Tokyo, Day 11 – Returning Home

We woke up at 6:15 am (well, my dad. I tried but it got a little later). We took a shower, got dressed and packed the last remaining things like our toiletries. We left a (pre-made) note for the cleaners in which we thanked them for their service. My dad also wrote that if we return to Tokyo, we might stay in this hotel again. ^^ We took our suitcases downstairs and my dad checked out.

Bye bye hotel lobby!
We walked outside, where a few other people were waiting. The bus arrived in a few minutes and an employee put our suitcases into the luggage space. Our bus was a big orange ‘Friendly Airport Limousine’ bus. I had seen many driving around Tokyo.

I’m glad the bus was friendly. XD
We got in and sat down on the right (I had the window of course). The bus departed at 7:00 am. It’s funny, it drove by another hotel and then made a big turn, so we passed the big orange clock again. My dad took a picture for the last time.

Hope to see you one day again, big clock!
I must say that just sitting down in the bus and looking out the window was really nice and also fun! Driving on the roads really showed us a different side of Tokyo that we hadn’t seen before! The bus drove really fast over high roads and through tunnels. It was really cool! We also passed Odaiba, the Disney Resort and an IKEA (I had seriously wondered before if they had any IKEAs in Japan too. Question answered). While our luggage was in the luggage space, we kept our hand luggage close to us. I was really afraid to lose something.

Me and my Dream Star Bag.
After some time (I think we drove about 45 minutes) we arrived at Narita Airport. The driver had told the passengers to pay attention to what hall they needed to get off the bus. We had to get off at the first one. When we stopped, an emplyee quickly pulled out our luggage from the bus and they drove away again within 15 seconds. They were so fast! We were like: ‘Ok…. Bye…’ XD
We took our luggage and walked into the hall, where we checked in and confirmed our seats. While we were in line, a woman a few meters away from us was having some kind of panick attack! It was so bad she actually started to throw up and she had to be calmed down by a few female staffmembers. They drove her away in a wheelchair! I still wondered what had happened. Maybe she lost something? Her passport? Maybe even a family member? I don’t know…
After checking in, we went through security and then entered the airport. We walked around for a bit towards a bit of a central place, where the trains left that drove to our terminal. Since we had plenty of time, we bought a bottle of water, sat down on a bench and ate our bread and rolls that we had bought the day before at Hokuo.

You can see my dad is tired, awww… And look, our separate Laox bag.
From the place where we sat we could look down on the departing station and we could look at a clock with different clocks in different timezones. We could also see some shops, like Tiffany&Co and a shop called ‘Akihabara’. We decided to browse there a little, maybe for magazines, before we went downstairs to the trains.
The story I’m about to tell is one of those ‘Pics or it didn’t happen’-kinds. I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures, so you’ll have to believe me on my word. ^^
We went into the Akihabara store and looked around a little, when suddenly we both heard a female voice that sounded pretty familiar. We looked behind us and we saw…
We just couldn’t believe it! We looked at each other and my dad whispered: ‘Is that… Judi Dench!?’
I looked again and now I was sure, it was Dame Judi Dench, the famous actress! While my dad kept on browsing, I walked after her. I just really wanted to talk to her for a moment. After I finally gained enough courage, I approached her and the conversation was almost exactly like this:
Me: ‘Excuse me, I feel ridiculous for asking, but… aren’t you Judi Dench?’ (I would have felt so stupid if she turned out to be someone else. XD)
Miss Dench (smiling): ‘Yes’.
Me: ‘Yes, you are..! Are you here on a holiday?’
Miss Dench: ‘No, I was here to receive a prize.’
Me: ‘Oh wow, congratulations!’
Miss Dench: ‘Thank you. So are you here on holiday?’
Me: ‘Yes, my father and I spent an amazing week here.’
Miss Dench: ‘And now you’re returning to..?’
Me: ‘The Netherlands.’
Miss Dench: ‘Ah, the Netherlands. Well, have a safe flight.’
Me: ‘Thank you, you too!’
Oh my God, I’ve had an actual conversation with a famous person! I still can’t believe it, haha. And I’m afraid you’ll have to believe me on my word. I didn’t want to ask for any pictures. I was too scared to anyway, but I also didn’t want to bother her too much. The poor woman is just walking around on an airport! (P.s.: Wow, this is the first time I’ve actually mentioned the country I come from. XD)

Akihabara, you never know who you’ll encounter here…
After browsing the store we went down the escalators and went to stand in front of the doors for the train. They soon opened and we could step right in.

