Tokyo Neighbourhoods: Shibuya, Harajuku and Ometesando

Hachiko the Faithful Dog

It is said that each Japanese shopping district has its own distinct clientele and its own vibe.  Where Shinjuku is the province of the salaryman, or the government official going to the staid Isetan and Takashimaya departmental stores, Shibuya is where the fashionable youth congregate and Harajuku the quirky kawaii side of Japan.  Then there is upmarket Ometesando, with its expensive boutiques (and Apple store).

Well, I am pleased to say that we spent an appreciable time in all.  I wrote about Shinjuku in this earlier post so I’ll talk about the rest here.  Shibuya is of course known for the most famous traffic junction in Tokyo, Shibuya Crossing.  This is a “scramble crossing”, in other words, the traffic stops completely and pedestrians take over, crossing to the exact side of the road which they want to go to. It is apparently one of the busiest traffic junctions in the world!  We emerged at the “Hachiko” exit of Shibuya station - as everyone knows, Hachiko is the loyal dog who waited for its owner to come back at the station exit every day before they walked home together.  Alas, one day, his owner had a heart attack and died before coming home.  But the loyal pooch continued to wait for him, just the same until he too passed away.  His statue now stands in the spot where he used to wait.

Incidentally, another famous icon of Japan is just by the Hachiko statue - Hello Kitty is the decor theme of the Tokyo Tourist Info Bus!

Scramble Crossing, from the L'Occitane Cafe

Many guidebooks mention also the Starbucks at one junction, as the place to watch people scrambling across the road.  But of course we didn’t go there - we went instead to L’Occitane which was on another corner and has a rather nice cafe on the second floor, with a good view of the crossing too.  (Of course the main L’Occitane store with all its products is on the first floor.). Unfortunately the tables by the window were taken but we still managed to get quite a good view of the crossing.  The cafe itself is a little pricy but I think I would rather have sat here and eaten our dessert medley with a taster of four desserts altogether and a cup of tea each, than gone and queued up at the Starbucks for a pricey cup of coffee.

After tea, we went shopping - there’s a lot of shops catering to a younger crowd here, but we didn’t go to them.  Instead, we went to Tokyu Hands and Loft.  My favourite stationery shops in Japan and maybe the whole world!!!  Topped up my collection of washi tape, and bought some accessories for my handphone.  I still have not used up all the post-its I bought the last time.

Our beef on a grill

We ended the day with dinner at Aburi Shibuya Honten, a little grill restaurant on the fourth floor of one of the little buildings, just near Tokyu Hands.  Not easy to spot, but we were glad we did!  The restaurant has maybe six tables, and we got the second last one (the last one was filled up whilst we were there).  Service is fast, the meat is very tender, succulent and flavourful.  Just goes to show that in Japan you don't need to go to the much reviewed places - just try something a little unexpected and you'll find that it's pretty good!

On Takeshita-Dori

The next day being Sunday, we went to church at Roppongi (St Francis, English masses!) and then went down to Harajuku.  We were looking for kawaii gals and punk guys, but we just got loads and loads of tourists :-(  Tokyo Cheap gives a great list of things to do in Harajuku and indeed I did make it to places like the Meiji Shrine, and Yoyogi Park (which I will talk about in a future post).  But for the youth scene, the place to go to is apparently Takeshita-Dori, so that's where we went.  Indeed, the shops are most interesting - check out the exciting costumes sold at Takenoko - you also get shops selling high platform shoes, lingerie, fairy clothing etc.  But not that many people actually going the whole hog.  But maybe it's all just gotten too cliched to go down the street dressed Harajuku-style.  There is also a big Daiso - and that's where we spent a little time.  100 Yen is less than S$2 after all!  And of course, lots of sweet things - cotton candy, and crepes galore!  We went to Marion Crepes where we had savoury crepes (it was lunch time, after all).

From Takeshita Dori, we walked to the Ometesando area.  Just before that, we found Laforet, the departmental store for Lolita wannabes... we went in trying to find some Lolitas but again, not much luck. But it is still worth paying a visit, just to look at all the merchandise.

The Ometesando area is where all the more high-end shops are - again we didn’t really go to these.  But there are also children’s shops, and small quaint little boutiques of all shapes and sizes. Just off the main road is Cat Street, which I initially had high expectations of but sadly, it was really just the street name.  It is a small pedestrianised road which (again) has lots of charming, quaint little boutiques selling Knick-knacks and the like.  Expensive ones, of course.

What with all this walking, it was time for a cup of tea.  We had read on-line about  Q-Pot, which actually makes jewellery items (pendants, rings, earrings etc) which look like chocolates, biscuits and sweet things generally.  So Q-Pot cafe is where they serve the desserts looking like jewellery.  If you want a kawaii cafe, look no further! The table decor comprises towers of macaroons and where the lamps are jugs hanging upside down from the ceiling. The "necklace" plates display a lady wearing a Victorian/Edwardian era dress and the piece of cake is displayed like a necklace hanging around her neck.

Food itself was generally ok - I liked my "Russian Apricot Tea", served with apricot jam instead of sugar.  I had the BisQuit Tiramisu on my necklace plate which was enjoyable, but not exceptional.  You go for the experience, if you want to see the kawaii side of Tokyo.

