First Day in Tokyo - Harajuku and Shibuya

We started off our two week trip with about 5 days in Tokyo. Our flight from Delhi arrived into Narita at 1:30pm and by the time we made our way to our hotel by the airport limo bus it was about 5pm. We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard Ginza for five night using points (yay!). The room was pretty small, but that was to be expected for Japan, but it had everything we needed. What the hotel lacked in space, it made up for in service and cleanliness.

The location proved to be great, just a few blocks from the heart of Ginza. Two metro stations were nearby - the Ginza and Higashi-Ginza stations were both only a few minutes walk from the hotel and the JR Shimbashi station was about 10 minutes on foot. There were lots of restaurants, shops and malls nearby and a Lawson's convenience store was only a few stores down.

Day 1: We started by taking the JR train from Shimbashi to Harajuku. We could have gone by metro, but we would have had to change trains. Since it was our first full day in the city and we were moving around with a 2-year old, we decided it was better to have a longer walk to the station and no transfer. Before exploring the Harajuku area, we visited the Meiji Shrine, which provided our first introduction to Buddhist temples and shrines.

From there, we walked through the crazy streets of Harajuku, braving the masses out for Sunday shopping. We stopped in Daiso, one of the 100 yen shops, visited Kiddyland to pick up some coveted toys, and then made our way through the high end stores in Omotesando Hills. We were out during a torrential downpour, but managed to find cover for 20 minutes to wait out the storm. Fortunately, skies were clear for the rest of the night.





We finally ended up in Shibuya where we went to the Starbucks overlooking the famous Shibuya Crossing and met up with a friend from college for dinner. We had a nice introduction to Japanese food at a restaurant just a few blocks from the crossing called Kankura where we grilled our own food and had an assortment of tofu, chicken, beef, shrimp and veggies.

It was a long, but productive and interesting first day in Japan. We returned to our hotel to rest up for the next day.

  

Ani and Aaron outside the Starbucks at Shibuya Crossing.



Shibuya Crossing at night.



After dinner at Kankuro with Brin. 



Aaron learns to pose for photos in Japan.