a different friend group invited me to have some free time in harajuku.
when you speak of harajuku two major activities come to mind, takeshita street and shrine.
takeshita street is a pedestrian shopping jungle, a wacky combination of hip youthful fashion and on the go street food.
it is a mix and match of colorful accessories, pop culture, daiso, skin care.
and because it is a fun street it is always breaming with people, and today is no exception.
we just wanted to quickly grab something to eat and something to drink.
boba milk tea is a popular drink among the youth and takeshita street has one of the best to offer with a store which came straight from taiwan, the birthplace of the drink.
we also grabbed some korean chicken and tteokbokki snack, enough to fill the cravings.
the cheese sadly hardened quite fast but the spicy sweet sauce was yummy.
this street is indeed a mixture of different cultures.
after the much needed break, we headed to a relatively silent place, the nearby shrine.
meiji jingu is a shinto shrine located in the middle of the metropolitan area.
situated at the back of the harajuku station, it is very accessible to the people.
it has a wide area with lots of trees and open walkways, which makes you forget the bustling city.
we were in need of a silent time to talk, one of the group is going back to the philippines to study.
we will not be seeing him for a long time.
the peaceful nature of this shrine allowed us to relax a bit and breathe fresh air and talk clearly.
there were still lots of tourists but the area is wide, this is so much better compared to the overcrowding in takeshita street earlier.
we decided to head back to civilization earlier for dinner.
we headed to a mall just beside takeshita, this had lots of viewing spaces to see the greeneries in the shrine area.
tall malls now line the area across the station.
and these malls had the major brands of sports apparels, furniture, cosmetic products and many more.
we headed back to our planned dinner restaurant, we checked out the place earlier and asked if they accepted non-reserved guests.
the staff respectfully told us that reservations were full that day, it was the weekend after all.
but we can probably come back earlier and we can dine when they have an available table, which we did.
sadly they were full, must have been a fine place to eat and dine together.
we ended up going to ikea.
i would love to have something like this tall ceiling area if i do build my own house someday.
quite impractical to keep a non-usable space, but very eye catchy and artsy.
loved those printed panels by the way.
i ended up getting meatballs for dinner.
i honestly would have wanted more but that was not the point of gathering together, anything would do.
we were still meeting a different member who will come straight from osaka, and we will surely have some more food later.
we headed out of harajuku after dinner and met the other friend in tokyo station.
and yes, we had a bit of a drink and food till midnight.
as an endnote, harajuku is now too commercial.
some even say that the old free spirited harajuku is dead; the huge sprawling malls killed the place.
but change is inevitable, and the place's spirit will only die when the people in it cannot adapt to these changes.
looking at the current harajuku, it is in the process of rebranding.
hope they will succeed.
as always, stay safe.
AMPING KANUNAY!
all content is by yours truly unless otherwise specified
all photos are taken with a galaxy s23 ultra
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io
Height168.0 cm |  | Weight71.9 kg |  | Body Fat19.1 % |  |
Waistcm |  | Thighscm |  | Chestcm |  |
