretty girls, it's a must stop for any fashionista. Love the decor.

Cute Hello Kitty Store! Club KT

 Headed to Mark City Shopping Center for lunch.

I heard good things about Midori Sushi which has fresh quality sushi for reasonable prices. Because of its popularity, it's best to go early to get in line. They open at 11am, and on a wednesday we arrived at 10:45 to find already a short line.

 It is on the 4th floor.  Sat at the sushi bar and ordered the following.
A Mix sushi plate (nigiri pictured, i got a tuna roll too)

My mom got the Chirashi Bowl

Sushi was fresh and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Customer service was also outstanding.
One of the waitresses, saw that i was gonna take some medicine and she immediatly grabbed me a glass of water! When we left, there was a long line to get in.

 We walked off our lunch by checking out The Loft and Tokyu Hands a few blocks away. Hitting the Loft first, this was the fancier looking of the two. Both carry a lot of the same items, so you might want to check out Tokyu Hands first, which can be a bit less expensive. Both carry everything from crafts, stationary, tools, electronics, household goods to furniture.

Here's a look at the Loft:

While i was walking around, i ran into a HUGE Forever 21 store!

Here's a look at Tokyu Hands, which is a chain store. You can find them in a lot of big cities.

The little characters on the top (stickers) are from One Piece Anime which is VERY popular right now!


It started to rain, so we took refuge inside the Seibu Department store on the way back to the station. One of the fancier department stores, basically i was only interested in the basement floors which is where u find the food!!! This is where i found Pierre Herme Macarons!!! 

 Surprisingly they were giving out halves to sample!!! I fell in love with their passionfruit and cream cheese flavor and ended up buying a 6 piece box for 2100 Yen.

 I got two of the passionfruit cream cheese, one olive, one chocolate, chocolate basil, and pistachio.

 All were good but i wasn't feeling the olive. It definitely tasted like olive but i am not sure it worked as a macaron flavor for me! I really appreciated that at pretty much all the bakeries i visited in japan, they took great price in their packaging and made sure that u didnt' go home with a blob mess in your box of goodies. They often will ask you if ur going to eat it soon or if you need dry ice to pack your to-go desserts. Pierre Hermes has jumped to the top of my list of favorite macarons!!! I'm so sad that they are not in the US. I did see it again one more time at the Isetan in Shinjuku. There's about 8 locations within Tokyo! http://www.pierreherme.com/storelocations/?city=Japan&name=Seibu+Shibuya+-+Tokyo

The rain did not stop but i wanted to still check out Harajuku on the way back to Shinjuku. It was the next stop up on the way back and once we exited the station, we checked out part of Takeshita Dori, which you see right away

 Found a big pink Daiso!

 I visited some cool looking shops and met some nice, fun employees!

Because it was raining so hard, and the shopping street is not indoors, we didn't get to stay as long as we wanted.
There's another district south called Omotesando HIlls, but we didnt'get to check it out.
Would love to come back, especially when weather is nicer and check out more of their stores. I hear sundays is the day to go to check out all the people in their most stylish outfits and costume!

Tokyo Disney Sea

Tokyo Disneysea!!!

Day 2 in Tokyo, we felt more confortable taking the train! Got to disney resort and rode the cute mickey mouse shuttle bus to Disneysea Park. (you have to buy a separate shuttle ticket- about 2-3 bucks)

After a couple of stops on the shuttle, we arrived at Disneysea

We had our 2 day passport, so we bypassed the long lines and entered the park to find a beautiful mickey display!

As we entered the park, we were impressed with the whole "sea" theme

Learning from my day previously at Disneyland, i scanned the maps for fast pass rides and headed west on the map. ToyStoryMania 3D tramride was already packed and no passes available.
Grabbed a fastpass for Tower of Terror which was just as fun as the LA one- the tour before the ride was a little different tho.
The park being just as huge at the other park- grabbed some strawberry flavored popcorn, and had a good walk towards the back of the park where i got on the ride Raging Spirits which had a short line.

This was a fun rollercoaster ride with one 360 loop. Got a pumpkin churro (halloween special) across the way in the Arabian Coast side of the map and came back to get on Indiana Jones, which is one of my faves at CA Disney. Headed back to Port Discovery section and rode the water version of autotopia called Aquatopia, which was lots of fun, like the Pooh Hunt type ride where u don't know which way you will go with unexpected spins and turns.

Headed to Mysterious Island and grabbed a fast pass for Journey of the Center of the Earth which later turned out to be one cool ride! You ride through caverns with quite a bit of speed and see some strange creatures and come up for air for a swooping drop. In the vicinity you can also get a Gyoza Dog and check out 20,000 leagues undersea submarine ride (it was closed when we went...)

After i went on Tower of Terror

Grabbed a Mile High Sandwich to split at New York Deli

and Rode the Electric Railway

Don't forget to check out the Duffy the Bear and ShellieMay giftshop called McDucks, which carries characters unique to Tokyo Disney.

My favorite part of Disneysea was the Mermaid Lagoon!!! It was so beautiful and made me feel like a little kid again. A cute world of it's own of Ariel's friends, there were a few mini rides, a playground section for the kids and a restaurant.

Took a stroll through the Arabian Coast

While the day was wearing on us, we couldn't leave without a sweet treat and we found the perfect dessert

 A delicious double scoop of gelato from the Gondolier Snacks bar. They had so many wonderful sounding flavors like blueberry yogurt, caramel crunch, melon and tiramisu. I settle for Grape and Peach Yogurt. I thought their cone was unique and fun.

We should have stayed for the nightime show of fantasmic, but we didn't get to stay late. Two days in row was taking it's toll and we didn't want another night of returning to our hotel so late. So we did some shopping in the mediterranean harbor section and took the tram back to the train station and conked out to get ready for day 3 of Tokyo!!!


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**tip- Tokyo Station has a lot of great eats, but i found a gem by Keiyo Street shop

Found very fresh sushi plates to go for super cheap!

Through an exhausting flight, through two days in a row of Disney fun, this meal actually was the best thing i ate since i got to Japan! Go figure.