Good morning!
Today I'm going to show you around Harajuku
One of my favourite places in Tokyo
And take you on a tour
And show you how to get there
And some of my favourite shops
Harajuku is the alternative fashion capital of Tokyo
And kawaii central
Today I'm going to show you around the famous main street
Takeshita Street
Then next week
I'm going to show you some less well-known places
That you might not know about
You can get the train
To Harajuku Station (as you might expect!)
We're staying in Shinjuku
You can actually walk there
It's about half an hour walk
It's quite nice
Because you can go through Meiji Jingu Shrine
And go right by Yoyogi Park
Before you get to Harajuku Station
It's a Monday today
So it shouldn't be too busy in Harajuku
Because I want to have a good look round all the shops!
If you come at the weekend
It will be really busy
And crowded
So just be ready for that
And here we are at the start of Takeshita Street
This is the main shopping street
Where most of my favourite shops are
It's pedestrianised
And there's just so much to explore!
This entrance
Is really famous
They change the balloons sometimes
To have different decorations
One time I was here,
They had little fish like Finding Nemo
So today's a Monday
It still is quite busy
It looks like there's a lot of people down there
But it does get a lot busier than this
At the weekend
Right at the start of the street
Is purikura
If you can read katakana
That says purikura
There's some stalls down this side street here
They do look a bit touristy
Lots of you comment on my cat sunglasses
This is where I got them from
Right opposite that is Wego
There's a couple of Wego stores I think along here
That is really popular, lots of people like that one
And we've got some more purikura here!
Here's Paris Kids
This is a shop with lots of accessories
Hair accessories
And jewellery
And they're all quite cheap
And more purikura!
I wonder if these are all the same thing
Just from different entrances
To the left here we've got Daiso
That's a 100 yen shop
There's the first crepe shop
Harajuku is famous for crepes
They do so many different varieties
What sort of shop this is - Drug Honey?!
Here's some cute hoodies
A lot of people like this shop as well
WC - W heart C
They've got some cute skirts here
Here's where I got my cat hoodie
They've still got it!
Already I've seen quite a few things with fur fabric
Or textured fabrics
On clothes
Pon!
Pon pon wei
Here we've got lots of cute socks
What's this shop called? Tutu Anna
Over here we've got a shop you might know already
Claire's Accessories
I always avoid it because I used to have a part time job there
I've spent way too long in Claire's
To the right we've got Alta
Which is a mall / department store
They've got a Disney Store in there
There are bigger Disney stores elsewhere in Tokyo though
If that's what you're looking for
There's quite a big one in Shibuya
My favourite shop: ACDCRag!
There's a about 5 of them along Takeshita Street
They do have slightly different things in them
So I always hunt through all of them
This is how far we've come so far
There's still a lot more to look round that way
Totti Candy Factory
Is the place to get the famous big rainbow candy floss
They never used to have them when I first came to Harajuku
But now they've become a classic Harajuku thing
The crepes were the original though
They're trying to take over from the crepes
Then next door you've got Etude House
Which is a Korean make-up brand
They've got a really cute shop with a pink roof
In this shop Happy Hearts
Downstairs is all underwear
So you might think there's nothing you're interested in
Unless you're interested in underwear
But upstairs
If you go up there
They've got figures & character goods & things
Totoro's showing us the way
Ban cotton candy!
Mayeb he's got some stuck in his teeth!
They've got some gachapon at the top
Here's another crepe stall up ahead
This one's Marion Crepes
Which I believe is the first crepe stand there was in Harajuku
And another one right opposite
Angel's Heart
It's worth exploring some of these side streets
As well as the main street
There's another ACDC Rag down there
In ACDC they have half colourful and pastel
And half darker, punky, more goth style clothes
Men's ok
Lots of the sizes are quite big
So I think they'd fit a variety of sizes
Remember not everything's on ground level
Sometimes things are upstairs
So look out for signs & shops that are above everything else
I don't remember seeing this shop before either
Moosh!
A squishy shop
It kind of smells of strawberries in here doesn't it!
Wow, there's a whole bakery of squishies
Now I'm no squishy expert
But they are not cheap squishies!
They're mainly about 1800 yen each
It's a really cute shop though
HEre's a shop with more American, street style clothing
And up here
Is another great shop: Bodyline
If you like lolita style dresses
But you're not really into all the brands
Or you don't have £200 to spend on a dress
You can get the same style clothes for a lot less at Bodyline
They also have quite a lot of cosplay outfits
Wow, Body Line has changed a lot since I first went!
