Anyone visiting Shibuya has to check out the famous Harajuku district and especially Takeshita Street. The crazy fashion that comes out of Harajuku can best be described as kawaii meets punk or rock, but really is unique. The street is lined with boutiques, cafes, restaurants, photo booths and local vendors. We spent a good bit of time just wandering around, doing some window shopping, eating some really good street food, and watching for some Japanese cruising the street in some crazy clothing.
Harajuku Station, with prerequisite manga ads 
This thing was so good. I could eat them all day. 
Sushi ninja on the bathroom wall? This is also probably the first public bathroom that I’ve seen here that was scary on the inside…you may have heard me say “Jeffrey don’t touch anything!” many times… 
They don’t play around with their photo booths here. Their booths were way more complicated than what you see in the states.
We visited Shibuya at the same time as our friends here, the Dunphys. We decided that on each night we were there the guys would watch the kids so the ladies could go out and do something, and then vice versa. Brad and I took the kids to a burger joint and then hit up a huge park while the ladies went out for some sushi. The burgers weren’t too bad, but I had a big translation problem and accidentally ordered just one burger and three sets of fries and drinks. The kids weren’t really that hungry though so it turned out alright. The park was nice, mostly people out jogging or sitting around next the fountains, and the kids had a good time just sprinting all over the place after feeling cramped on the busy Tokyo streets.
For a place called Fatburger, they were disappointingly not huge 
Hungry boys 
Overpass heading into the park 
Pretty sure this is the only time Jonathan walked all weekend. We think his shoes may have been too small.
Catriona and I went to a sushi restaurant called Nori Temaki. It was only bar seating and you can watch the sushi chef prepare your dish right in front of you. We enjoyed a glass of wine and had some miso soup. Then it was time for the sushi! This restaurant they prepared the fish and rice and then gave you your plate with the seaweed on the side and you wraped it yourself. Almost like a sushi tacos lol. But it was really good and the restaurant was very nice. We enjoyed our time!
The next night Jackie and Catriona took the kids while Brad and I went out to look for some Ramen. Ramen is probably our favorite Japanese dish, so we took the train to Shinjuku to look for some acclaimed ramen joints. We found a place called Fuunji which had won some awards for its tsukemen, or dipping ramen. They give you a bowl of the soup and toppings and a plate of the noodles on the side for dipping. Unfortunately, the ramen was pretty fishy, and neither Brad or I were huge fans of it. After our disappointing ramen visit, we went to look for a bar for some drinks. We stopped at a yakitori place for a few minutes, and then found a bar with some super friendly Japanese guys named Gō and Taki. We chatted with them for a few hours about music, the socioeconomics of the U.S., and everything in between.
Pretty sure that’s a big pile of fish powder on top… 
The yakitori was really good though! 
Shinjuku at night. Was actually kind of hard finding a bar that was open. I think a lot of places were still closed because of the Japanese state of emergency. Or maybe we walked past a hundred but can’t read Japanese. 
Pretty fancy.
Catriona and I were looking for some kid friendly options (The Dunphy’s also have 2 elementary aged kids that are awesome with our boys) and somehow we found a place called Maidreamin. I had heard of maid cafes but didn’t really know much about them, their website had some pictures of some kawaii food, had kids prices listed, and so we went for it without too much research. It was and experience to say the least…A cosplay maid cafe where your waitresses are dressed as maids and aparently they also perform. It was kind of like J-Pop songs and dance. The waitresses were really sweet and when they serve you they said Japanese phrases that I think were commonly known. You are supposed to respond phrases in certain ways and they were trying to teach us and so we tried our best and made lots of heart shapes with our hands. They were really nice but the service was really slow…we were probably waiting about an hour before they brought us food. I thought Jon was going to lose it but thankfully he made it without incident. Then they brought out dessert before the dinner! We just went with it and scarfed down that ice cream. The food was really cute. The kids were jammin’ to the music and had a great time. The show was interactive with customers and some of the customers were a tad awkward with how they were interacting with the maids (definitely some single dudes in their own fantasy land). Nothing was inappropriate and everything was really kawaii, the kids had a blast, but it was a little awkward and I can’t say we would ever go back lol.
Our last day in Tokyo was spent at TeamLab Borderless. We got checked out, got some breakfast, and hopped on the train to South Tokyo to see the exhibit. We did miss a transfer and spent an extra 30 minutes or so riding around on train, but the kids seemed to need a nap anyways so it worked out.
TeamLab Borderless is an art exhibit that uses projectors to display stuff on the floors and walls. The whole place is really designed to just get lost in, which can be really cool, but also a bit stressful when you’re chasing around two toddlers in a super dark maze. There was some really cool stuff in there though, and apparently we missed a lot too. Guess we’ll just have to go again sometime.
TeamLab is in a big entertainment area that is home to one of Tokyo’s ferris wheels. 
Jeffrey with his signature pose again. 
I was controlling what the lights did on my phone. 
After TeamLab we hit up some surprisingly tasty Wendy’s for lunch before taking the train back home. There are probably a million things to do in Tokyo, and we had a lot of fun checking out a tiny fraction of them.
BRB, out to Japan – Taylor
That trip was awesome. Thank you.
Beautiful pictures.
Team lab looks awesome!
The lights were super cool! Pictures are fantastic!! Thanks for sharing your adventures!!❤️
Really amazing and awesome! Thank you for sharing! Love you all!
What a fun time!! Love you❤️
Great adventure!
SO impressive y’all were able to do so much in one trip with the littles! Glad y’all had fun. That art exhibit is awesome! 🙂
Awesome!