The trains were so funny and futuristic!
We arrived at Terminal 1 and proceeded to our gate. We had to wait for a while, since our plane would depart at 11:05 am and it was still quite early. Did I mention we didn’t have a straight flight back? We would first fly to Paris and then from there to Amsterdam.
We decided to buy some snacks and I noticed a shop that sold some special flavoured Kitkats! I had wanted to try those but hadn’t seen them in Tokyo, so we bought the flavours strawberry (pink bars), green tea and sakura or something (green bars) and I think pistachio (also green bars). We also bought some fruit Mentos and some Honey & Lemon candy. We returned to our gate and walked a bit around in circles. We took pictures of a plane we thought was ours, until we realised it was too small. XD Turned out our plane was to the left.

So many flights!
Finally, it was time to board! There weren’t that many people and we could calmly enter the plane.
We had a window and a middle seat. Of course, I asked for the window seat (hehe). The man sitting next to my dad left after a little while, leaving us with three seats instead of one (he did steal my dad’s blanket though). The rest of the flight, he didn’t return, which was sooo nice! Having three chairs gives so much more space! We put our luggage above our heads (although I kept my Dream Star Bag close to me, I was terrified someone would smack his bag on top of it).
After a while, our plane started moving and not very much later it started to drive rapidly and then took off. Bye bye, Japan~!

Bye bye beautiful country! Sayonara, Nihon!
The flight was quite comfortable. Although we didn’t fly through the night this time, in the middle of the flight the staff closed the windows to give people the chance to sleep. Of course, I couldn’t. -_-” My dad did though, a little. He was so tired.
Instead of sleeping, I watched two movies! The first one being Kung Fu Panda 2 and the second one Paradise Kiss, a movie based on the manga by Ai Yazawa. I really liked it! My dad also watched movies. He watched a movie from our country and the Japanese movie Bunny Drop. He really enjoyed it and wanted to make sure he remembered it, so I took a picture of the programmbook at the end of the flight.

The view was absolutely beautiful this time! Often there were no clouds.
The food was also nice again! We could choose between two menus: Western or Japanese. My dad chose Western, I chose Japanese (because I hadn’t had enough of course). I can’t help it, I just must show you a picture of what I got.

I know it doesn’t look fantastic, but it was really nice!
Do you see that milky round thing with black spots on and it on the left? It looked so disgusting! It felt really soft and snot-like, but I did try it after all and it tasted really nice! It had some kind of red paste in it, really yummy!
After a couple of hours, we received some snacks (I had mini muffins, chocolate and vanilla) and something to drink. Later we got breakfast, which was also really nice.
After a long flight, we landed on airport Charles de Gaulle, not very from from Paris.

Back in Europe! I was disappointed I didn’t even see the Eiffeltower!(XD)
We got off the airplane and got checked. We had a bottle of water, but the guards told us we had to either throw it away or drink it all up! So my dad quickly drank everything and we could walk on, where we found a drinks vending machine after a couple of meters. I know it’s the rules, but still…
Our plane wouldn’t leave in couple of hours, but there were lots of things to see. The airport has quite a nice architecture.

The light through the roof looked just wonderful!
And there was also… a Ladurée shop! Of course, we just had to buy some macarons. My dad sat down, gave me money and said: ‘Just go buy something there!’ Of course, I didn’t hesitate for a moment!

I loved how the small, open shop still had that Ladurée atmosphere to it!
I bought a small tube with six different macarons in it and (I believe) two big ones. God, macarons are just sooo delicious. No lie!

Posing with my delicious treat.
We sat down for a while close to our gate and looked at the people. It was a really crowded hall, but with a great view on the landing and taking off airplanes.

I’ll tell you a little secret: we weren’t really sleeping here! (A)
Finally it was time to board the plane. It was a very small one with not too many seats, but it wasn’t so bad since it would only be an hour flying to our destination. We sat down (I still kept my Dream Star Bag close to me) and just relaxed. Or rather, we tried, for there were three Françaises (French women) sitting in front of us, talking and laughing so loudly it actually annoyed us. They didn’t even notice the flight attendants said all the chairs needed to be put in a straight up position. My dad actually had to make them notice. *sigh*
In the meantime it had become dark outside and the plane started moving. We took off and, as we later said jokingly, the flight attendants started to hand out snacks while the plane was not yet in a horizontal position! The flight was so short, there wouldn’t be time otherwise! I was looking out the window, to the pretty lights on the ground.

