Tokyo D'Esposito:: Shopping in the Shade

Yesterday I made a special trip just to go to what is, so far, one of my favorite city shopping locations. We originally discovered the Omotesandō area because that is where the single Japanese Wendy's is located. I realized then that it would be a much nicer place for a day of city shopping than the Ginza district. For starters, one of the main streets is lined with large trees so you can walk in the shade on wide paved sidewalks. (Ginza is a lot of plain concrete and exposure to the elements.) Oddly enough, Omotesandō doesn't seem to get much press--it is very close to Shibuya and the Harajuku District which get much more attention.

In addition to the Wendy's, there is a new Ben & Jerry's (also the only one in Japan, I think), a TGIFriday's and interesting looking pizza place I hope to try one day. There are also many other restaurants and cafes around the area. On an adjacent street there is an H&M (but I was very disappointed to find that they don't have a baby section--the one in Odaiba does), American Eagle Outfitters, Forever 21 (much nicer than the ones in the U.S), United Colors of Benetton, Gap and a Topshop. Much of the rest of the shopping is very high-end, in fact, part of the reason I went was to check out a particular baby stroller but it turns out that stroller is extremely expensive in Japan.

I checked out what Wikipedia had to say about the area and was interested to learn that the architecture is a big draw. Apparently a lot of the stores were designed by famous architects. Wish I had known that before I went taking pictures---all I knew was that it was pretty, shady and very modern. ;)