Emily: Today was a surprisingly long day! The alarm went off around 7:30 or so. I had woken up at about 6:45 though and Mom was on the computer. She said she couldn’t sleep. For breakfast I ate a Soyjoy bar and a muffin. We left the hotel at 9:30 and took the JR Yamanote Line to Shibuya. We wanted to see the Hachiko Statue but we didn’t go out of the right exit. It was okay, though, because we walked half of a block around the perimeter of the station and finally found the Hachiko Statue. For those who don’t know, Hachiko is a dog who supposedly waited for its master every day in front of the station, but when the owner died the dog kept waiting there, thinking its owner would come back. The statue was surprisingly small, but it’s an accurate scale of the actual dog. We crossed the intersection to Shibuya 109, which is officially the best mall in the world: 6 floors of stores that are all directed toward teenage/young adult females. All the men in the mall were either boyfriends, dads, or brothers (all who looked like they wanted to get out of there as soon as possible). We spent a long time in the mall – probably a couple of hours. Some of the stores were expensive but we were able to find lots of good clothes on the sale racks and stuff. It was incredibly crowded, though. When we walked into the mall it seemed as though everyone who crossed the intersection continued right through the entrance like a river of people. I bought some tops and dresses and stuff. What I found interesting is that the stores don’t like people trying on stuff like t-shirts. People can only try on outerwear like jackets and stuff. When I tried on one of the dresses they gave me tissue to put around my body so I don’t get the outfit dirty. I kind of like that sort of thing considering how anal I am about sanitation. It’s a good thing that they don’t want people trying stuff on considering how hot it was outside too… After spending plenty of time in the mall (I loved it!) we wandered a bit more and finally found Sweets Paradise, which is the second reason I loved today. I had to use a map to find Chitose Kaikan, the building where Sweets Paradise is at. First we accidentally went to the exit/back side of the place so we had to walk around. There was a little line area roped off and the inside was full of people waiting already. Mom and I squeezed inside and Debbie and Candace waited outside. As the line moved they were eventually able to squeeze themselves inside too. It was slightly cooler inside but not totally air conditioned. It was about 12:10 when we got there; as we waited, the line filled up with tons of people! I finally understood why they roped off an area for the line to go (zig-zagstyle). The restaurant is very pink and pretty and it smelled really good. Eventually we got to the front of the line and bought tickets from the vending machine – 1480 yen per person. Not too bad (I think). We were seated right away and apparently since today’s busy (or something) the all-you-can-eat session was only 80 minutes instead of 90 minutes. That was fine with me. The food selection was pretty cool – there were a lot of sweets ranging from jelly beans to pretzels to chocolate covered marshmallows and pie and cake and tiramisu and chocolate fountain and popcorn and shaved ice and soft serve ice cream and deliciousness. I loved it. They also had my favorite, melon soda, to drink. There was also “real food” or savory food like spaghetti and curry and rice. I had none of that. I did have potatoes though (and that was the last thing I ate!). There was a really good raspberry jelly square type thing that I loved. The apples were good, especially dipped in chocolate (hahaha). The popcorn was flavored “nori wasabi” (seaweed wasabi). It was good too. We were sitting next to some white guys from Toronto and Mom talked to them. Apparently they were on a graduation trip from high school (they don’t look 2 years older than me! I thought it was like, college graduation trip or something).  