Japan Trip 2014 - Tokyo day 3

Tuesday, the 5th of August

After sleeping like a baby I woke up super relaxed and we realised it was "late" compared to the previous days. It was fine this time since my plan was to do very little and just keep it easy.
Since that in the day before we had breakfast in Mos, we decided to try the place attached to it: .

Plastic food, shop window plastic food is so adorable and most of it looks very realistic.

Yummy breakfast

I realised we didn't even check the area properly so we took a walk, visited some stores and then got our luggage and went to our closest Shinkansen connection station which was obviously Shinagawa again. We looked for the lockers, left our bags there and left. There was this one store I wanted to visit and then I had no plans whatsoever so we went to Shibuya straight after.

Coin lockers where people leave luggage.

Gosh these looked delicious!

 

I hate this, when you go through a gate and it does not accept your ticket then most probably you have to adjust your fare and pay something extra. So you move to one of these, insert your ticket and pay the amount the screen will show. It will then issue a new ticket you can use to exit the station. Confusing.

 We arrived at Shibuya and it was ridiculously hot that day. We honestly tried finding our destination on our own but we gave up and just got in a cab. I like Japanese táxi cabs, i like how the door automatically opens for you and I like how big their gps are and how cool it is inside. This one was a private cab, this means that the driver does not work for a company but instead drives his own cab and works for himself. I like that but he for some reason did not turn the gps so in the end my husband was helping him with his cell gps which is funny... and it was kinda hot in there, I hated that haha but we did eventually get to our destination which was hard to miss because of its cuteness.

Inside a rather old japanese táxi cab.

Our destination was no other than the famous Junie Moon. The pink, the displays.. it was magical already from the outside. Due to the cuteness inside as well i believe that this store is (although smaller) much more adorable than the volks one was and it was already hard to top it.

Junie Moon

The main window had dolls celebrating summer and the Windows on the side had Blythe merchandise such as tote bags etc.

I used to hate blythe dolls, thought they were creepy and strange. After seeing a bunch live I fell in love.

Inside they had dolls modeling the items the store had to offer, i believe none of the dolls were standing there with their hair/clothes in their original form other than the ones sold in the box.

You could buy socks, shoes, sets made by individual creator, colaborations (such as hello kitty for instance), stock outfits and stands... doll wigs, little cheap accessories, middie dolls, neo dolls, little ones... (not much variety I'm afraid), merchandise (tooth brushes, pouches, tote bags, note pads, little cases.... etc), decorations and even a portable diorama. They also sold a line of food accessories for us grown dolls to look pretty.

I fell in love with so many things but most clothes sets were around 7000yen or more so i couldn't bring myself to buy them. I bought some simple things to remember the visit and left. The staff was also super friendly. <3 

I was super happy. Gad doll stores were making me feel excited since the Lolita ones were not

After that we decided we should relax at a nearby caffee so we searched nearby places and one sounded like a good option and we went in a search for Michelangelo Café. It was not that close but not that far away either and I had fun checking the area out since it was my first time there. Its very fancy and stores seem lovely but expensive as well. I liked it a lot and it made me feel more relaxed.

 

Entrance, how could you not love it?

 We checked the menu and they had some lunch sets that looked interesting and a couple next to us had just gotten their sets and the smell of cheesy pasta just sealed the deal. They also had wine so I ordered a glass. I love wine, i love beer too but i like wine more.

Glass of wine, water is always served and refilled even if you order another drink.

 I

Tomato pasta and Risotto

yay expresso, it had been a while! Almost 3 euros for expresso is funny because it costs less than 1 euro back home.

 While we had our meal we witnessed something odd, 1 girl, 1 guy and another camera guy just started filming on the outside, filming the girl arriving and whatnot, they then filmed inside and then went back outside. It was just...strange and the guy looked like Gackt which made me laugh.

It is beautiful inside, perfect location for a Lolita meeting so I'm wondering why its not done there all the time, its perfect, I was in love.

We finally left and just decided to walk back instead of taking another táxi and it was worth it:

My cats would look so cute riding a bike with me. Or not and this is just silly like a ton of other things you can find in Japan. I do love that you have the option to be silly if you wish.

This was a college, how cool is this building?

 

 

Apparently everyone there is into healthy organic foods so most coffees and restaurants always had the word organic in the description which was amusing.

When we got to Shibuya station again, in the back streets I saw a small corset advertising a store and it was Kikirara Shoten. How strange that I'd just bump into it. I decided to go take a look since I was there. It is tiny and full of items, it looks like a theater prop/vintage store all in one and everything is deliciously over the top. I would have bought two items if they weren't so expensive. I think most people do wear their stuff as stage outfits or something.

We then just strolled around.

Cute bus.

The famous Shibuya crossing

 

Some girls performing in a stage set in front of a shopping building.

Tower Records, when I was crazy for japanese music I'd go nuts if i saw this place, this time I didn't even go in. Life changes.

 

We also randomly found the Shibuya Grimoire store so I went in. I had never been in a Grimoire store before and it was small but very cute. I fell in love with their original design jewelry but it is a tad expensive for me and the tight section was small, i think i might actually own the same amount they had in the store myself, not kidding. The shop girl was ridiculously beautiful, friendly and down to earth. I like that. <3

 



My husband then spotted a small ramen shop in the ground floor and we went in for na early dinner. I wasn't very hungry but it felt great to rest for a bit.

I ordered some gyoza and a beer, it tasted great!

We still had some time so we walked towards Harajuku and decided to get the train from there. We saw some really nice things on our way there and I had fun just walking calmly instead of rushing like we usually do.

I also found the Merrybelle store which is adorable! The store keeper gave us some tea in really neat cups too and the designs were nice, the prints were stunning and the craftmanship was amazing as well. I really felt like buying something but I couldn't due to the sizes and because its not really my style but I told them I'd mention the store in my blog so please go take a look and if you can, order something!

Merrybelle

One of the things I like in Japan is the mix between old and new, i do the same in my own home with furniture so I guess i'm drawn to it. There's something about this being in the middle of two modern buildings that appeals to me.

Although I find Yukata's very unconfortable to wear I looove seeing other peple wearing them in the streets.

We decided to go in this very interesting and famous building for a simple reason: bathroom. We obviously wandered a bit around it, my friend su would have loved the sanrio themed café i am sure.

And that was it, we just got in the JR train to Shinagawa. We arrived quite early so we had time to relax, get our bags...

and obviously buy souveniers which means some sort of snack/food for our inlaws. We also got Mari something, a new book, she loves books!

The lovely elegante package we got for my inlaws, I actually already ate these and they are awesome, we picked well (and apparently famous... but we know nothing so it was just luck).

We actually waited around 20m in the platform for our Shinkansen to come which would probably be the last one that day. It was also pretty quiet in it because most people slept, so did I.

This is what the shinkansen looks like inside (same as any other train I'm afraid)

Our dinner. Husband's Obento and other things we shared. I also had tea.

Fortunately I had gotten a couple of mooks/magazines so I got entertained for a while which is always good.

Volks mook, Gothic & Lolita bible.

And that was it, we would soon be back in Nara. We arrived very late, got home at around 1am and my father in law was waiting for us in the train station so we did not have to walk back home that late. They are really good people, I am ridiculously lucky <3.

I hope you liked Reading about my day and I'm sorry for the delay (it's only been a week... :X). I will post my purchases in my next post. I didn't get much but if you are like me you'll still wanna check them out.
Love,
Jo