Japan, Official Day 4

29 August 2009

It's my 4th day in Tokyo and time is really flying. I don't wanna return, no no no. I doubt anyone wanna return in such happy place. Shopping in Japan was really great, but I personally don't recommend Harajuku and Shibuya for best price. Hmmm, you can stay tune for great buys in my next few posts.



Harajuku and Shibuya are famous for shopping. They have the trendiest clothes, sexiest boots, most perfect cosmetic. You name it, you have it. But they are really overprice. If you spend effort searching for similar buys, you will see the 4 times differences in price.



Our first stop is Harajuku.



Harajuku is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan.



Every Sunday, young people dressed in a variety of styles including gothic lolita, visual kei, and decora, as well as cosplayers spend the day in Harajuku socializing. The fashion styles of these youths rarely conform to one particular style and are usually a mesh of many. Most young people gather on Jingu Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge that connects Harajuku to the neighboring Meiji Shrine area.



Harajuku is also a fashion capital of the world renowned for unique street fashion. Harajuku street style is promoted in Japanese and international publications such as Kera, Tune, Gothic & Lolita Bible and Fruits. Many prominent designers and fashion ideas have sprung from Harajuku and incorporated themselves into other fashions throughout the world.

As usual, we took JR lines to Harajuku from Shinjuku. The transport fee is roughly around 150 yen. It's sounds cheap, but not really. As you travel more often each day, your finance will be crippled eventually. As for me, it's not yet crippled. I brought a walking bank with me, therefore it's been subsidized eventually.

This was where we got off from JR station. You got to walk slightly further inside before you can get to the street-shopping area. Along the way, you will see many familiar shops like Topshop, Topman, Zara etc.



Below was a departmental shop. You can see all sorts of cosmetics in the shop. Their varieties were so great that you might have difficulty deciding what to buy. Unlike our local brand, there's usually about 3 to 5 skin tone product. In Japan, the skin tones can easily range from 1 to 10.



This can be really great for patrons who wanted to get the nearest skin tone products.

As we walked, we came across this hp outlets. They had Disney designs as well. I wanted to get one of course, but Japan hp doesn't read our local sim card. That's a real pity.

Below me, it's a small section for Disney hp.

Majority of these phones were under Doccomo or SoftBank. I guess they must be earning billions of money each day. Their phones were seriously popular in Japan. I believe Japan alone is enough to let them earn buckets of gold everyday.

The hp above looks rather plain. But if you were to tilt it to a corner, you can see Mickey shapes on it. I really love their hp shop outlets. Unlike Singapore, it's usually plainly arrange in a straight rows. There might be times you can hardly get a brochure. In Japan, everything was arrange properly and nicely. The staffs were really friendly and don't really bug you oftenly.

Look at their phones. Seriously too many to choose (It's just 1/20 of the outlet only)

Our trend is consider a little slow. Till today, we still see people applying garskins to their mp3, hp etc. Japan manufactured phone directly with design. Such skin design which came with the manufacturing were more lasting. This is because they don't peel easily. Some special ones even had their own texture. You can feel by touching the surface.

Below is the GAP outlet. Hmmm, I doubt Vivo Gap outlet is bigger than this. This whole building belongs to GAP and it consist of 4 storey or more. It's humongous. Oh ho.

Above is 2 storey of Topshop/man. Doesn't it tempt you?

It seriously tempted me as I had never seen such a big outlet. Paiseh la, imma village girl.

Above is the ultra big Forever 21.

It's my next "target". I just can't stop giggling when the thought of entering came into my mind. It's 4 storey high and I simply saw long queues across the road. Although shopping is very important, but the current major issue is to cure my tummy. Therefore I shall comb it later.

Across Forever 21, you will see a building.

There is a 3 storey of Topshop/man. Doesn't it tempt you?

It seriously tempted me as I had never seen such a big outlet. Paiseh la, imma village girl.

Above is the ultra big Forever 21.

