I know for a fact that my wife and I had missed quite a few things when we visited the Harajuku ward. We had listed the Meiji Shrine, the Oriental Bazaar and Yoyogi Park as our stops for the day, but when we finally got off the station, aside from the Meiji Shrine, we spent our entire day exploring Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street).

Takeshita Dori is basically a 400 meter strip filled with trendy shops, restaurants, ticket sellers, and fashion boutiques. Perhaps the biggest attraction (at least for us) on the entire strip was the Daiso Harajuku or 100 Yen Shop. The shop basically sells all its products for 105¥ (tax included), and majority of their inventory are actually of pretty decent quality. This Daiso in Harajuku is boasted as the largest found in central Tokyo, and with three floors to explore, we understood why. Here you’ll find a large selection of hardware, tableware, garden materials, household goods, leisure items, and food items all in one store. If I had been a resident of Japan, I’m certain much of my shopping for daily items would be here. Although items were only 105¥ a piece, by the time we left the shop for the first time, we had spent roughly over 10000¥ on just candy and snacks! My wife in particular has a huge love for Japanese Pinky mints, and she bought at least 3000¥ worth of mints alone.

After leaving the Daiso, we spent some time exploring the rest of the strip. There were a ton of interesting shops we had wanted to check out, but we honestly didn’t have the time or energy to visit them all. As a safety precaution I advise anyone going into these areas to travel with a companion and to be weary of thieves and hustlers. Its seems that no matter where you visit, there are always those people who are trying to make a quick buck. I had been offered on one occasion to be taken to a “hip hop” shop on the second floor of a building on the strip that seemed to lead to nowhere. Fortunately I was with a group of four and the guy decided to drop his invitation when he discovered I wasn’t alone.

How to get to Takeshita Dori :
Upon arriving at the Harajuku Station using the JR Yamanote Line, choose the “Takeshita Exit” when leaving the station. Upon exit, you will be directly facing Takeshita Dori. The Daiso is located on the left side of the street entrance.

During our second visit to Harajuku, we made it a point to visit the Meiji Shrine. We had not visited any shrines yet on our stay, and I felt it was important that we visited a few before going home. My biggest advice to anyone visiting this shrine is to wear comfortable shoes. It was a long walk in! The scenery on the way in was quite beautiful, and despite being located in the nations capital city, the atmosphere was serene and very appealing.

Since this was the very first shrine we visited, my wife decided to look up the proper etiquette for entrance. We discovered that at the gate of every shrine there is a purification fountain. Upon reaching the fountain, there are several purification steps to take before entering the sacred grounds. The process is simple:

1. Take one of the ladles provided and fill it with fresh water and rinse your left hand.
2. Fill the ladle for a second time and rinse your right hand.
3. Fill the ladle for a third time and cup some water in your hands to rinse your mouth. (do not sip directly from the ladle)
4. Rinse the ladle out and return to its proper place.

After completing the purification process we entered the shrine. Its important to be aware of your surroundings and note that photography is not allowed in certain areas of the shrine itself. The shrine isn’t simply a tourist spot, but rather a place for regular worship and we actually saw quite a few men and women in business suits stopping in to make and offering and say a short prayer. As with any place of worship, behaving calmly and respectfully are very important.

Before leaving, we decided to make offering. Here were the steps we used.

1. Advance before the god enshrined, and make your offering. (boxes for yen are in the front)
2. Bow deeply two times.
3. Clap your hands twice.
4. Say a short prayer.
5. Make a deep bow once more.

Advice : Be very weary of the areas you are allowed to photograph. The shrine itself is normally permitted to be photographed, but it is absolutely forbidden to take photos of the actual god enshrined at any temple.

While staying in Tokyo city, the Shinjuku ward was almost a daily stop for us during our travels. It’s railway station is boasted as being the busiest in all of Japan serving close to two million people daily. From here we made majority of our transfers to other destinations because most the major JR lines come through here on a very regular and timely basis. Our hotel was south of Shinjuku, located in the Hiroo area, so we were able to use the JR Yamanote Line exclusively to make daily stops in Yoyogi, Harajuku, Shibuya, and Ebisu to eat and see other attractions on our commutes back home.

Suggestion: If you plan to spend alot of time shopping or are taking a day trip to Kamakura, I suggest you stay in the Shinjuku ward or anywhere in close proximity to the JR Yamanote line. It made our commutes so much easier when we used this station as our hub.

To be honest with everyone, besides the station itself, I found Shinjuku to be quite dull. Unless you are interested in visiting the Kabukicho (Japan’s largest red light district) or going shopping in the huge malls littered throughout the area, there really isn’t much to see besides skyscrapers and a ton of billboards. If I had been single, Kabukicho probably would have been a very tempting proposition for me, but I was on my “late” honeymoon with my wife, so I opted not to check out the area. haha.

In reality the only real “tourist” spot outside of the red light district which I thought was worthwhile was the Metropolitan Government Office. I can remember coming out of the main exit of the station facing Lumine and actually walking for about thirty minutes before realizing I was actually lost. Being that it was only our second day in Japan, (after Tokyo DisneySea) we figured that we would just “wing” it and find out way around Shinjuku with a simple tourist guide. We were definitely wrong about that! What we should of done was map out our routes the evening before. (we did this for the rest of the trip)

Our original intention of exiting the station was to find the “legendary” Hachiko statue, which we had thought was located around the station itself. We would have searched forever if it had not been for a kind lady who saw us staring at the map pointing at two or three different directions at once. We discovered later that Hachiko was actually in Shibuya and not in Shinjuku. (how embarrassing) Anyway, after our first misstep, we decided to go ahead and visit the Government Office observatories since we were already in the area and on foot.

The walk was actually a good walking distance from the station itself, but once we arrived at the office’s themselves, we thought it was well worth the trip. From the top of the observatories you definitely get a good view of most of Tokyo. Unfortunately for us, it was overcast so we were limited by its obstruction. Despite the clouds, we made the best of our visit and spent time looking at the many landmarks located in each observatory window while at the same time shopping for small items in the Souvenir Shops. If I can recall correctly, the southern observatory had quite a few shops for children filled with toys and small trinkets. The northern side however was much different and had a large bar and sitting area for guests to simply wind down.

On your way down from the observatory decks, you will be instructed to get off on the second floor. Apparently the first floor is only for entrance to the observatories while the second floor serves as an exit. Before leaving the second level, be sure to stop in at the tourist center located near the escalators heading to the first floor. Here we found additional travel guides, tours, and tourist options as well as information for the Enoshima-Kamakura Free Pass (which we used to see the Great Buddha of Kotokuin) for our day trip to Kamakura. The employees were very helpful and even provided each of us a small souvenir bag filled with authentic Japanese tea leaves.