Into the West

Four neighbouring destinations on the agenda today, on the far, west side of Tokyo.
By the time we were up and out, it was around 9am. We stopped for a fast food breakfast to get happy tummies for the boys for a full day.
First stop, about a half hour west from Ryogoku on the yellow line was Shinjuku, one of the busiest train stations in the world.
It was a trip down memory lane for Nat and I. Our last visit to Japan ended here at City Century Southern Tower with one of the best rooms I've stayed at.
We passed right by here on our way to Takashimaya Times Square. Now, this was a bizarre experience. We just rolled up here to explore the area but got ushered and roped into their bizarre 1030am opening ritual..a massive queue... to access their primary department store.. and beyond.. we didn't even care or want to see it, but there was no choice or turning back... then it was 'ah get your sleeping baby out of pram, your queue is now going down the escalator'.
After 12 minutes after all that, we were ready to move on. A 20-minute or so walk to Meiji Jingu Shrine, in a vast forest garden in the heart of Tokyo. I hadn't been here before, the garden was huge, the forest was sense, creating almost total shade.
The shrine itself was OK, swarmed with tourists and the associated gimmicks. Throwing money in a box to say a 'prayer' always seemed strange to me, to trivialise any genuine spiritual element to it all. The shrine was nice enough.
Onwards from there, walking through the garden took us to the border of Harajaku. We tortured around before finding the main drag here, Takeshita Street. It's a wacky, quirky street full of bizarre vendors, youth culture, and street fashion. You never quite know what to expect here, various foods, capybara and mini pig cafes, vending machine varieties, pumping music, flashing lights, and more.
The kids enjoyed the novelty and picked up some vending machine toys.
From here, we continued southward from Harajaku to Shibuya. It was about 30 minutes or so walk, but plenty of buildings and shops to stop at on the way.
Geez, we've found it hard finding food options in Tokyo.. first, ones with space, second with food the kids will eat, third that are reasonably priced and finally that can seat a family of 5 with a pram. It leads to delays getting fed, often leading to desperate or non preferred choices. We ended up having a late 'lunch' around Shibuya at a German beer cafe around 3 pm.
We explored the Shibuya and Shibuya Scramble Mall area for a couple of hours before dusk. It's such an intense, hectic, crowded area. Thousands of people, along with giant ads, loud music, flashing lights. It's a bombardment on the senses. Im still not sure Zander has 'come down' from the sensory overload. When night hits, it all gets intensified.
After jointly and individually carrying each of the boys (including Zander) over the scramble crossing half a dozen times, we were ready to ride the waves of crowds back to our hotel in Ryogoku via 40min of green and yellow train lines.
We opted to finish up with uber eats local delivery to top off our dinner needs and give is time to start packing for tomorrow. We still have a final big day ahead before our evening flight back home.もっと詳しく