It's my next "target". I just can't stop giggling when the thought of entering came into my mind. It's 4 storey high and I simply saw long queues across the road. Although shopping is very important, but the current major issue is to cure my tummy. Therefore I shall comb it later.

Across Forever 21, you will see a shopping mall. Hmmm, I can't remember the name of mall. If you wanna get some good second hand stuffs, you can try browsing it. There I am, in the shop (below).

Why did i recommend it?

They sell 2nd hand branded merchandise. These merchandises range from top to toe. Even if you are of very big size, you can get your fitting size in the shop. Theses were really some of the top brands and they are selling them cheaply. Even though they might not be first-hand product, but they were well maintained.

It's time for yumyum (lunch) again. I had my lunch in this popular restaurant. The queue was rather long but everyone waits quietly for their seats. We queue for approx 15 minutes.

It's Ebi-Rice.

I strongly reccomend you to try out this outlet. Remember this shop please. After we left, there's still a long queue. Some people even requested for take away. Hmmm, the only thing I don't really like is the coffee tea above.

From the appearance, it looks like tea but taste like coffee. I'm amazed that it's the shop specialty and everyone drinks that. Japan really have alot of interesting stuffs. Nice to meet you - coffee tea.

Paiseh, imma village girl. I guess I'm as good as a frog living in well. Tsk Tsk.

After lunch, here I come - Forever 21.

Look at the crowd in the picture below.



Have you ever seen security guards guarding at the entrance of Forever 21 in Singapore?

Have you ever queue under hot sun just for entry?

Have you ever queue for more than 15 mins?



Tsk, I guess you had got my point.



People say Japanese Girls are all small in size. I agree absolutely with it. But I tried on some of their S size and it's still too big for me. Hmmm no idea why, probably it's the cutting. Anyway, I did got some buys from Forever 21. Woot, here i go.

Yesh, I'm finally done with shopping and Christopher was released from his toturing. Forvever 21 has only 1 storey for mens, therefore the rest were all my PARADISE. Chrisopher was a good good boy who waited quietly. Hmmm, he deserved to be praised.

Hoho, it's sales everywhere.

You can easily spot Japanese in Lolita or Cosplay in Harajuku.

Lolita Fashion was created in Osaka. It is a play on Victorian era princess fashions and ripped gauzed gothic fashion. By wearing and promoting these styles performers allowed the fashions to flourish because fans were eager to replicate their idols.



Punk style in Harajuku is more of a fashion than a statement. Its fashion mainly consists of dark colors, plaid, chains, and zippers. Punk style is also one of the more gender-neutral fashions in Harajuku.



Cosplay is more of a costume-based style. A cosplay enthusiast will usually dress as a fictional or iconic character from a band, game, movie, anime, or manga.

Below was an interesting shop too.



It sells "coupon" and tickets. They have coupons for Takashimaya at a cheaper price or even coupons for buying train tickets. Furthermore, it also sell concert tickets. I guess, you should see those glass shelves. Unlike Singapore filing and printing of tickets, their tickets were displayed on glass shelves.

That's me in the middle of Harajuku street. Most of the tourist called it Harajuku Street, in fact it's know as Takeshita street officially. Therefore if you were in search of this area, do ask for Takeshita street to assist in understanding.

Takeshita Street is a pedestrian-only street lined with fashion boutiques, cafes and restaurants in Harajuku in Tokyo, Japan. Stores on Takeshita Street include major chains such as The Body Shop, McDonald's and 7-Eleven, but most of the businesses are small independent shops that carry an array of styles.



It's a great place to shop but slightly overprice. Therefore remember to watch you budget if you were to shop in this area.



Poor Christopher only get to watch me shop and buy. Although "buying drinks" action usually irritate me, but I let him go ahead this time. Vending machine was his only entertainment. He wasn't really interested in the clothings. Erm, same here for me.

Anyway, he bought me a drink too. Muahahahaha.

He got his milk tea while i got my cream coffee.

