It was Sunday morning, bright and sunny. We decided to spend sometime shopping for souvenirs and gifts to take back home. We were particularly interested in buying some Japanese dolls. According to our guidebook, Asakusabashi has lots of stores that sell dolls of all kinds. The Japanese celebrate a doll festival – Hina Matsuri – in March of every year, so we figured dolls would be very representative of Japanese culture. When we reached Asakusabashi, most of the stores were closed. Those that were open sold dolls that were way beyond our budget. So, we decided to head to Nakamise near the Sensoji-temple in Asakusa, to buy the souvenirs. Unlike our last visit, Nakamise was packed with locals and tourists visiting the Senso-ji temple. We walked through a number of souvenir shops and finally completed our purchases. The shopkeepers wrapped the items very nicely like they would gifts – some even with gift wrap or gift bags. We had bought quite a bit of stuff so we decided to drop our shopping bags at the hotel and then head to our next destination.

Our next destination for the day was Harajuku. Harajuku is famous for its shopping district – the Takeshita dori is a street in Harajuku that is filled with shops that cater to teenagers and young adults. The street is a pedestrian-only street and was crowded with people shopping for the latest in clothes and accessories. Unlike Ginza or Omotesando (which is known as the Champs-Elysees of Tokyo) in Shibuya (which we had just walked around), the stuff here seemed more affordable By this time, we were hungry and stopped at a food court on Takeshita dori for lunch. The food court was very crowded too – seating was limited so we ate standing at the counters overlooking the street. Our appetites whetted for the time-being, we ventured out again and continued walking. It was pretty hot and our legs were begging for a rest. So, we stopped for tea at a little cafe. We ordered some milk tea – green tea is normally served in Japan, if you want tea with milk you have to specifically ask for it (they call it mirukku tea ). The lady who ran the place served it to us in very English style – complete with a shiny silver teapot, snow-white cups and saucers, a little stainless steel jug with milk and silver teaspoons to round it off. It was the most formal tea I had been served in a while

The next stop was the Meiji Jingu (shrine) which was just a short walk from Takeshita dori. The Meiji shrine is a Shinto temple dedicated to Emperor Meiji and the Empress. Much of it was destroyed during World War II but it was reconstructed in the 1950s. The path into the shrine winds through a shaded walkway with lots of trees and a line of sake barrels that were donated to the shrine. Just outside the shrine itself was a stone basin used by visitors to wash their hands before entering the shrine. In Shinto tradition, visitors are required to wash and washing is considered as purification.

In the courtyard of the shrine was a wall with many wooden plaques hung – visitors could write their wishes on these plaques and pray that the deity grant them. The visitors prayed in the inner sanctum of the shrine. There was also a wedding party at the shrine. The bride was dressed in an eye-catching black and red kimono and seemed to be the center of attention of her family and friends as well as the gawking tourists who all wanted to take pictures with her by their side. She obliged many of them until some of her friends came to her rescue We sat in the courtyard of the shrine for a little while, giving our legs a rest and watching all the people come and go.

After visiting the Meiji shrine, we decided to walk to Yoyogi park. On the way to Yoyogi park, we saw several street performers, caricature artists and people dressed in costumes (we were told they dressed like Anime characters).

The route to Yoyogi park was packed with street vendors selling all kinds of food and drink. We weren’t in a very experimental mood so we passed on those When we entered Yoyogi park, we were greeted by crowds of tourists watching a street performance. It was a performance by a number of men that were dressed like Elvis Presley (correction: apparently they are not dressed like Elvis, but as Rockabillies. Thanks tokyo5, for the correction!). They looked hilarious! They were very good dancers and were very entertaining. The interesting thing was they did not seem to be performing for money but just for pure personal enjoyment! As we walked through the park, we saw a number of people practicing music (people playing trumpets, flutes, violins and other instruments) or dance. There was also a group of drummers from all over the world (Japanese, Caribbean, African, etc.) just jamming. We sat for a while listening; the music was great, the ambiance was lovely – it was the perfect way to wind down !