Journal no. 3

after lunch, we went to Kudanshita station (1 stop before Jimbocho) so we can go see Yasukuni shrine, which is dedicated to more than 2 million people who died for Japan since 1853.

Singapore was one of the countries who suffered under Japan in WWII, so it was a strange feeling to visit Yasukuni, where war criminals were enshrined.
however, i am just interested in sight-seeing, so i took photos while trying to respect the space of the people who are there to pray.

 the first thing we saw was Daiichi-torii, 25 meters tall and 34 meters wide, very enormous and very impressive.

this is Daini-torii. behind it was Shin-mon, which is the roofed structure in the photo.
the guard was quite grumpy and told people not to take photos while standing directly in front of the shrine, so i took this from the side.


now looking at a map of Yaukuni shrine, i realise we didn't go to the other side of the shrine, where there were actual shrines for the war dead and other historical buildings.

then, we made our way to Jimbocho via subway.

i really wanted to follow the map in the art space Tokyo guide, but decided that it was too much walking, so we just wandered around Jimbocho instead.

 this is Cafe Saboru, mentioned in the map - it's Polynesian island-inspired with tiki-torch pillars and hippy vibe.
there were many cool cafes (a Jazz cafe, art gallery cafes!) around.

 amazingly, we came across a nice looking place with coffee that was just 180 yen, called Paper Back Cafe - score!
it was a large book store+cafe. we took the counter seating that provides an unobstructed view of the street.

 this the interior sitting area of Paper Back Cafe...

after coffee,  i took a look at a bookstore filled with pretty picture books.

nearby were are used books with loads of post-its stating the prices.

next was Omotesando.
i planned to go see the sunset from the 7th floor of the Louis Vuitton espace art gallery. we walked in to the shop and while trying to find the way up, a nice lady at LV helpfully told us the gallery wasn't open that day.

the trees at Omotesando were wrapped with a ribbon for Last Hope, which i think is a new drama for Arashi's Aiba.

then we walked around a bit. there was a new shopping center i've not seen before.

we found Takeshita-dori because i wanted to go to Thank You Mart where everything was 390 yen.

being tired and a bit hungry, we had dinner at Lotteria - melon soda, and 3 different burgers. the fries were lovely.

after some shopping, we had to drag our tired feet towards a subway station so we can go home. luckily, there was a subway station right next to Harajuku JR station. phew!