Japan Re-cap Day 4!

Wow, Day 4 in Japan saw us go to some pretty cool places! First we caught the Hanzomon subway line from Jimbocho to Shinjuku, but cos all the shops in Japan don't open til 10 or 11am, and we were there about 9am we had to just wander around and look for something for breakfast! We didn't really have a plan with Shinjuku, just to check it out before heading off to Harajuku, but Shinjuku had some hidden gems of it's own! Namely (for me) Tokyu hands! This place is called a "Creative Life Store" and is just fabulous! It has everything in it's 8 floors- stationary, home decor, plumbing & gardening supplies, pens, electronics, small appliances, lunch boxes, craft supplies, pet products, souveniers, etc etc... everything I love to check out!! I can't even think of any store that is like that here... maybe a giant BigW without any clothes... but not even like that... it was so much more! I spent about an hour here, honestly that fiance of mine is Super Patient! I spent about $130 in Tokyu Hands over the length of our stay (I think we visited 3 different stores) and it was my fave shop in all Japan. They just have awesome stuff {hugging bags of shopping}! Here are some of the totally cool stuff I got- the rolls in the middle of the pic are really amazing printed masking tape! It is awesome stuff- printed in some beautiful modern and traditional designs, just a tad see-through and I was imagining all these fantastic scrapbooking pages I could do with it! The 2 packs were 357Y which I though was great for such an innovative product! They have it in every colour under the sun too, but I liked the patterned ones the best. The larger rolls behind the masking tape are printed sticky tape rolls (also very cool!) The bright packets of vegetables, tooth-pick looking things and the tiny tiny plastic boxes are all Bento supplies for making up Sushi Lunch Boxes! You put the plastic veggie pics in amongst the sushi for an interesting lunch for your school kids! The tooth-pick things are just really cute plastic pics for sticking into sushi... I loved all the sushi supplies!! Oh.... check out my delicious selection of pens! Can you believe they range from 89Y to 124Y! We pay about $4 here, so what a bargain!! Needless to say I got lots cos I love glittery and interesting pens, and I was thinking about all the cool card making I could do!! I got some cute-as stamps at Tokyu hands also- a babushka, litle red riding hood (294Y ea) and mushroom stamp as well as some Japanese cartoon Characters like a cat (367Y), seal and panda (263Y ea)! Keep your eye out for them on pages and cards in the future! And stickers galore! Those Japs love their stationary and stickers! And I loved them too!!

I balanced my shopping time out with Willy {patting self on back} cos he found a big sport store called "Victoria" and was totally in Happy land when he found the Japanese Soccer Team jerseys he'd been looking for... and they were 70% off! Lol, how cool is that :) He was so happy, he bought 2... see I taught him something when shopping- don't let the bargains pass you by!!

After Shinjuku we caught the Yamanote line down to Harajuku! I first heard about Harajuku from Gwen Stefani (who says you never learn anything from Pop music?!) and boy did it live up to my expectations!! There are some total freaks in this area on a Sunday! I mean- people go here on Sundays especially to dress up weird (lots of Goths, Little Bo-Peeps called "Lolita's" and some weird Tokyo Style layering!) that's what it's known for! As well as all the uber-fashionable funky shops here also. This is Takeshita Dori, the main shopping alley and it is totally packed on a Sunday! We went here twice, it's a great experience so I recommend it if you are heading to Japan- go to Harajuku on a Sunday! One thing you have to have if you go there is one of the famous Angel Hearts cone crepe. It was DELISH!! And I had one on each of our visits {grinning}, luckily we were doing plenty of walking to balance it out! They make your crepe on a round hot-plate, lay out your chosen ingredients (I chose Banana Double Chocolate-- YUM!!) and then they roll it up and put it in a paper cone for you, and then for a few minutes you transport to the happiest place in the whole Galaxy as you indulge in the sweet bananas and chocolate cream as your chocolate icecream slowly softens in the warm crepe. OOOOOHHHHH {drooling}. So sososo sososo sososo so good!! Fight off any passers-by who think they might have a shot at your crepe though- it's just for you! And at about 480Y it's the sweetest bargain of all at Harajuku!!

Well, I haven't really finished the day 4 re-cap but this is the second day I have tried to write this post and run out of time, maybe I'll just move on to day 5 next! I think the Crepe was my highlight of Harajuku anyway {wink!}

:) C