Tokyo, Day 3 – Harajuku and Sushi in Shinjuku

We woke up early in the morning, realising we already had gotten accustomed to the new time zone (thank God). We took a shower (my dad first, he always woke me up after, he wakes up so early…), got dressed (I decided to wear my Aqua Princess head bow and Baby, the Stars Shine Bright necklace) and went downstairs for breakfast. The hotel had both a bar and an Italian restaurant, where you could eat breakfast in the morning. There were both western and Japanese dishes. The western food consisted of things like yoghurt, milk, cereal, strawberry sauce (or as the sign said: ‘strawberry source’), eggs, tomatoes and sausages. The Japanese food consisted of some kind of sweet egg (which was absolutely delicious), salmon, pickled cucumber (yum!), pickled plums (so sour!) and of course rice.

I started out western-style, but I definitely ate Japanese dishes too and they
were really nice! The pickled plums were a bit too sour for my taste though…
Then we went upstairs to decide on what we would do that day and to get our things. My father suggested to visit the Royal Palace and gardens, but I asked if we could please go to Harajuku first, since I was really looking forward to see it. We went to Harajuku!

Of course we just had to walk to the wrong side of the station at first.
We quickly found the right one though! ^^
Harajuku was only two stations away. After leaving Yoyogi Station I got more and more excited. I was finally going to see Harajuku in real life!
We got out at Harajuku Station and I quickly recognised the backside of the typical building you always see on pictures. We walked up the stairs, where I immediately found a sign for Innocent World!

Harajuku Station from the inside! So awesome…
I already noticed that the people around me seemed just a bit more dressed up than the people I had seen the day before. ‘Harajuku, here we come!’ was all I could think. We left the station and I immediately recognised the street (thank you Google Maps).

Harajuku Station! It’s so different and small compared to the other subway stations.
My dad told me to lead the way and we followed the sidewalk until I saw a familiar sight. A gate filled with balloons in the shapes of cute things, in this case a sun, a rainbow and a balloon. The gate to Takeshita dori!

Takeshita dori! I was so excited to see the gate! It was like a dream come true!
And then our long journey through Takeshita dori begun. Even though it was around 10:30 am, a lot of shops were only just opened or still closed. It turned out that the shops in Tokyo open late, but close late in the evening too!
As we walked around, I was amazed by all the colours and shops. Everything was just… perfect to and for me! Just the way I want a shopping street to be! Colours and cute jewelry everywhere and a liveliness I have never experienced before! All the shops were unique and I had never seen any of them before anywhere, except for Claire’s (and McDonald’s, but come on).
At the beginning of the street, I saw a small staircase going down, the walls filled with posters. I wanted to see what was downstairs and it turned out to be a room filled with Purikura machines!

The stairs to the Purikura room. There was ‘Woooooow’ written all over my face.
We decided to Purikura some other time and went upstairs again. I saw the big AKB48 shop (an immensely popular popgroup, we saw them everywhere), a McDonald’s and then the Paris Kids, a cute shop comparable to Claire’s, but with even cuter accessories! I wanted to go back later, but simply forgot!

Paris Kids necklaces. There were so much more inside!
When we walked further, we noticed that some shops had a staffmember standing outside, that shouted things to the passing people. I couldn’t understand a word of it, but they all had cute, childlike voices and made every word at the end of the sentence longer, like ‘Sumimaseeeeeeeeeen’. They all did it (and again, I thought it was supercute! ^^). We wondered if the sound of their voices was real though (later, I found out this is probably not the case. XD To be continued…).

A really cute shop called Panama Boy.
We kept on walking and I snapped pictures of almost every shop. Some we entered, some we didn’t. We simply loved looking at them! We also saw the Liz Lisa shop! I never really cared for this brand, but damn… those clothes (and the shop) were way too cute!

