(Japan Sep 2018) Day 2: Visit Harajuku and Shinjuku.

 Day 2 (16 Sep 2018) : Visit Harajuku and Shinjuku.  Stay at Tokyo. 

 This is the 1st out of a total of 3 visits to Harajuku during this entire trip.

Why so many visits? Well, that's because both of us wanted to visit the Johnny's Shop (official shop of Jpop Johnny's groups such as Arashi, Kinki Kids, Hey! Say! JUMP...etc...) at Harajuku.  

On this 1st visit, we arrived Harajuku too late and all of the queue tickets to enter the shop on this day have already been issued.  

 On our 2nd Harajuku visit, we were issued a 4pm admission queue ticket, even though we arrived before 10am, and so we left because we already had plans for later that day.

On our 3rd visit, we were issued a 3pm admission queue ticket, and we finally entered the shop close to 4pm, but inside the shop, the queue for the cashiers takes another 3 hours!!  

So we left without buying anything...  sigh...

Since most of the shops weren't even open yet by the time we arrived at Harajuku, so we went in search for breakfast.

Happened to come across this cafe in an alley between Takeshita dori and Omotesando, and I LOVED THEIR PANCAKES!!

Since we were early, there weren't a queue when we arrived, although a long queue had already formed by the time we were done with our breakfast. 

Our breakfast.

 After breakfast, we went to Kiddyland along Omotesando.

Kiddyland is a large toy store that spans across a few levels. 

Disney characters, Snoopy, Sanrio, Miffy, Totoro...and many more!

After Kiddyland, we headed back to Takeshita Dori opposite Harajuku station.

There's no way I am visiting Harajuku again on a weekend again!!

IT WAS SOOOOO CROWDED!!

We were so tired of the crowd (and also in need of a restroom that doesn't involve super long queue) by this time, so we stopped by a cafe in an alley off Takeshita Dori for a nice glass of Iced Cocoa.

After taking a 1 hour break at the cafe, it's time for us to head back out to join the crazy crowd again.

This time, the crowd seemed to get even worse (if possible)!  

There were even police in the crowd using loud hailers to try to divert the crowd off Takeshita Dori!

Harajuku station.

Hello NEWS! (another Japan idol group)

 There's a limited-time promotional cafe at Shinjuku that features Winnie the Pooh.  

We didn't eat at the cafe, but we did spent some time doing some Winnie the Pooh merchandise shopping though.  Hehe.

Check out all these cute items!!

Even though this is just the 1st full day of our trip, but we were both really tired out by this time (thanks to Harajuku) as well as really famished.

So, we splurged a little on our dinner at a Tonkatsu restaurant before returning back to our capsule hotel at Shinjuku for the night.

Shinjuku on a weekend evening.

 Go to Sep 2018 Japan trip's main page.

Go back to Day 1: Singapore to Tokyo.

Go next to Day 3: Visit Kichijoji and Overnight bus to Sendai