I have to confess that after taking tea we were a little tired with all the walking and went back to the apartment.  But the next day, we did come back to this area because we wanted to try out the sushi at Heiroku Sushi, which we had walked past on our search for Q-pot Cafe.  Heiroku is supposed to be one of those well-known sushi bars where all the tourists go to, etc.  And yes, we did have to queue, but fortunately it was not peak period so the wait was relatively short (and in any case it was good to take a little rest from all our walking).  I have to say that it did not “wow” me as much as I would have expected and the plates coming out were all the high-end, expensive stuff.  So you have to order the cheaper items! (I thought that it should be a better mix).  But I suppose if you come to this area to shop, you would go for more high-end stuff :-)

More photos of everything on Flickr, here.  In brief, if you want to go shopping, these shopping districts of Tokyo can satisfy all your needs and then some.  But even for non-shoppers, these are interesting places to visit to do a bit of people-watching and just feel the vibe of this modern, exciting metropolis. 

Mount Fuji: The Icon of Japan

Fuji-San

If there was one thing on my bucket list I wanted to fulfil this year, it was to visit Mt Fuji.  Fuji-san, as it is commonly called, is a mythical, mystical mountain for the Japanese.  At 3,776m above sea level, this is Japan's highest mountain.  Its symmetrical cone, formed by volcano action, rises above the surrounding plains and dominates the landscape for miles around.  After coming to Japan every year for the past three years, it was about time to meet Fuji-San.

There are many spots from which you can view Mt Fuji, and many scenic places around the mountain itself to visit.  For our visit, we decided upon a day tour from Tokyo, since it seemed the most convenient (although I have to say that I would love to visit again, and spend a night or two at the Fuji Five Lakes area).  It is also nice to have someone taking care of things!  Unlike the previous tour to Nikko, we had an older Japanese lady who was clearly a more experienced guide than the other two as she could offer more information and background in general, eg on how the mountain was formed, and about Japanese lifestyles.  She was also quite firm and reminded us to be punctual at every point in the journey.  

Our very first stop on the tour was the 5th station of Mt Fuji!  It was truly quite exciting and exhilarating, as we were actually ON Mt Fuji itself and had a lovely clear view of the peak and the surrounding countryside.  The weather was beautiful - brilliant blue sky, almost glaring sunshine, and a refreshing wind blowing.  We were about 1,600 m above sea level, not even halfway up the mountain, but it was cold, with that crisp chill in the air which makes you feel energised and alert despite the cold.  At this point, the vegetation starts to fail so when you look up, you can see the volcanic rock of the mountain rising above you to the top of the peak, interrupted here and there with streaks of white - I assume these are springs off water falling down from the mountain.

Above all, I was so glad that we had such a great view of the peak.  We were checking when the best time was to get a clear view (find out more here)  and it was wonderful that it all went according to plan.  Or at least, almost to plan as I was hoping that the snow cap would be there.  I had read earlier that Mt Fuji had experienced its first snowfall of the year just one week before our arrival.  Sadly, because of the warm winds brought in by the tropical storm, the snow cap had melted by the time we got there.  Which means that another visit is definitely in order!

Wakuike Pond, Oshino Hakkai 

Kagamiike Pond - can u see Mt Fuji reflected?

After the stop at the 5th Station we went to visit a charming little village called “Oshino Hakkai”.  Mt Fuji had shaped the landscape in the area in many ways, including creating the 8 ponds in this area, spring fed from Mt Fuji.

The crystal clear waters reflect the blue of the sky, the trees, and in some of them... even a mountain.  After some trying, I managed to get a shot of Mt Fuji reflected in one of the ponds! (Tip: look hard!)

We went off to our next stop, eating our bento lunch along the way.  I have to say that I preferred the nice hot food on the previous tour.  We were also enlivened by the conversation of our fellow tour participants.   The thing about day tours is that you also meet lots of people - we met a fellow Singaporean (of course) and hooked up with her for photo taking etc.  There was a Malaysian family, a Chinese-Australian lady, and a few Americans - one of whom was quite chatty. It truly amazes me how some people can talk about themselves and their lives to chance-met strangers - sharing it theoretically with one person, but in practice at a volume which allows the entire bus to hear all the details!

The secret valley to the Shiraito Falls

Anyway, after a rather noisy interlude, we arrived at the Shiraito Falls, the next stop on our tour and one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Japan.  There is another waterfall just next to it as well, Otodome Falls, which is much smaller.

The Shiraito Falls are reached after a short walk along the side of a gorge.  We walked down the gorge, turned a corner and there, in this long deep valley was a shining waterfall right at the end.  But the waterfall was not just that single stream of plummeting water. As you walk along, you realise that there are a thousand silver streams of water flowing down the side of the valley, joining the little stream beneath.  

Our last stop of the day was the Fujisan Hongu Sengen Shrine - the shrine devoted to the “Goddess of Mt Fuji”, Konohana. Apparently, Konohana is the flower-princess and her older Sister, Iwa-naga, the rock princess.  Because Konohana’s Husband chose her over her older Sister, human life ended up being as fleeting as a cherry blossom and not eternal, like stone.  Our guide made an offering to the Goddess on our behalf and we proceeded to walk around the shrine compound.  Similar to the Oshino Hakkai area, there is another pond which is again fed by a mountain spring from Mt Fuji.  

 Fujisan Hongu Sengen Shrine

After our long day, our bus turned back to Tokyo and dropped us off at Shinjuku station.  We were given some discount vouchers for the Keiō department store - we went there really because we had some discount vouchers from the tour company which we didn’t use in the end. But, at the stationery section of the store, we found a calendar with a lovely woodcut pictures including the Great Wave by Hokusai!   So indeed, all our activities today were associated with Mt Fuji!  I can’t wait to make a second visit....

More photos of this day can be found on my Flickr page.