Mom was having difficulties because she didn’t want to deal with the crowds near the buffet so she sent me to get her food. I was perfectly fine winding through people to get food.Our time ended at 1:55 and we were completely ready by then. Overall I think I used 2 plates and like, 4 bowls or something. So after that we went to some surf-type store because we thought we’d look for fobby hats for Alex but it seems as though everything was from the US (Billabong, etc.) So on we went. We stopped at Daichu, which I think has Chinese goods (all that concerned me was that there were a bunch of panda things). I bought a panda towel for the gym and a purse (what!? I bought a purse!? That’s unlike me). We wandered up Spain Slope (that’s what it’s called but I don’t know why) and walked to Tokyu Hands, which is considered a “creative life store.” Lots of DIY stuff. We looked at the first floor first, which had bags and stuff and Mom said it was kind of like a weird sort of REI store. We went to the 6th floor (the elevator was crowded!) and there were craft type things there. Cute bead kits too. I just looked but didn’t buy anything. Even by that time we were all tired – especially since we were carrying about 5 or 6 bags. So, after Tokyu Hands we made our way back to the station. I videotaped us crossing the intersection, which is supposedly the one that they always show in films when they show that incredibly crowded intersection in the middle of some busy in Japan. Yup, that’s Shibuya. We took the Yamanote Line one stop to Harajuku. We headed straight down Omotesando to Kiddy Land and spent a long time there. We went up and down the various floors and I bought school supplies (folders, notebook, pencil case), stickers, stuffed panda, hair clips…and that’s about it. We did spend a lot of time there and it slowly got more crowded and there were a bunch of foreigners in there too. Mom and I walked two doors down to a shoe store but there wasn’t anything that interested me and what didinterest me was way too expensive. After that we crossed the street and stopped at some vending machines and I got apple juice. We were sweating so much it was gross. I walked to the Johnnys store but they had already finished their ticket distribution for the day so I couldn’t get in. Oh well, I can buy stuff at the concerts. We walked down Takeshita Dori (that’s the famous really crowded street) and went to Mighty Soxer so I could buy some socks to wear with my flats. There were a bunch of dumb foreigners there who basically stood and stared at the socks and blocked my way. I mean, what’s so special about socks? They’re just socks. I bought three pairs of socks because I like the quality of the socks there. I bought some at Nordstrom at Brea Mall and they’re really thin and not as good of quality. So we slowly walked back to Harajuku Station and in the station there were a bunch of posters of Yamapi promoting Kurosagi or something. I took a picture for the heck of it. We took the Yamanote Line two stops to Ebisu. I asked the guy at the station where Ebisu Garden Place is and he told us it was the other exit so we had to go back onto the train platform and go out the East Exit for Ebisu Garden Place. There was about a five minute walk on those little conveyor belt walkways called “Ebisu Skywalk.” We got to the famous concrete block thing that was in Hana Yori Dango (Japanese drama) so I took a picture with it. It’s funny how other people were taking pictures of it too. I guess Hana Yori Dango really is super popular. By this time (I haven’t a clue what I mean by “this time.” It was probably 5-something PM or something like that) we wanted to just have dinner and finish the day so we found a ramen place downstairs from the main Garden Place area. We placed our orders by buying tickets from the vending machine. We couldn’t read the kanji so we had to look at the pictures to order our food. Afterordering we looked up the kanji and figured out that me, Debbie, and Candace got miso ramen. I also got cola. Mom ordered cold noodles with cucumber, tomato, and egg in a shoyu sesame oil. (she can’t remember the name of the dish but said it was really good). Candace assessed the noodles and said they were a little salty but really good. I agreed. After eating we stopped at Mitsukoshi, a department store, and bought some pineapple (for mom, since I’m allergic) and “onigiri size” okonomiyaki. Basically, mini cute okonomiyaki. We’ll have it for breakfast tomorrow. There was also a square watermelon in the store. I took a picture. We used the restroom inside the store and it had a cool hand drying thing. It told you when to put your hands in and when to take them out etc. I found it amusing. After using the restroom we walked back across the Sky Walk to the station and took the Yamanote Line back to Shinagawa. At Shinagawa we stopped at the convenience store and I bought some drinks and candy. Finally, we ended up back here at the hotel and I assessed the damage I did today by looking at all the stuff I bought. Tomorrow we’ll attack the other side of the train line: Ginza, Tsukiji, and Akihabara (since it seems as though we can only get to three train stops a day).

Debbie and Candace in front of Hachiko Statue