A Liz Lisa staffmember. She had a really cute smile!
I noticed at Liz Lisa that they had a lot of clothes in red with white polka dots. I also saw a lot of girls wearing this colour combination during our trip.
I wanted to visit ManiaQ, but it was closed. It wasn’t really disappointing though. ^^
Then, it was time to face my dream/nightmare: Closet Child. I had read many positive and some strange stories about it (though the strange ones in a different language), so I was really nervous about how it was going to be. I saw the sign and then the shop window, with three mannequins with a dress on them.

My heart was racing at this moment.
We walked up the stairs and I knew this was one of the moments I had been waiting for. And it was great! My first look into the store only filled me with happiness, because the first thing I saw was a long rack filled with Angelic Pretty dresses. Beautiful, colourful, gorgeous and so… touchable! While I walked into the store I couldn’t breath for a moment, because I was filled with amazement. It was as if I was looking through pink glasses, since the pink curtains behind the dresses in the shop window made the light pink.

Merry Making Party, Memorial Cake, Toy Parade, Chess Chocolate,
Sugary Carnival… My heart pounded out of my chest!
My biggest happiness was when I saw one of the most beautiful dresses in the world hanging in the rack: the Memorial Cake One Piece in black. I carefully took the dress in my arms and didn’t want to let go (I’m so childlish. XD) while I browsed the rest of the store. Of course, there were also other customers in the shop, inlcuding a fully dressed Lolita in mint Honey Cake. She looked amazing, but I was too shy to ask for a picture…
They had so many gorgeous dresses, including a lot from Baby, the Stars Shine Bright. They also had bags, skirts, blouses and a lot of accessories! I also noticed they had the Memorial Cake Halterneck Jumperskirt in pink (I prefer this version over the One Piece) so I took this in my arms too and asked if I could try them on.

Skirts on the left, Baby dresses in the middle, blouses and cardigans on the right.
But I’m afraid my happiness got a little lost once I tried on the One Piece. I was still a little too big for the beautiful dress. Even though I’ve lost quite some weight and was hoping shirred dresses would be ok, it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t sure if I should post this on my blog, since I find it quite embarrassing, but I didn’t want to lie either…
I was sad for a second, but somehow I always have this incredible positive feeling on me when I’m on holiday, so the sadness didn’t last for long. I took the dress off and tried on the Halterneck version, which was just fine and didn’t look bad at all. But of all the colours Memorial Cake comes in, pink is my least favourite. Looking back it was a bit cruel: the perfect dress that just didn’t fit me and the fitting dress that wasn’t quite as perfect. For a second I doubted if I should buy the pink one, but my wise father talked me out of it. And I remembered someone wrote on my blog to be careful, since you can get overwhelmed by all the clothes. So I decided not to do it, but at least I knew my favourite version of Memorial Cake would fit me. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a new mission: buying the Memorial Cake Halterneck Jumperskirt in black and/or blue!

Oh, all those beautiful dresses…
Instead of a dress, I bought a lot of accessories: a lavender Candy Treat barret bow, a mint Milky Berry barret bow, two Angelic Pretty bangles, the Angelic Pretty Pony ring I’ve always wanted, a pair of socks and two pairs of gorgeous wrist cuffs (I really needed those), some Chocomint accessories and two Star clips. We left the store after I took some more pictures. Then I noticed that Bodyline had finally opened and we went inside.
I’ll be honest: Bodyline disappointed me a little. The music was really loud and even though they have different sizes on their site, the shop didn’t. There wasn’t a changing room either. But I hadn’t really planned on buying something there anyway, so we left again.
I really wanted to eat a crêpe, and there happened to be two stands next to Bodyline!

Of course there was a little window with fake crêpes next to the stand.
After looking at the fake crêpes, I chose number 46, strawberry ice cream with strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate sauce, and my dad chose number 11, banana parts with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Since I wasn’t really sure how to say the numbers right in Japanese (I didn’t want to end up with two wrong crêpes), I wrote the numbers down on a page in my notebook and showed them to the crêpe man.