The best picture I could get of nightly Europe. =)
After a while, I asked my dad: ‘Is that the harbor of Antwerpen (Belgium)?’ My dad looked and said: ‘No, I think it’s the harbor of Rotterdam’. I didn’t believe him, that would be so soon already! After which the pilot said we were flying over Rotterdam and we would soon arrive at our destination. My dad was right after all!
Finally, we landed and we were back in our own country! We walked through some deserted halls and finally arrived in the luggage delivery hall, but we couldn’t find our suitcases! Until we found out we had to be in the next hall.
As soon as we arrived in the hall we walked up to the windows that separate the hall from the airport hall where people who aren’t flying can walk around and see there family off/again. There, I saw my brother standing! He quickly went to get my mom and when I saw her, I couldn’t help but laugh. They had two giant floating bear balloons with them!

I was so happy to finally see my mom and brother back!
My mom had joked when we left that she would buy balloons for us when we got back. I didn’t expect her to actually do it!
Later she told us that, because of a mistake in the car navigation system, they had arrived really late at the airport. According to the screens, our plane had already landed and my mom still wanted to buy the balloons. After they bought them, they ran through the airport to catch us in time and the balloons constantly hit the ceiling and screens hanging from it. XD They were still really on time after all, luckily!
After we collected our suitcases, my dad and I walked through the doors and we could finally hug my mom and brother!

You can see how happy we were to see each other. ^^
The balloons both floated for at least three months after we came back! After hugging at least ten times we left the hall, talking and talking. Outside, big screens told us the big news that the leader of Libia had been killed that day. It was so strange to be hit in the face with news from the word. To me, it was as if time had stood still and now we were put back into reality (I did have quite a heavy jetlag the days after too).
Driving back home was strange. We talked a lot of course, but at the same time I looked back upon our adventures. I’ve seen and done things I will never forget. I’ve experienced the journey of a lifetime!

Thank you all so much for reading about my adventures in Tokyo! I hope you enjoyed them! All of your comments were incredibly sweet and they always made me really happy! Also, thank you for your patience with me. I’ve been incredibly slow with posting and I sincerely apologize for that. I wrote these reports mainly for myself so I would be able to remember (almost) everything, so I wanted them to be perfect. That combined with work and music wasn’t a great combination. Of course, by being so slow, I might forget things more easily, so next time I really need to be faster. So thank you for staying with me!
And you know what: maybe we’re going back to Japan this year! My mom became so enthusiastic after seeing our pictures and hearing our stories that she has decided she wants to go too! Only my brother isn’t too keen on the idea yet, but we’ll see. So maybe I’m going back! Fingers crossed… And if we’re going, I’ll try to be faster with my reports! Thank you~! ♥

Tokyo, Day 10 – Last Time Shopping

This was our last day in Tokyo. As I already wrote before, we had planned our last minute shopping on this day. The day before we had written down the things we wanted to buy, so we knew exactly where to go. The places we needed to go were Akihabara, Shinjuku and Harajuku and we decided to go to Akiba first.
We woke up early and got dressed. The weather seemed more cold than the days before, so we decided to dress up a little warmer (as in: a cardigan and a sweater, but hey). We had breakfast downstairs, went to get our things and went on our way to the Otaku district!

The big orange clock! It’s funny, sometimes I see it in other people’s pictures too.
It makes me smile every time.
After sitting in the metro for a while, we got out at the station. Of course, since we had been there before, we knew where to go this time.

Colourful Electric Town! Ignore my… well, me. XD
We walked past all the colourful storefronts and I noticed there were so many things I hadn’t seen the first time in Akiba!
First, we went to Laox, the store with the big souvenirshop on of of the higher floors. We spent more time in Laox than we had thought, because they had so much wonderful things! It was like tourist-walhalla, haha! We browsed all the shelves and walls to pick some nice presents for family and friends. I don’t even remember all the things we bought: it was just too much!

