Day #2 in Tokyo

Today was a holiday is Japan since it’s the Emperor’s birthday. As a family we went out and ventured into the city! We specifically went to Harajuku, which is a district of Tokyo, and visited the Meiji Shrine, Yoyogi Park, and Takeshita Street. Everyone in Tokyo usually takes the subway or the train to get around, so our outing began with about a 5 minute walk to the subway. We've been pretty lucky not having to deal with the big crowds that usually come with being in the subway, but we've also only been here for about two days now, so I’m sure we’ll encounter it soon. The main difference I've felt here is that everything tends to be on the left side rather than the right. Even on the escalators you stand to the left so that others can pass you on the right. There is definitely order nearly everywhere you go in Japan.

We started off with Yoyogi Park, which is about the equivalent to Central Park in New York. When we walked in there was a large group of people all dressed as Santas and reindeers cleaning the park. We had the chance to get a picture with the Christmas Bear there, which was quite the experience. We couldn't catch what his name was, but it sounded a lot like Tanner, so we gave my little sister, Tanner, a hard time about it haha.

As we kept walking, a girl started holding a “Free Hugs” sign, which people just all came rushing to. Everyone would hug her and then take a selfie with her. It was fun to see. Caitlin even went up and got a hug from her!

After walking through the park we got some baby castellas, which are basically a popular Japanese festival sponge cake made with flour, eggs, and starch syrup. So they’re like a mini fluffy pancake and they are good.

Then we went to Meiji Shrine, which is one of the bigger and more popular shrines here. The Japanese take New Year’s Eve here very seriously and always visit a shrine to ring the bell, pay their respects and say a prayer to bring them luck and prosperity for the new year. The Meiji Shrine has at least one million people come to it on New Year’s Eve, so the shrine will be packed from beginning to end. When we reached where offerings are thrown in and prayers are said, we each got to wash our hands and mouth, which cleanses you for saying your prayers. There is also a wall that has prayers listed on it.  

Inside of the shrine is a park that you can go and feed the birds there with peanuts. You have to whistle and call out to the birds to get their attention and get them to come sit on your hand. It was a tough process at first, but after a while we had tons of birds there. Just make sure you hold onto your peanut because they will take it right from your hand if you don’t hold it tight enough!

Afterwards we walked around Takeshita Street, which is a long street of shopping centers. It’s hilarious seeing how many sweaters have been wrongly translated into English in these stores. Take for example this shirt. It says "I will either find a way" and this isn't the only poorly translated shirt I saw today.

Oh yeah and they had these sweet purses. Anyone want one as a souvenir?? Haha

My favorite is the cat with its tongue sticking out. Caitlin and I are pretty sure we’ll have to come shop there another day when it isn’t as crowded.

Crepes are pretty popular in Japan, so we had to stop and get some for lunch. They are on every corner in the busiest parts of town. They don’t have nutella in them at all, but they fill them with ice cream, fruit, cheesecake, and basically anything else you could think of.

Oh yeah, and fun fact: The crows here are HUGE. Like, scary huge. They frighten me.