Japan 2023, day 3: Shopping, eating, and fun in Shibuya and Shinjuku
We’re still jetlagged and got up early. Despite that, our hotel breakfast took forever, because the place was surprisingly overrun with an Australian tour group. Thankfully we weren’t in a rush, and once they cleared out, we were able to have a bit of peace toward the end of our (very tasty) meal.
After a short subway ride to Shibuya (during the tail end of rush hour), we decided to grab another cup of coffee. Places around there mostly weren’t open yet, with some of them not even opening until 11, including Eggslut! It seems most coffee shops in that area are more of an afternoon thing? We found one little kiosk that made a pretty nice cup across the street from Miyashita park.
After some hectic coordination (getting people to the right place in a big train station can be tricky!), we met up by the elevator to Shibuya Sky, a rooftop observation level on top of the recently built Shibuya Scramble building. It had amazing views, and we really lucked out on the weather.
Tickets for that day were sold out, so it was good that we were able to buy them online in advance. At the top, you had 360 degree views of Tokyo, but the most popular thing was to find a corner and take a photo there. We went to one corner with almost no line:
In one of these photos, Nick may have played with magic eraser…
We spent a bit of time here, taking in the views of the city and enjoying the sun on the roof:
And at the end of our visit, we noticed a long line for something and discovered that it’s for the Shibuya Sky photo op, which is located at a corner of the rooftop where the glass fence is lowered:
The woman working there at the end of the line said it would take 25 minutes, but we waited anyway and were able to get this group photo:
We were all facing the sun, so it was hard not to squint or close our eyes, so apologies for how our faces look here. And with that, it was off to find lunch. We noticed that there were many restaurants within the Shibuya Scramble Building, including a sushi place, Sushi Matsuei, so we went there and waited a few minutes for them to find space for 6 of us. They basically offered only two sushi sets for lunch, making our lives rather easy when deciding on what to order. Nick went with the smaller of the two sets, while I went with the larger one (basically the difference was that I got two small appetizers and 4 more pieces of sushi):
It was actually quite good, and definitely helped ease any hanger that was happening while wandering Shibuya Sky. As we were leaving the building, we had to get through the ground floor of the building, which is essentially a massive food hall. All of us were oohing and aahing all of the prepared foods, pastries, and other food goods here, and there was no way we were leaving without buying some sweets for the road:
At this point, Eli was commenting that he really wanted a pair of sunglasses, so we suggested that we go to the amazing all-in-one store, Mega Don Quixote. We’ve been there in previous visits, but we wanted to see what the family would think of navigating this seemingly unorganized store that is so densely packed with items, that if you took one step in any direction on any floor, you’d be in one of the many displays there.
Anyway, after the initial feeling of being overwhelmed with stuff to buy, we eventually found the floor with sunglasses (it took a few floors of walking around to find them though), so mission accomplished!
After that, we headed off to the Shibuya Parco, another shopping mall, but this one has a full floor dedicated to gaming stores, and I was on a mission to find some gifts. First off, the Pokemon Store to get Pokemon cards, where a large Mewtwo greeted us at the entrance:
As we searched the store for cards, we saw a sign that said that they were essentially sold out of them, which I was not expecting, so yeah, that was a fail. Fortunately, we’ll be going to Osaka soon, so I’ll try the Pokemon Store there. Next is the Nintendo Store, but it was getting really busy there, and I didn’t want to waste everyone’s time, so I left and then noticed the Final Fantasy popup store! I was on a mission here to find everything chocobo or moogle, but I had no space in my bag for plushies, so I settled for a hairclip:
We were all getting a bit thirsty at this point, we we headed off to Henn na Cafe, which is a coffee shop where a robot makes the drink. First, you order at a vending machine, which then prints out a ticket with at QR code, and then you scan that at a nearby machine, and then the robot, Tom, makes the drink for you. Since we all mainly ordered hot or iced chocolate drinks, all this really entailed was Tom grabbing a cup, going over to a machine and pressing a button:
If any of us ordered a pour-over, Tom would actually grind the coffee, and proceed with the full pour-over process, which would have been a bit more entertaining to watch, but it was still a fun respite from all of the shopping we had been doing. Afterwards, Simon wanted to go to a bookstore to buy some manga, so everyone but me went with him. I was still wanting to go back to Parco to buy more game stuff, so back to the Nintendo Store I went searching for Isabelle items. I main her in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (I know, she’s a weak character, but really cute to play as), and found a cute t-shirt with her in it. I also got a couple of gifts for a friend. Nick then said that the bookstore only had Japanese manga, so the family was heading back to the hotel and he came to meet me, so we explored the rest of Parco and found the rooftop and some interesting stores inside:
At this point, we were basically going to wait until we needed to meet the family in Shinjuku for dinner, so we headed back to Miyashita Park, now that everything was open, and walked through the Shibuya Yokocho:
And then, of course, Nick wanted a beer, so we stopped by Ushitora Brewery, which was so cute:
With that quick break, we then took the train to Kabukicho. Once we exited the station, we were greeted by the famous 3D ad with a cat in the video:
We stood there for a couple of minutes watching the other ads that would show up, and they were really cool, especially one involving space craft. But we needed to go to dinner, so we headed towards Kabukicho itself. As we approached, I commented to Nick that this felt oddly familiar, and that’s because I’ve played a few of the games from the Yakuza series, which takes place in a fictional part of Tokyo called Kamurocho. It turns out that Kamurocho is inspired by the very real Kabukicho, so as we were walking around, I was amazed at how accurate some of the game areas were, including the large building in the center, and the plaza area in front of the building where we were going to have dinner. It’s a very lively part of town, especially at night, and it has a reputation for being a bit seedy, with an abundance of hostess clubs and other interesting establishments, but it never felt unsafe.
We all met up at Momo Paradise Kabukicho for our shabu shabu dinner, and we were pleasantly shocked at how pretty it looked inside, especially given the insanity of everything at street level. It was also the best shabu shabu any of us had ever had; the meat was amazing, and the service was wonderful, and it was all-you-can-eat, which made Simon super happy:
Eli wanted to go to a nearby arcade afterwards, so we all went into one to amuse the kids. I played some taiko drumming game with Simon.
Eli played some basketball, a boxing game, Mario Kart, and one of the House of the Dead games. I think he got his arcade fix, but at this point, Nick and I needed to go back to the hotel to pack and get ready to check out the next morning for our trip to Hakone. We had a fun time in Tokyo with the family, and it was great to show them parts of the city that have made us fall in love with it!
PS: Bonus weird thing is a claw game of eggs that may contain wagyu beef?