Only a small selection of the keychains they had hanging.
I think we bought at least twenty of them!
For my group of friends I bought two different kinds of keychains (one with two tiny owls and one with a smiling cat), both with a 5 yen coin. This coin is supposed to bring you luck, which I really liked. ^^ For my mom we bought keychains with a Geisha-doll and a lantern with a little bell attached to it. For myself I bought a tiny ball-shaped kaleidoscope one. We also bought a cat-shaped mug, a cat dressed in a kimono, two cute sleeping cats on a red pillow (what’s with all the cats? We’re actually dog people, haha!), sushi-shaped erasers (so cute!), a pen and pencil with a macaron on it and a kokeshi doll for my mom. When I asked her before our trip what kind of souvenirs she liked, she showed me both a parasol and a kokeshi doll. We got both!

Laox, for all your touritsic needs.
After speaking to a staffmember (a man from a different country, I believe it was India? He was really nice) we left Laox again and walked on to Don Quijote, to buy my dad’s puzzle. Somehow we actually managed to find it again. You really have no idea how maze-like this store is!

The Tokyo puzzle! You can see a bit of what it looks like once it’s finished at the bottom.
When we left Don Quijote, we passed a hall with lots of games and machines to win prizes, including one that had alpaca plushies! We tried to win one, but unfortunetaly we weren’t very good at the game.
We decided to go back to our hotel to leave our bags there (the Laox one was really heavy) and to take a small break. We had spent more time in Akihabara than predicted, so a little rest wasn’t such a bad idea. We walked back to the station after buying a bottle of water from the same row of vending machines as a couple of days before.
We arrived back at our hotel around 1:00 pm, where we took an hour long break.
At 2:00 pm, we left the hotel again. We had decided to do Shinjuku next, but this time my dad decided to take another route, by walking past the robot-skyscraper. I had no idea how he wanted to walk, so I just followed him.

The robot skyscraper. I swear, every time we looked at it, we
imaged mechanical arms coming out of it or something.
We passed a lot of colourful vending machines and we also saw a zeppelin! The streets we crossed weren’t particularly interesting, except for one restaurant we passed where they sold ice cream cone-shaped pizzas called ‘Konos’. I had seen pictures of them on the internet, but they were even cooler in real life!
Suddenly, before I even realised it, we were standing on the crossing almost in front of Closet Child! I was really, and of course happily, suprised! I almost skipped up the stairs in the tiny hall.
Although not much had changed, I still enjoyed myself so much at Closet Child! I just loved that place so much and they had so many beautiful things! Had I been skinnier, I would have bought everything, seriously! I also managed (oh bad me) to snap some pictures inside this time!

Some of the many Angelic Pretty dresses!
After browsing everything again, I decided to try the white Milky-chan of the Fawn jumperskirt I had seen last time too. I had asked what was written on the lable, since it was highligthed with pink and the shop girl had shown me the waist ties had different buttons. Normally this would have bothered me, but somehow it didn’t now. So I tried the dress on and I really liked the look of it! I love the Milky-chan print and the white version is really cute! I think my dad liked it too. It had the matching head bow so I quickly decided to just buy it! I think I also bought accessories, but I can’t always match my purchases with the right day. XD Anyway, I bought another dress!
After buying I also saw a pretty Melty Chocolate head band and I doubted about buying it (it made me start panicking a little, really), but in the end my dad told me not to buy it and he was right.
We crossed the crossing and walked all the way to MaruiOne to visit Angelic Pretty again. I really wanted to buy the pink star-shaped bag I had seen and I was really hoping they’d still have it. I had seen it at first at Angelic Pretty in Laforet Harajuku, but I didn’t buy it back then because it had a little flaw (or at least, in my memory). We went up the escalators again and went straight to Angelic Pretty. This time, we didn’t browse all the shops again: we had a goal now. XD
I was really happy to see they still had the bag! I took it from the cabinet and held it, afraid someone might take it before me. I looked around for a little while and then went to the checkout. The shopgirl wrapped it prettily, put it in a bag (still not a big one, haha!) and walked me out of the store, where I thanked her. ^^

Another secretly taken picture. They had the Twinkle Witch set on display for Halloween!
I might be mistaken, because my memory abandoned me on this point, but I believe we went to Tower Records Shinjuku again. We did visit it on this day, but I’m not sure if it was right after MaruiOne. Let’s just say this is the right order, okay? ^^
So we went to Tower Records, where my dad bought the cds he wanted, including the one from the artist he didn’t know. I decided to buy two Sound Horizon cds after all. I decided to buy Seisen no Iberia, which has the song on it that made me fall in love with SH and Roman, my favourite album up until now.
After we left Tower Records, we eventually decided to have dinner early. It was a little late in the afternoon, but that gave us the chance to go to Harajuku in the evening. We didn’t want to go to bed too late, since the bus that would take us to the airport (we had already bought tickets for it at the hotel) would leave at 7:00 am.
We wanted to eat something we really liked, so we decided to go to the egg-restaurant again. We both loved it so much there, this would be a great goodbye-dinner!
We both decided to take the same as last time and we certainly didn’t regret it.

