Scaredy Cat Travels

Tokyo – Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya

Transportation: trains, subway, feet, avoid taxis 

Hotel: The Conrad 

Plans: The Jukus 

Scaredy Cat rating: Zero paws for now

Despite the bad reviews, I made reservations earlyish for the Yayoi Kusama museum in the Shinjuku area. It’s small and a bit out of the way but it’s the only Kusama installation near us on the trip. If you aren’t familiar, Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist, now in her 90s, most well known for her love of dots and pumpkins (with dots of course). She is also known for her mirrored infinity rooms which Teamlab Planets has basically copied and commercialized. I’d love to make it down to Nayoshima Island someday to see her most famous pumpkin, sitting lonely on a pier overlooking the sea. But a small, badly reviewed, out of the way museum will have to do for now. Please God, let there be a gift shop. 

Fun Fact – In 2021, the pumpkin was blown into the ocean by a typhoon. It’s back now. 

After dragging the kids to the museum, the plan as of now is to head over to the Shinjuku and Harajuku areas, eat lunch and wander. Rowan has just two desires on the trip – see Mount Fuji and see the Godzilla on top of the hotel. We’ll make that a priority but other than that we don’t have a schedule until our reservations at Shibuya Sky. 

Some things we (we, in most cases, refers to me and Jackson only) are looking forward to: 

3D Billboards – really just animated billboards that have a 3D effect. The most famous one is a giant cat perched on top of a building. 

The themed and collaboration cafes – Tokyo is filled with cafes featuring food and décor tied to anime, video games, movies and pop culture. Our top options are the Kirby Café, Pokemon Café and the Nintendo Café. There is also a limited time collaboration Toy Story Café open during our visit. 

The animal cafes – Tokyo is also filled with cafes where you can have a meal and play with a variety of animals. It started with cat cafes but has expanded to raccoons, hedgehogs, capybaras and more. 

The games – ranging from large modern arcades to virtual reality to little shops filled with claw machines or gachapon machines (think of a more elaborate version of the machines you put a coin in and get a tiny ball with a toy in it). And when I say large arcades, we’re talking multi-story buildings with their own cafes and shops in addition to the games. 

The food – there are so many unique foods to try. Some of the most unique are giant rainbow cotton candy, fluffy stacks of pancakes, lots of things on sticks. But I think Jackson and I are most interested in the cute food. The Juku areas will put a cute face on anything. 

Photo Booths – As they are prone to doing with many things, the Japanese have taken the typical photo booth concept and amped it up. The photo booths in Shinjuku aren’t booths at all but complete stores. Once you pay for your session, you can spruce up in the dressing area where you’re provided with straightening irons and other amenities. Then you can grab accessories or even change into costumes before entering one of many private booths with your friends to take your photos. After you’re satisfied with your photos, you can dress them up with decorative borders or stickers. Some of the booths also automatically add anime filters enlarging eyes and softening skin.  

The biggest challenge I envision is figuring out what to do in all of these cute, themed cafes when none of us like coffee. 

This area is also known for its yokocho – narrow alleyways filled with skinny bars. Not meaning skinny as in the people but you probably do need to be thin to fit in these spaces. There are several alleys filled with these tiny bars that seat only 6-10 people at a time. Originally these were frequented by the “salary men” after work but they’ve now become popular with the younger crowd as well as tourists. I’d love to try one if we can fit it into our schedule.

Fun Fact – Did you know that you can dress up in a onesie and drive a go-cart around the streets of Tokyo? 

After wandering Shinjuku and Harajuku and possibly passing out in a jetlagged fog in some café where we aren’t drinking coffee, we’ll head down to Shibuya, home of the famous Shibuya scramble or crossing, the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. My kids are going to love that. 

They may however find it worthwhile, because while there we’ll visit the statue of Hachiko, the faithful dog who 100 years ago would follow his owner to the train station every morning and wait there until he returned home from work in the evenings. One day, his owner passed away while at work but Hachiko refused to leave. The locals took over his care, feeding him until he crossed the rainbow bridge (not the one to Odaiba though). They were so touched by Hachiko’s love and loyalty, they memorialized him with a statue by the station. 

As touching as the sad dog story is the main reason for Shibuya is of course Shibuya Sky. I found out today that the bar on the rooftop has just reopened. You can also now make a reservation for small private areas with loungy furniture overlooking the city – which is what I should be doing instead of writing this!

Before I wander away to try and snag some loungy furniture, I’ll leave you with one last picture. This year’s Easter eggs were themed to our trip. This was my version of a Kusama egg.

Fun Fact – it took me 30 minutes to make all those dots.

Another Fun Fact – I dropped it immediately after finishing.