Next, we went Daiso.

I got to admit, their Daiso was really big and full of things. It's neatly packed unlike our local ones. Their price was slightly cheaper. Based on my exchange rate, it's not even $2 per item.

We spend quite some time combing Daiso and got really great buys from it.

My fillial little boyfriend knew his mummy likes planting, he immediately went to search for seeds cater to Singapore weather. Good son, good son.

After making payment, they have this little small corner for you to pack your stuffs.

Takeshita Dori is the commercial extension of the youth culture that is centered around Harujuku Station. Trendy fashion stores for Tokyo teens and numerous character and idol goods stores are located along this crowded street. Rumor has it that many manufacturers test market their new designs here before unleashing them nationwide.



This explain why it's always filled with youngsters and people.

That was a cute shirt(below). But it's overprice and cost more than SGD50. I guess anyone could have agreed with me regarding "overprice". Furthermore, it's not branded.

Aha it's getting late, therefore we decided to get to Shibuya before the sky turned dark.

As usual, we trained to Shibuya which is only one stop away.

Here we are in Shibuya.

Election day is around the corner, therefore it's slightly more crowded when compared to normal days. It's common to see peopl waving flags and giving out packet tissues or fan for commercial use.

The whole building in the picture above is actually a train station. Their train station is usually a few times bigger than ours. Most of them had advertisement on it which gives life and colour to the station.

Look at the picture below, can you spot the Shibuya 109?

Aha, that's the famous Shibuya shopping mall cater for ladies only.

The Shibuya 109 is a famous fashion shopping centre in the very fashionable Shibuya region of Tokyo. Shibuya 109 Building shopping centre filled with many very trendy clothing boutiques. It is very popular among young people, especially teens, and it is famous as the origin of the kogal subculture. Kogals are known for wearing platform boots, a miniskirt, copious amounts of makeup, hair coloring (usually blond), artificial suntans, and designer accessories.

You saw that? You saw that? You saw that?

All girls!!! No guys!!! Oh my goodness!!!

99% of the patrons are girls, 1% are guys. It makes Christopher's life goes merry watching super chio girls walking around. Even the sales assistants are pretty and hot. Anyway, I didn't get anything out of there. There is good buys, but I'm seriously not born to wear sexy clothings.

Next, Chris brought me to buy my mp3 ear phone. It was really nice for him to buy for me as it's not cheap either. Upon exiting from shop, we spotted Pikachu

It's dinner time and we had dinner at this Sushi restaurant. Actually we ordered quite alot but i did not take shots of it. Because Christopher kept whining and whining, warning me not to take. Hmph, don't take lo.

=(

Look at the picture above.

That's how they promote for election. They will stand above van or cars holding on to their loudhealer shouting out loud to attract public attention. It hurts my ear seriously.

Hmm, it's late and we decided to return back to Shinjuku.

Eventually we caught sight of the man lying down on the platform until the staff came to chase him away. This is something we'll never get to see in Singapore.

Oh dear, we were lost in Shinjuku again. Thanks to Christopher for not heeding my advise by exiting at the direct exit. Tsk, that stubborn boy. Anyway, we still made our way back in the end. No fear when you got lost, just focus on which correct direction you should be going and you will not be lost.

One of the little tip not to be lost:

Always return to platform when you are lost, before beginning to find your way back again.

Next, Christopher bought me for dessert. That's the ice-cream with red bean. I had it once with Laiyan at Shokudo. They are totally uncomparable. Japan one usually had really big and sweet red beans. Drools.

We even had a milk tea with ice-cream as an add on.

These are some of our nonsensical buys, but could be really useful at times.

30 August 2009 1.00 am

I knew we had dinner earlier on, but as the day goes by, my tummy expand non-stop. I tend to be hungry easily and here comes my late night supper.

You've got to tolerate my photo over here a little as it's taken by handphone. I did not bring my camera along as it's just a 10 minute walk from my hotel.