Seriously, if I was a good cook I’d make this every week!
After finishing our dinner we returned to our hotel, where we left our bags, put on some socks (it had become colder) and left again.
First we went to MyLord again, so I could buy a pair of Dolly Wink lashes (I chose No. 1, ‘Dolly Sweet’). I also bought a couple of glittery beads bracelets in different colours in a shop completely dedicated to this kind of beads. It was a really awesome shop!
We left MyLord again and crossed the street to enter Shinjuku Station via the entrance we had taken on the first day (and of course on other days). I had seen the cutest watch ever in a shop called ‘Sherry’ there. It has two macarons, cookies and whipped cream on it!

The row of adorable watches! Mine is on the far right. I swear I’ve seen a
picture of the one with the unicorn underneath it on Tumblr!
I doubted between the macarons and Eiffeltower, but I prefer buying Eiffeltower-related things in Paris. The only downside of the watch: the little wheel to change the time is right underneath the wristband, which makes it hard to turn. XD I love my watch nonetheless and my dad is really good at taking the band out anyway.
So, we could cross my watch off the list too. Then we proceeded to Harajuku!
When we arrived at Harajuku, the sky was completely dark. This meant we could see Harajuku by night too! I was so happy!

Takeshita-dori by night! I love this picture, it was so crowded.
When we walked into Takeshita-dori, I suddenly remembered the Purikura room, so I suggested to take some pictures. I chose the most pink and girly booth of all. XD

This wasn’t our exact booth, but we had the same kind.
Can it get any girlier? I don’t think so.
To be honest, Purikura was a lot harder than I thought! I had no idea what to do and what buttons to press, so I asked a staffmember to help us. He guided us a little (in broken English, of course) and then we could take pictures! The first one turned out especially funny, since my dad’s eyes were closed. But the rest of the pictures were really cool, our eyes were really enlarged! Then the decorating process started and we added everything we liked to the pictures while the clock was ticking. My dad was actually much better at it than I was! Suddenly I made a mistake, but I had no idea how to erase it. So I panicked and ran back to the staffmember before our time was up! It turned out that when the time stopped, we could actually keep on decorating! XD When we were finished, we got two sheets of pictures. I love them so much!
We went back up the stairs and walked on, when I saw the ManiaQshop was opened this time!

For all you ManiaQlovers!
I browsed the shop shortly, but I thought the prices were a bit too high after all, so I left again and we walked on to Closet Child.
CC Harajuku hadn’t changed much either. They still had the Memorial Cake OP, but I didn’t take it. I did browse the accessories cabinet and bought some accessories, including a Milky-chan of the Fawn necklace that matched the bangle I had bought before. I doubted about getting the other colour of the necklace too, but in the end I didn’t do it (thanks to my father again, haha).

Closet Child Harajuku by niiight~!
We continued our way and looked at the enlightened shops while we made our way to Laforet. Harajuku was really lovely by night. There were so many people and it was just really pleasantly crowded.
We arrived at Laforet and went straight on to Angelic Pretty. I looked around for a bit and ended up buying three pairs of socks: one in sax blue with pink bows on it, one in white with pink bows on it (initially I thought they were the same, but it turned out they were different after all, which I liked) and a plain lavender pair with lace. The shopgirl was lovely and I regretted to leave. We walked back to Harajuku Station via Omotesando. We decided to walk up the stairs of the bridge that went over the road to take some last pictures.

Bye bye Harajuku…
To be honest, I cried a little… Of course I wanted to go home to see my mom and brother and dogs again, but we just had such a great time! My dad was really sweet and hugged me. ^^ Then we walked back to the station.