Yay, Harajuku crêpes!
While eating our crêpes, we finally left Takeshita dori and went right, into Meiji dori. We finished our crêpes on the corner of the street and took pictures of the ‘Harajuku Street’ signs.

I always see these on pictures and now I could take a picture of my own!
While we walked, we snapped more pictures. My dad had shown me how to send multiple pictures to my mom at the same time, so I wanted to snap everything I wanted to show her. Suddenly, I saw a little sign next to a door saying ‘Innocent World’. Although I’m much more of a Sweet fan, I really wanted to see this! Innocent World was on the 7th floor, but before we got there we had this little embarrassing thing, but I’ll spare all of you. XD
The shop was completely deserted, except for one sweet staff member that welcomed us, but didn’t say much more. We looked around for a bit (the Lotta Jumperskirts are to die for) and they had some lovely socks. It was an adorable shop and I’m sure if you want to buy something, you’ll get all the attention you need. ^^

I loved that the shop was so fancy! Everything was beautiful, even the door!
We left the building, snapped more pictures and continued our way to Omotesando. When we crossed some vending machines, we bought a Grape Fanta.

This drink had a very… unique taste.
We arrived at Laforet, the big shopping mall for any Lolita, but we wanted to see Omotesando first. While we were waiting at the crossing, I suddenly saw the Lolita I had seen at Closet Child walking towards us. When se reached us I quickly asked her if I please could take a picture of her. She seemed happy and posed cutely for me. ^^ Yay!
We crossed the street and followed the sidewalk, until we saw a big building that looked like an old temple: Oriental Bazaar.

It was interesting to see a building like this between high grey buildings.
Oriental Bazaar is a shop that sells touristic things like postcards, handkerchiefs, yukata, kimono, fans, etc. We walked around, but didn’t buy anything and left the shop again. We crossed the street via a high bridge, but of course not without taking pictures.

Omotesando, I just love that word somehow.
We walked in the opposite direction, looking at the shops, until we accidentally found Omotesando Hills, a name that sounded familiar to me. We went inside and we found a big shopping centre, filled with incredibly expensive unknown shops. The centre was very minimalistic and there was some kind of new age music playing. It didn’t really appeal to me and the only thing we visited was the toilet.

Although it wasn’t my style, it does look good on picture.
After sitting down for a while, we left and checked my map again, since now we were looking for 6% Doki Doki! After walking through a more quiet street, I saw a building on my left with a pink second and third floor and I knew we had found what we (or I) were looking for!
We walked up the stairs and walked through the door, where we found ourselves in an overwhelming colourful world. The 6% Doki Doki shop was small, but filled with tons of adorable things and accessories and there was loud, video game-like music playing.The shop girl was an absolute sweetheart, showing me multiple adorable items after which we both squeeled over its cuteness. In the end, I chose a necklace with a pink piece of candy on it and a bright pink star clip. While I was paying, suddenly one of the famous 6% Doki Doki girls walked in! It was Vani (I’m pretty sure you’ll recognise her). The shop girl asked me if I wanted a picture with Vani and of course I said yes!

Yay, I’m in a picture with Vani!
We thanked them both and left, walking towards Laforet.
I had already seen the typical, flower-like shop windows you always see on pictures that stood outside of Laforet. This time the left one had an Emily Temple Cute bunny dress inside, the other one had two mannequins with Nile Perch on them and lots of stuffed animals. Then we went inside Laforet!
After descending more small stairs than I had expected, we arrived at the Lolita floor! I immediately saw Alice and the Pirates, a wonderfully decorated shop, where I looked around for a short while (they had the beautiful red dress I had seen in Paris, I’m still in love…) and then we walked on to Angelic Pretty! The shop was so wonderul and pink and cute and just… Angelic Pretty! One of the staffmembers wore a beautiful Wonder Story coord with a black blouse. She looked amazing!
I asked her something about the blouses, but she really didn’t know how to answer in English! She really tried, which was so sweet of her!

