day 3 in tokyo: shibuya crossing, hachiko, yoyogi mark, meiji shrine, tenmatsu tempura and ebisu yocoho

(Tokyo, Japan).  On our first full day in Tokyo I was a bit ambitious and had a jam-packed schedule!  
 

Yummy Westin Tokyo breakfast buffet.

I was obviously still suffering from jetlag and decided to work out at 5am with all the other zombie-like travelers in the Westin Tokyo gym.  Then I replenished myself at the hotel breakfast buffet with some tasty congee, eggs and green juice.  Somewhat energized, we walked through the Yebisu Garden Place to the Ebisu station where we bought our SUICA cards (a reloadable card for public transportation and vending machines in Tokyo) and took a quick subway ride to Shibuya.

Yebisu Garden Place - there are lots of restaurants, shops, including Mitsukoshi Department store, and a beer museum.  Yebisu (or Ebisu) is a premium beer in Japan.

The beloved "Hachiko".

We exited at the "Hachiko" exit to see the statue of the famous dog who is honored for his intense loyalty for his owner.  The dog's owner had passed away, but the dog (not understanding this) waited for his owner at the station until he passed away.  (poor thing)  Anyways, he was buried alongside his owner, but the statute was erected to honor him.  It's a pretty popular tourist destination but because we were so early, we were able to take pictures with Hachiko without any other people around.  But because it was so early, the Shibuya Crossing wasn't particularly exciting yet.  (This is the famous and huge intersection where thousands of people cross everyday.  Most people go to the 2nd floor of Starbucks to witness the craziness, but you can also see it from the Tokyu Tower.)

Shibuya Crossing.

From there, we walked for a long, long time through Shibuya (lots of stores and restaurants) to Yoyogi Park.  

 

Wash your hands before entering the shrine area.

We determined that we took the "long" way around and we were exhausted by the time we entered into the cool shade of the park.  It was quite serene and peaceful as we meandered through the trees towards Meiji Shrine.  There are fountains at each entrance where you are supposed to wash your hands before entering - if you go to the shrine's website, they actually have instructions in English on how to do this in order to show appropriate respect.  Once in the shrine we saw lots of tourists, as well as a traditional wedding ceremony, which was cool.

Meiji Shrine

I'm not sure how we had the energy, but we decided to check out the Harajuku area which is pretty close to the park.  We found the main Takeshita Street and browsed through the numerous clothing and souvenir stores and creperies.  

Entrance to Harajuku area - lots of clothes, cute socks, and random cute things.  Not really the best quality but fun nonetheless.

Crepes everywhere with a myriad of toppings and fillings.

Oddly enough the highlight for us was a quick stop (the first of many on the trip) at the Family Mart, where we had a delicious (and apparently famous) fried spicy chicken patty and a canned Highball.  In Japan, you aren't really supposed to walk around and eat so we huddled in a corner and ate up our chicken snack - but I think some Japanese folks were a bit amused by us eating and drinking at 11am.  (Tip - I heard that Sunday is the best day to go to Harajuku to see Harajuku girls and to Yoyogi Park to see live performers, like the Japanese Elvis.)
 

Kiddyland has 6+ stories of anime/manga toys and other random stuff to buy.  We spend a LONG time here.

We got bored with Harajuku and walked towards Omotesando which has higher-end shopping.  We got distracted by all the cute anime/manga figurines at Kiddyland and the cute makeup at "too cool for school" which I believe is a Korean brand.  We started getting hungry and headed back to Shibuya because we wanted to have tempura at Tenmatsu in the Tokyu Tower (9th floor).  

Tempura at Tenmatsu - yum!

Tenmatsu was delicious!  This isn't the original location which I understand is a bit difficult to find (especially since the name is not in english), so it was more convenient to eat at this location in the department store.  The restaurant is famous for its tempura and they definitely deserve their fine reputation.  Everything was super light and flaky - I'm not sure how they do it but it was absolutely delicious!  My husband and I each tried a different set lunch which included soup, rice and several different courses of tempura.

We were exhausted by now so we returned to the hotel for a quick nap.  Or more accurately, my husband napped while I watched youtube videos...

Entrance to Ebisu Yococho.

For dinner we decided to try out Ebisu Yococho - which is a tiny enclosed area with 21 eateries.  It's a casual drinking place similar to Memory Lane (or Piss Alley) which is famous for yakitori.  It can be a bit intimidating for non-Japanese speakers like us - we wandered around and no one seemed to speak English or have English signs.  Fortunately we found some seating at one place that literally had one menu with some English scrawled on it and pictures - so we just pointed to a few items and happily it all worked out. 

This was the best dish - scallops grilled with butter.

Onoyamaki - this was cool, but not the best.

We ended up having some grilled scallops with butter (so good), onoyamaki (savory Japanese pancake), grilled shrimp, etc.  It was all quite tasty and ultimately it was a fun experience, even though we were a little intimidated at first.  
 

Ahh- a refreshing sake!

Each restaurant is TINY!

Even after dinner, we had to stop at 7-eleven for more snacks and a bottle of whiskey.  A digestif is always welcome to end the night! 

Overall tip for getting around - Armed with our iphones and map apps, it was actually quite easy to get around Tokyo and find specific restaurants and stores, as long as the places had an "English" name.  So if you are traveling here, make sure you have sufficient data because our mapping ability was invaluable on our trip!