Buying our last metrotickets. I actually bought extra ones just so I could keep them.
When we arrived at Shinjuku Station, we bought some black sesame aka peanutbutter ice cream before we went back to our hotel. The streets were so wonderful at night, sigh… We also bought some bread and rolls at Hokuo, for the next day.
We went back to our hotel, took some last pictures of it (like we hadn’t taken enough) and went upstairs. We decided to pack most of our things in advance, which turned out to be quite an adventure. Although we had an extra suitcase, stuffing a big, heavy coat, two dresses and lots of other things into it, combined with our clothes was still a challenge. But somehow we (or rather, my dad the packing genius) managed to pack everything! Then, after talking to my mom on Skype, we went to bed. The next day would be a travelling day and we needed our energy. I sighed while I realised this was our last night in Tokyo, Japan.

Tokyo, Day 9 – Meiji Shrine, Shibuya and Tokyo Tower

The day after Disney we wanted to have a bit more of a quiet day, but of course we ended up doing a lot of things again. ^^
We woke up, got dressed and had breakfast in the restaurant downstairs (I believe). My dad suggested to walk from the hotel to Yoyogi park, which wasn’t very far away, and visit Meiji Shrine. We also planned to do some shopping already. You see, since we only had this day and the next day left in Tokyo, we wanted to make sure we could buy everything we wanted to buy but hadn’t bought yet. We decided to do the real shopping on Wednesday and some small shopping on Tuesday, but I can tell you already: our plans changed a little. XD
So after breakfast, we headed to Yoyogi park (we forgot to take outfit pictures, can you believe it?). The weather was a bit gray, but it was still nice and warm. We passed the 7-eleven shop, where we got some money and I bought some delicious Pocky! Yoyogi park wasn’t very far and the walk was really nice. It was pretty quiet in the streets, I guess we were in a bit of an empty part of Shinjuku.
Suddenly, I saw a lot of trees and understood we were at the park already. After trying to read another difficult map, we decided to just follow the path that went underneath the gate.

The gate to the park. I wore my multifunctional skirt/dress again.
The park was really quiet and peaceful. It was as if the whole city didn’t even exist for a little while. I really liked the walk.
After following some signs we ended up at another gate with a small open house next to it. It had a small waterfountain with wooden spoons, but to be honest: I didn’t want to touch them. I was afraid I would accidentally do something that would be viewed upon as really disrespectful, since I didn’t know the way to use them. We passed the gate and ended up on a big square with a little shop to the left and lots of old buildings.

The waterfountain-like tank. The sound of the water was really calming.
In the shop they sold all kinds of charms for different occasions, like good luck and safe travel. The shopladies wore really beautiful white blouses with bright orange/red skirts, very traditional. We crossed the square and walked through another gate, after which we arrived at another square with more gates and buildings. Explaining everything is rather hard, since a lot of things looked alike.

I really liked the architecture.
There were quite some people walking around. Some were writing messages or prayers and put them on a special wall that was built around a big tree. Others were praying in the direction of a building that you couldn’t reach because of some fences.

A woman wearing the traditional clothing. You can see people behind
her praying to the building.
We didn’t spend much time at the shrine, altough it was a very beautiful place. We saw a couple with their little daugther, who wore a really beautiful and colorful traditional outfit. She was so cute!
Both my dad and I bought a charm at another shop. I bought one that looks like a little red Dorothy bag (I learned a new word just now, haha).
We passed some more (huge) gates while continuing our way through the park. Funny thing: we saw an old man in a uniform raking the small stones of the paths. It seemed like such a useless job somehow. XD We also passed a wall of colourfully painted barrels.

I was so goofing around here! XD
We just kept walking and ended up on a small bridge I had seen on many other pictures, so of course a picture was obligatory.

My dad on the nameless famous bridge.
After walking some more we finally passed the last large gate, after which we found ourselves on a very familiar-looking place. It was Harajuku bridge!
Now, I must tell you: whenever I saw pictures of Harajuku bridge, it always seemed pretty big to me. I imagined a huge bridge that was filled with colourfully dressed people on Sundays. Yet the bridge turned out to be way smaller than I thought!

Welcome to Harajuku bridge. I am still surprised by how much smaller it was than I thought.
After taking some pictures of the bridge, Yoyogi Stadium and Harajuku station, we decided to do Harajuku the next day and go to Shibuya again, since we had only seen it by night and not in daylight. So we bought tickets at the station and went on our way to Shibuya, which wasn’t very far away (we could have walked it if we had wanted to).
We arrived at Shibuya quickly and we walked out of the metrostation. Shibuya was of course the same as a couple of days ago, but also really different! The sun had started to shine, which made everything even more beautiful.

