Friday October 3
Friday we slept in a little bit, and then decided to have a proper breakfast in the restaurant on the 12th floor of the hotel while we did a load of laundry. The food was good and the timing worked out ok such that we didn’t waste too much time with the load of laundry. We had hoped to do more, but this one load was all me managed to sort out. After getting ourselves organized, it was time to explore more of the area around Shinjuku and Shibuya.
As we started walking out from the hotel, we noticed a small shrine Hanazono Shrine, that we had not seen before. Sadly, it looked like they were doing a lot of construction work on it, so the photos were not much to talk about.
Our first stop was at the Meiji Shrine, and was an interesting blend of serene nature and overwhelming masses of humanity. Sadly, unlike most of our other visits to big attractions we were a bit later in the morning, and the crowds were insane. You could barely get near the place.
As we stepped through the colossal wooden torii gate, the city's sounds were softened by the sheer expanse of the forest. The pathway, paved with gravel, was a wide river of people, all making their way deeper into the park leading up to the shrine. It was amazing to think this wasn't a natural forest, but one carefully cultivated with over 100,000 trees, yet despite the crowds, it still offered a sense of green escape.
Approaching the main shrine buildings, the scene was overwhelming. Throngs of visitors moved continuously, admiring the traditional Shinto architecture crafted from cypress wood and copper roofs. We looked on the queues of people lined up to observe people offering prayers, but there was no way we were going to deal with the masses to see more.
One of the carved panels on the doors near the temple.
Leaving the main shrine we walked through the other part of the surrounding park. I particularly enjoyed seeing the towering stacks of sake barrels and wine casks, a vibrant splash of color against the natural wood, signifying offerings to the deities.
As we were leaving through the last torii gate was this amazing scene. This man was sweeping leaves off the path using a traditional hand-tied broom.
Our walk to through Meiji Shrine from our hotel.
After the shrine crowds, Yoyogi Park was a breath of fresh air. Strolling through its wide, open spaces felt much better. We saw people picnicking, lots of kids from the nearby school, and just relaxing. The highlight for me was spotting a Hummingbird Hawk Moth flitting among the flowers—I'd never seen one before, and it was amazing how much it resembled a tiny hummingbird! It was a perfect break before we plunged back into the craziness. A place where Tokyo's energy felt gentler, allowing for peaceful wandering. We do seem to be spending a lot of time strolling in parks - Simon will be proud of us.
Not the best photo, but such a cool creature!
The highlight of the park was definitely seeing a Hummingbird Hawk Moth in the flowers. I had never seen one before, and it was amazing how much it looked like a hummingbird!
This park was full of gthese beautiful trees. We’d seen them frequently throughout the city, but this park and a lot of them.
The park was quite close to our next destination - Harajuku and its two shopping streets Takeshita Street and Cat Street. Takeshita was a crazy, jammed packed sensory overload. And it seemed to be full of either crepe vendors, clothing stores or pet cafes. Pet cafes are these cafes where you sit and pet various animals. Dog and cat cafes are the most common but we saw a “Micro Pig” and even an Otter Cafe. And yes, there was a guy outside holding an otter. It’s a bit crazy.
We didn’t stay long, just passing through the insanity. After escaping we continued on to Cat Street. Oddly, there were no cats or cat cafes, so I’m not sure why it’s so named. There were lots of high end fashion stores and places to eat. We ended up stopping at a gyoza place for lunch. It was busy - yet another line to wait in - but we were seated within about 15 minutes. The food was amazing and we had a great view of the food prep from our seats at the wraparound bar.
On the way to our next stop we walked by this mall that had a rooftop park. It’s not the Highline, but we thought it would be worth checking out to see what it had to offer, and to get another perspective on the area.
After lunch it was time to experience Shibuya’s most famous attraction, the scramble crossing! This is arguably the biggest and most populous intersection in the world, and is a sight to behold. We watched the mayhem for one turn of the lights, then had to experience it for ourselves. It’s a lot of people.
From there we wanted to check out the flagship Don Quijote. It’s another sensory overload, but we got sucked in and ended up buying a bunch of things to take home with us.
We explored Shibuya for a little while longer, and even found a cool place to stop and rest our weary feet and have a drink. Ninja Brewing had set up “Ninja Park” in this tiny little abandoned lot, not far off from the main crossing. They had rolled in a little truck to serve from, setup some lounge chairs and it made for a great spot to people watch for an hour or so. It was a great little find.
After a couple of drinks we hopped back on the subway and headed back to Shinjuku. The subway let us out right at this huge megastore “Bicqlo” - a combo of Bic Camera and Uniqlo, a perfect marriage for us to explore for a bit.
After (hopefully?!?) our last shopping excursion we started back to the hotel. We needed some food and were right at the excellent yakitory spot we had found yesterday so we popped in quickly and had a bite.
Then we went back to the hotel and chilled and rested up for a bit, before launching back out into the craziness of the Shinjuku night! We needed to see the lights and the neon and the craziness in full force, and we were not disappointed.
Shinjuku at night in a nutshell.
In addition to just the total mayhem, there are a few things that you need to see in Shikjuku. In the middle of Kabukicho, on top of this massive movie theatre there is a huge model of Godzilla’s head, looking down over the streets below. It’s pretty fun. And over on the east side, there’s a huge 3D cat on a billboard that “wakes up” and walks around on top of the building. And it makes noise and such - it’s pretty fun and boy does it draw a crowd.
From there we crossed under the train tracks and headed over to another part of Shinjuku, Noshiguchi Omoide Yokocho (Memory Alley). This is the food equivalent of Golden Gai - over 70 little restaurants, all grilling meat over open charcoal grills. It makes for just incredible atmosphere. Tons of people crammed into tiny alleys, with the smells of grilling food and the smoke wafting through the air. It’s a pretty incredible thing to experience. We should have waited on dinner!
But it had been a long day, we were still quite tired and it was time to head back to the hotel and chilled out and call it a night.
Daily Step Count: 22,266