The poor girl really tried to help me, but she didn’t really know how.
Luckily, the blonde man you can see in the picture was able to translate it for us. ^^
I looked around some more (inspecting every detail, my poor dad was waiting patiently). They had some Honey Cake dresses hanging and of course the re-release of Country of Sweets, but no Wonder Story. There was also a glass table filled with accessories and two tables with blouses, cutsews, headbows, socks and shoes. Then we looked at the other shops on the Loli floor. I also saw a lovely Lolita, wearing a red dress with white lace and black boots and I asked if I could take a picture of her. She said yes! ^^

The Swimmer shop and another Lolita.
After looking at the entire floor, I walked back to Angelic Pretty to look around once more and then we left.

The shop was so amazing!
When we walked outside, I saw the mint Honey Cake Lolita again. She sat down on a bench right across from us and when she looked up, she recognised me and smiled. Suddenly she rose to her feet and asked if she could take a picture with me! I was flattered of course and my dad took a picture with her camera, quickly followed by my camera.

She was so sweet! I’m so happy with this picture.
Then we walked to the station and took the subway back to Shinjuku, where we staid the rest of the afternoon in our hotel (since we were pretty tired from all the walking).
In the evening we decided to visit Tower Records in Shinjuku, a big store that sells almost any CD. So we went looking for Tower Records. Luckily, it didn’t take us long, since we only had to follow the street and ended up on a square at the foot of a building with a huge tv on it. The tv showed a videoclip and played the music of the band ‘One Ok Rock’. Tower Records was in that building, so we took the escalator up.

The big tv screen on the building. The upper three floors were Tower Records.
While my dad looked around for interesting CDs, I went looking for Sound Horizon of course. I found them, well, a staffmember showed me where they were. Tower Records had almost all of their CDs! I doubted, but decided to wait before I bought any of them. They were quite expensive. ^^’ My dad found some CDs he wanted, including something he had never heard before which was playing in the store, but he too wanted to wait before buying. After about an hour we left the store and just walked around Shinjuku, passing shops and fruit stalls were every piece of fruit was packed individually!
My dad had suggested to eat sushi somewhere, because we had to do that at least once of course. Surprisingly, we didn’t see much sushi restaurants during our trip. I was glad we passed a store called ‘Lumine Est’ (there’s also a ‘Lumine One’ and a ‘Lumine Two’) where we saw a poster for their restaurant floors and one restaurant was entirely sushi! So we took the elevator upstairs.
The restaurant was on the 7th floor. We pointed at a picture of what we wanted for the waitress and we sat down in a small booth with two tables: one for us, one for a Japanese couple.
Our food, that came in parts, arrived pretty quickly.

The first big dish we got. So tasty…
We didn’t really now if there was any special way to eat the food, so we looked at the neighbours sometimes and we actually did a pretty good job, even with chopsticks. First we got a salad, then the big dish on the picture, then a small cup filled with jelly-like yellow stuff that was pretty good but I’m not sure I want to know what it was, then a big plate filled with delicious sushi, then soup and then our interesting dessert, consisting of two small grey jelly-like squares that tasted like peanut butter. In the end we also got some green tea, but that was the only thing I didn’t like.

Sushi, sushi, sushi! Even my dad, who isn’t a big fish fan, really liked it!
After we finished, we thanked the cook (he was really funny!) , payed and we left the building again. We walked around Shinjuku some more and suddenly I recognised a certain building with a big tv on it from a picture. I knew we were close to both MaruiOne and Closet Child, but we wanted to do that some other time.
The city looked magical with all the lights and colours. The atmosphere was just so great! Tokyo is really lively in the evening, which I loved!

Together in Shinjuku. ^^
After a while, we went back to the hotel, Skyped with my mom and brother and then went to sleep. It had been a long and absolutely magical day!
I just want to say one last thing: my dad is awesome. This was his first experience with, as I like to call it, ‘my pink world’ and he handled it like a pro! ^^ He was superpatient and really sweet. Thanks dad, you’re awesome! ♥