Howdy all! Hoping this blog post finds you well! Today I wanted to go through my experiences when in Harajuku, a unique and distinctive district in Tokyo known for its fashion and colours. It’s a very popular spot to visit when visiting Tokyo amongst foreign tourists, Japanese tourist from out of town and indeed locals alike.

I visited here with a friend of my wife, Hisako, back in late April 2024 and I walked up from Shibuya, home to the famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing. It takes around 15 minutes or less to walk (uphill) from Shibuya, but there is also a metro station connecting a couple (or more) of lines right on Harajuku and depending on what exit you can make your way to, you can exit right at the Takeshita Street.

Takeshita Street is the main, buzzing street in Harajuku and is exclusively for pedestrians. From the station and the sign this main section is around 250-300 metres long and you will probably find it pretty packed as you walk along it, especially on a Sunday!

We arrived late morning – I had already had a busy day in Shibuya and visiting the Meiji Temple, and it was a Sunday which is known as the busiest day in Harajuku, and I had a few places marked down as the ones I wanted to visit.

The first two involved food, although on our way in that direction we checked out some of the Harajuku fashion for sale in some of the shops including some groovy high heeled colourful shoes and these interesting fashion choices in another shop near by.

First food stop was a place called ‘Le Shiner’. I am still not sure how to pronounce it  – French or Japanese? Who can say? But they are famous for making a rainbow coloured grilled cheese sandwich – or as we call it in Australia, a toastie. They are no the only shop selling them, but they came recommended and so we bought a rainbow cheese toastie and tried it. As you can see it makes for a bright photo. The taste? Well, to be honest if you closed your eyes you would no doubt think it was a normal cheese toastie. They sold other things too, some were rainbow coloured some were not.

Just across Takeshita street was the Tottie Candy Factory. This place is famous for it’s rainbow coloured fairy floss. They make it for you while you watch and probably take photos lol! Well, it is… 2025! You can also buy it in a little sealed bucket as well, but of course I wanted to try it the traditional way on a stick! Oh, disclaimer if you haven’t watched the video – ‘fairy floss’ is the Australian term for cotton candy, or if you’re in the UK I think it’s candy floss. Feel free to correct me in the comments. Anyway, we bought the SMALLEST ONE – I swear! And it was HUGE. The best part was watching it being made. I have to be honest, it tastes like sugar but then so does every fairy floss. We did manage to finish it.

We had then booked a session at the Ninja Experience Café, a place where you dress up as ninjas and practice some ninja craft including throwing stars, blowing darts and wielding a ninja sword. It was fun – a full blog on that is coming!

Then we walked to Yoyogi Park, about 10 minutes from where we were. There’s a bridge over the railway and we met these two girls dressed as brightly as anyone I’ve ever seen. Check out their Instagram at – @moegamidensetsu !

At Yoyogi Park on a Sunday from around 12pm a group of locals dressed in their 50s’ finest congregate and turn on the rock n’ roll music and dance to it. And people come and watch. They are known as the ‘Rockabillies’ and sure, they look like they came from the 1950s. It’s an interesting thing to watch for a short time. Which we did. I guess it’s a social group/activity.

Next it was back to Harajuku proper to visit the Owl Village Café, where you have cake and a drink and spend some time with the 18 owls that live at the café. Owl’s are kept in Japan as pets, and it’s just one of the pet/animal themed cafes in Harajuku which include dog and cat cafes and even one with hedgehogs! I also have an upcoming post on this place where I’ll write a bit more on the ‘ethics’ I guess of visiting and about the experience itself.

Finally we finished the day at the Peanuts’ Café, a café devoted to Charlie Brown, Snoopy et al. It was a nice place to visit, I had some sort of meat sauce on a thick piece of toast which actually tasted pretty nice. They even have little booths you can hire and the décor is all Peanuts themed. Japan has really taken to Charlie Brown and the gang and it seemed a nice place to end the day!

And that was my 2024 Harajuku experience. Definitely worth spending a half day in the district and trying a few things out. Probably won’t appeal to everyone but there’s a lot of fun and photo opportunities to be had and I recommend it even if you’re only a little bit curious!

Thanks for popping in today! Take care wherever you are in the world and… May the Journey Never End!