Harajuku & Yoyogi Park

I just realized that it's been almost a month since my last post!  Sorry about that.  Time got away from me.  Anyway, this past weekend we went to Tokyo for a couple of nights.  The main purpose of the trip was to experiment with ways to get Cora to sleep in a hotel room.  (We were pretty successful-- throwing a sheet over her crib like she was a canary helped a lot.)

We had a couple of ideas of what to do while we were there but they all fell through until we ended up walking from our hotel in Shinjuku to the area known as Harajuku.  (Incidentally we walked because the train we were going to take was delayed by 20 minutes---virtually unheard of in Tokyo!)

The Harajuku area is pretty famous....if any of you are Gwen Stefani fans you might remember it as a big inspiration in one of her solo albums.  A lot of kids hang out in Harajuku and wear crazy clothes and costumes.  (According to Wikipedia "goth" and "California girl" are two styles that are popular.)  There are also a lot of shops that cater to the kids and their street fashion.

Sunday is the day that the kids are out and about so since we were there on Saturday afternoon we didn't see too many wacky getups.  But we did walk down Takeshita Street and check out some of the shops.

takeshita street



some getups, huh?

a little busy for me

more Harajuku shopping

Overall, Harajuku wasn't quite what I was expecting.  It was pretty touristy--there was even a stand with brochures at the entrance to Takeshita Street.  I was expecting a little more edgy and avant-garde and instead it reminded me a little of one of those streets in a beach town where you can get your hair wrapped or get henna-tattooed.  It was also unusually ethnically diverse for Japan and possibly a little skeevy.  Although it occurs to me that perhaps I am just old. :/

On the way to Harajuku we walked through Yoyogi Park, which I thought was a neat spot to find in the middle of the city.  There is a famous shrine (Meiji Jingu) in the middle of the park but we just skirted the edge.

a torii at the entrance to Yoyogi Park

you wouldn't think you were in the middle of Tokyo

I was also surprised to realize just how close all this was to one of my favorite shopping spots, Omotesando, which I blogged about here.  I knew it wasn't far, but it turned out to be very walkable.  The proximity of Yoyogi Park, Omotesando and Harajuku definitely make this one of my favorite areas of the city.   I hope to come back on a Sunday and see the Harajuku kids so maybe you'll get to see some more one day!