When I first went,
It was all lolita with a little bit of cosplay
Now it's loads of cosplay
With a little bit of lolita
They've got loads of the sailor school uniforms
And maid dresses
They've got lots of wigs
And lots of shoes in there
If you do like their dresses
You can buy them online
I've ordered them from the UK
Here's the Calbee cafe
Calbee's a brand of crisps
They have some special things
Like crisps with guacamole on
And this is where you can get crisps with ice cream
And chocolate sauce
There's a convenience store here
To get your lunch for Yoyogi Park
And across here
Is my crepe stand of choice
That's the one I always go to
I'm sure all the crepe stands are good though
They all look pretty similar to be honest
Crepes are the traditional snack of Harajuku
When you come here you have to have one
You're going to need all that sugar for energy
For looking round the shops
They've got so many different varieties
They've got cream, chocolate sauce
Fruit, some of them even have cake
And cheesecake in them
And they're all good
Unless, like Phil
You choose the savoury crepe
It's just wrong!
They've got special sakura crepes
For cherry blossom season
They all look delicious
I think I've got to try one of the special ones
You don't have to remember the whole name
You just tell them the number
Here's my crepe!
I've got sakura mixed berry....
Whipped cream - strawberry sauce...
Everything!
Smells delicious!
And Phil's got....
Tuna pizza cheese
Yeah, I've had it before
And it's delicious
So I'm having it again
It looks less fun than mine
And... savoury crepes are wrong
If you like pizza
I like pizza
But I don't want that!
I wouldn't eat the tuna anyway, but -
No!
Delicious, everyone should have it
More savoury crepes!
No! Down with the savoury crepes!
This is another side street
Off Takeshita Street
We've got Anap
Here's another big Harajuku brand
Their shop's hidden away down the stairs
Here's a branch of Spinns
Inside that they've got Park Harajuku
Which is a shop that sells clothes with anime artwork on
If you've watched Urahara
That anime's set in Park Harajuku
That's where all the girls work
People have been sneakily taking pictures of me
Which is fine,
But if they asked, they'd get a better picture
Here's a side street
Off a side street
To start with, I never realised all these tiny roads were here
We've just come out that side street
By Angel Crepes
And we've got Liz Lisa
A really popular brand
Their stuff's a bit frilly & girly for me
But a lot of people like it
Look it goes upstairs as well
If you look between the buildings
There's an outlet sale
With 70% off
This is cute
This shop opposite's got some cute designs as well
They're not as colourful
But still cute patterns and things
With lots of cats
I join you!
These sizes are actually quite big
These clothes are all one size
If you're small they'd be quite baggy
And if you're a larger size
They'd probably fit you as well
Hedgehog!
That's going to be a thing, right?
Yeah, hedgehogs are going to be a trend!
I hope so!
And another one!
We've got lots more sushi and cats
And dinosaurs
This here is Cute Cube
Which is a building with several shops inside
They've got the PomPomPurin Cafe
Long Longer Longest
Has these novelty foods
They've got really tall ice cream
Candy A Go Go - another sweet shop
I think this is the one where that Avril Lavigne video was filmed
Yeah, she had a Hello Kitty song
That was just terrible
Up there is Closet Child
That's a secondhand shop
That sells lots of brand clothing
They've got lolita, gothic and punk
Vivienne Westwood
That sort of thing
You have to go up stairs to get to that one
It's easily missed!
There's a cat & owl cafe
It looks like it's done up like the Rainforest Cafe or something
Opposite that we've got a Sanrio store
This cute outfit here
This shop's tax free
If you show your passport
A couple of the larger shops are
Like Tokyo Hands & places like that
There's another Etude House here
Just in case you missed the first one
Their shops do look nice with the chandelier
We're coming up to the next ACDC Rag
We're getting towards the end of Takeshita Street now
There's some shops with bags
There's a lot of shoes there
They said no photos so I can't really show you that one, sorry!
Here's Listen Flavor
You might know them
This looks cute - Sirotan Park
I'm not sure what that is
I can see some plushies through the window there
And Pet Paradise
You can get clothes for your pets
I don't think they've got any hamster stuff
This SoLaDo
Is another building with several shops in
Sweets Paradise is a buffet
It's got Love Toxic
That one's pretty popular
And another Wego
My top tip
Just to the right of that
Is a little alleyway
They have benches down there!
Places to sit down can be quite hard to find in Tokyo
So that's a good place to sit
And have your lunch
Or just have a drink
And rest your feet
Dramatic Pinky-flight
Very dramatic!
Those fruit bags are really cute!
Up the stairs is Sweets Paradise
It's a buffet
They do have some food there and drinks
But the main reason to go
Is all the cakes
And cream cakes - it's a buffet
You can have as much as you like
And there's a new Wego
There's another one across the street
I think they're taking over!
Because there's Wego down here as well
And that's the end of Takeshita Street!
Next time, I'm going to show you what else there is
We'll explore the backstreets
Which have a completely different feel
And I'll show you some less well-known places
See you then!