Shibuya by day.
We walked up to Hachiko’s statue to take some more pictures. Of course, there were people hanging around it hanging, but this time there weren’t so many people.

Hachiko was wearing a fancy sash! No idea why though.

We also saw a metrowagon standing in front of the station. I’m still not sure whether it was just for decoration or maybe a meeting point.
We decided to croos the big crossing again and do something I never thought I would do in my entire life: buying coffe at Starbucks. I don’t have anything against Starbucks, it’s just that I’m not a coffee person. But since this Starbucks had the best view on the crossing, we decided to buy something. My dad ordered regular black coffee, while I chose Dark Mocha Chip Frappuccino Blended something (Cream or Coffee). We walked up the stairs and took seats right under the ‘C’ from ‘Starbucks’. We had a really great view and we spend a while just looking at the people walking. My drink was nice, after I figured out how I liked it (wait for the ice to melt, then it tasted like chocolate milk). I took one of my best pictures there.

We spent such a nice, relaxing moment here.
While we were enjoying our drinks, my dad noticed something going on downstairs. It turned out some people were doing a photoshoot. The female model was posing in front of the crossing. The funny things was that apperently the photographer thought there weren’t enough people passing the model, so a few crewmembers kept on walking circles around here in order to create the idea of a crowd. It was really fascinating to look at.
I saw a lot of people wearing great outfits, including a girl wearing a long yellow dress with an orange border and lots of flowers on her head. It’s funny how she met up with two interestingly dressed girls I had seen standing against a wall. They totally suited each other!
We finished our drinks and left our stools, after which a punkish-looking girl almost jumped on my seat, while I was just leaving it, so she bumped into me. It was one of the few (maybe the only one) moments I thought a person was rude.
We left the Starbucks via a media store that sold a lot of dvds and cds. My father loved how some bandnames were just ridiculous. ‘Bump of Chicken’, anyone?
We got out at the place where we had seen the photoshoot and we they were still taking pictures, but the model had changed outfits and they were now walking on the crossing itself. We decided to take some pictures ourselves too, so I crossed the street while the photographer was still taking pictures of the model. Maybe I’m on of the pictures now? Who knows…

Modelling in Shibuya. It seemed like a lot of fun to me!
I walked the crossing two times more and my dad took pictures. After that, we went on our way to search the shop ‘HMV’, for my dad. We had seen it on a billboard on a picture of Shibuya, but unfortunetaly the billboard was gone and replaced by a ‘Forever21’-one. So we went looking for it, but unfortunetaly we couldn’t find it. We did see a bit more of Shibuya’s streets and we walked through the ‘Spain Slope’, a small pedestrian street with cute shops that ressembles those small Spanish streets.

The Spanish Slope. It was my dad who pointed it out: I didn’t even know about its
existence, even though I could have read about it in my own folder.
The Slope had some really great shops, including one where they sold the cutest underwear! I also saw a shop that sold ear piercers: little machines that allow you to pierce your own ears (or nose, or whatever).
After the slope, we bumped into a Disney Store! Of course, after a whole day of Disney we hadn’t had enough, so we went into the shop for a while.

Disney Stores: cute wherever you go.
We also saw a telephone booth that quite ressembled the typical English one. I went inside and pretended to be calling someone (picture again, haha), but the booth smelled quite badly, so I left quickly. Even though we didn’t find HMV, we did find Tower Records, which my dad wanted to visit too. First we went into MaruiCity, since I had to go to the toilet (the toilets were incredibly fancy). The floor we crossed had some really nice shops, although I can’t remember what they sold! Something with really cool, but expensive bags…
Anyway, after my toiletvisit (hehe) we crossed the street and went into Tower Records, where we spend quite some time.

Tower Records, one of the shops I would never have visited if it wasn’t for my father.
I’m really glad we did though!
I think we browsed almost every floor! I listen to Kyary’s Pon Pon Wei on an actual CD and a couple of other cds, including Glee3D live (I’m not a Glee fan, but I was curious) and some Japanese artists. Sometimes I couldn’t find my dad, because I was browsing cds in hidden corners. In the end, he finally bought things (I believe that up until this point, he hadn’t bought anything except for a present at Disneyland): two cds from Earth, Wind and Fire. At the checkout he also discovered a magazine about them that he really liked, even though he couldn’t read it. I bought a dvd from Sound Horizon and at the checkout I also discovered a magazinge: the newest Gothic & Lolita Bible, which I had to buy of course.
After a long time we left the shop again and I could finally take a picture of my dad with his purchases.

