It was a raining morning. But glad that it was not as heavy as it was on the day before. After our breakfast at the hotel, the rain seemed to be stopped for a while. But to be safe, we brought out our umbrella together with us.
~ The short hill slope which we need to walk every day to go to our hotel ~
Today our schedules were to visit Meiji Shrine and also Harajuku. Today is a Sunday. We did read on an online article that, “In order to experience the teenage culture at its most extreme, visit Harajuku on a Sunday, when many young people gather around Harajuku Station and engage in cosplay ("costume play"), dressed up in crazy costumes to resemble anime characters, punk musicians, etc."
So, we have decided to go there on Sunday. We took the train and stopped at Meiji-jingumae station.
It was a good Sunday morning. Weather was cooling after the rain. However, on our way walked into the Meiji Shrine, it was drizzling for a while. But after we reached, the rain stopped. Lucky us!
“Meiji Shrine (Meiji Jingu) is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken. The buildings are surrounded by a beautiful, dense forest.”
It was a very nice walk…. We were surrounded by lots of trees and it was so cooling. And there were quite a number of tourists on that morning as well.
Before we enter the temple, we need to clean our hands and mouths first before praying. The instructions are written clearly in the hut where you need to do the cleansing up.
We saw this Divine Tree when we walked into the temple. We stopped by and had a look. Hubby and I decided to put up our prayers on this Divine Tree as well. So we wrote our wishes on the tablet which cost ¥500 per piece. May our wishes come true!
We were considered very lucky. Perhaps that day is 10.10.10, so in the temple, we saw some ceremonies going on. There were wedding ceremony and baby full moon ceremony. We got to experience a bit of Japan cultures on how they held the ceremony. So happy to feel the happiness around the world ~
After exploring the Meiji Shrine, we walked to Harajuku. Harajuku refers to the area around Tokyo's Harajuku Station, one station north of Shibuya on the Yamanote Line. We went to the famous Takeshita Dori. It is also known as Takeshita Street. Along this street has many trendy shops, fashion boutiques, used clothes stores, crepe stands and fast food outlets. And me, of course, followed the crowd to queue up to buy crepe ~ I bought one of the new flavours, which is made from pumpkin, in conjunction with the Halloween Festival. Very-very YUMMY!!
After Harajuku, we walked around the area until we reached Shibuya. We wanted to drop by the Hachiko Statue to have a look. Shibuya is a very busy district. It was really very crowded. When we waited for the traffic lights to turn green to walk across the other street, you can see the people crossing the roads just like ‘little ants’…. SoOooo many people!! Here is a little video clip on it ~
~ At Shibuya Crossing the Roads ~
Later in the evening, we walked back to Harajuku area again, to see the night’s life and beautiful buildings around the area. We went to the Kiddy Land to buy some kids’ stuffs and then went to the Oriental Bazaar to buy some souvenirs. Well, that’s all for the day... Another tiring day of walking and yet very satisfying!
We went back to our hotel, put our stuffs and then again, we walked to Akihabara. We had our dinner there and also bought ourselves some Japanese titbits to bring back home ~ Today it was not raining, so we got to see more things there!
Expenses on Day 4 -
Lunch and Dinner: ¥3,000 (excluded the expenses on buying Crepes and other Snacks)
Train Tickets: (¥160 x 2) + (¥160 x 2)
TOTAL: ¥3,640
Note: We walked quite a lot on Day 4 to explore more things on the street. So the expenses on Train Tickets also cut down on this day.
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