Yaaay!
We walked back to the Shibuya crossing while the sun was already slowly setting. Suddenly my dad suggested to go to Tokyo Tower, since we wanted to visit it while it was dark outside so we could see the city by night. Since the sun was already setting this was a great idea, so we went on our way to the subwaystation.

Shibuya in the afternoon.
We took the metro (we sat in the front train, we could see the driver) up to Tokyo Tower. On the way we bought a bottle of water and I had a can of chocolate. ^^ Just like in Paris, there is no station that’s really close to the Tower, so when we got out we had to walk for a while. It wasn’t so bad, since we had a nice view.

Tokyo Tower, the wellknown landmark of Tokyo.
Although Tokyo Tower is clearly based on the Eiffeltower, there are some differences. Beside its red and white colours, it also has an elevator in the middle and not in the pillars and it has a big building below it instead of a square. I liked these differences: it makes them both a little more unique in a way.
At the foot of one of the pillars, there was a little artwork with a couple of Shiba Inus made of stone. It was really cute! ^^ They really Shibas here. At the foot of one of the other pillars stood a couple of benches, probably for groups of people to take pictures.

Goofing around again. Just look at my face. XD
We bought two tickets to the top at the office, after which we immediately took the elevator up (of course after some bowing of the staff) to the first floor. The view was absolutely amazing. We could see so many buildings, including the ones from Shinjuku we saw every morning out of our hotel window! We could also see the new Sky Tree.

Don’t you just love the view?
We walked around the floor and then walked up the stair to the elevator to the top. We had to wait for a short while and then were allowed into the elevator with some more people.
Of course the view from the top was even greater! We could see so far away! We could even see Odaiba and the Rainbow Bridge so clearly! It was really fantastic.

Roppongi Hills to the left, Shinjuku to the right.
We also met a nice guy from Chile. He asked us to take a picture of him with his camera and we started talking for a bit. He was really nice!

I kept taking pictures of this street, I loved it so much!
After a while we took the elevator down again and snapped some more pictures of the city. This was the only time I was really annoyed by children: apparently there was some kind of schooltrip happening and a bunch of children were running around screaming. Oh well, I tried to ignore them.

This pink Tokyo Tower was slowly spinning around. It was so glittery~!
It started to get darker and we tried to take some pictures of the city, but as we forgot our tripod it was really difficult.

I’m glad this picture came out pretty well. ^^
There was also a place where you could look through a part of glass floor. Even though I thought it was scary, I still tried standing on it and it wasn’t so bad after all!
Eventually, we decided to take the elevator down again.

I like this picture, even though it came out blurry.
When we got down again, we browsed a souvenirshop for a short while. I still want a little something from Tokyo Tower, so I bought a glass key chain with the Tower lasered into it.
When we got outside, the sky was completely dark and the Tokyo Tower was beautifully lighted in orange.

Tokyo Tower by night. I love how different it looks from every angle.
We walked to a different metrostation this time. I saw a woman walking her dog and you can guess what kind of breed it was: Shiba Inu, indeed. ^^
We took the metro to Shinjuku Station and we decided to leave the station at MyLord again to have dinner. While looking at the fake food we didn’t really know what to choose. After some pondering we decided to go eat at ‘Platinum Buffet’, a fancy-looking restaurant with a buffet (the chocolate fountain totally convinced me), which resulted into us eating all kinds of different things, like spaghetti, pizza, rice, broccoli and some fried things. And of course some delicious dessert. ^^

Chocolate fountains always easily convince me. And I mean, just look at this dessert!
There was a big group of girls sitting on another table making a lot of noise. It seemed that on this day people were more loud than other days, I swear! XD
We went back to our hotel, where we arrived at about 7:50 pm. Since we hadn’t taken any pictures in the morning, we decided to do it now.

I put that magazine on the floor so you wouldn’t see it in the picture. I failed
miserably as you can see. XD
We went upstairs, rested for a while, I sent pictures to my mom, we talked to her on Skype and went to sleep after that. The next day would be a day filled with shopping, so we needed our rest.
I apologize for the mistakes. I will correct them as soon as I can~!