Harajuku leads the pack in terms of funky world-class fashion, classy boutiques and stylish cafes. Handily located along the Yamanote Line, it’s a place to unwind and people watch (or gape, if you are at Takeshita Street) over the rim of a coffee mug, after being overwhelmed by the crowds of Shibuya and the rapacity of Shinjuku.
Once a small post town, Harajuku’s international vibe originated after WWII, when the first apartment called Washington Heights was constructed for the American military, followed by the Omotesando Hills in the 1950s. It was this influx of foreign cultures, tastes and styles that influenced the local youths, who put their own spin on fashion design, using bright and clashing colours that are distinctive to Harajuku. After the military moved out, the area attracted fashion designers and photographers that continued to build on their own brands, which got a further boost during the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. Since then, the fashion styles became cutting edge, avant garde and eclectic, and Harajuku hasn’t looked back since.
This district has several key areas: the main thoroughfare of Omotesando is Tokyo’s answer to Beverly Hills, awash with trendy shopping malls and expensive international brands, revving supercars and posh crowds. The hilly region behind known as Omotesando Hills is famous for their chic cafes, artisanal craft and boutique shops, and it is a great place for a peaceful stroll. Nearby Takeshita Street takes it up a couple of notches by being colourful and quirky in a Charlie-and-the-Chocolate-Factory kind of way. Further south-east is Aoyama, filled with rows of independent and luxury boutiques that feels more exclusive than Omotesando’s main drag. Finally, for the main event and showpiece, the majestic yet serene Meiji Jingu is located just a stone’s throw from Harajuku station.
On weekends, shoppers and young adults pour out from Harajuku Station’s newly refurbished south entrance, with its glass facade, onto Omotesando, a broad, tree-lined avenue lined with trendy shopping centres and boutiques carrying luxury brands such as Prada, Louis Vuitton and Breitling. Take time to saunter down this posh boulevard. Rich snobs will enjoy flaunting their wealth here, but mere mortals will find equal pleasure in drooling at that expensive dress or watch in the shop window.
Some of the more iconic shopping malls along Omotesando include the shimmery entrance portal of the Tokyu Plaza Omotesando. Opened in 2012 and designed by architect Hiroshi Nakamura, this seven floor development is located at the intersection of a major junction and features flagship shops. These are accessible through an escalator ride through a mirrored tunnel known as the “kaleidoscope”, prominently visible at the junction’s entrance. Located directly opposite is the aged Laforet Harajuku, better known for youth and women’s fashion.
Further along, the Omotesando Hills shopping mall and mixed development opened in 2005 with 130 plus shops and residential apartments. Built on a slope with its back towards Omotesando Hills, it features a striking cantilevered entrance and a ramp-styled interior layout so that you can walk all the way to the top without having to climb a stair.
The mall is also a handy place to cut through to reach Omotesando Hills, a hilly and classy area of mixed development with houses along quiet residential streets that transform into boutiques, hairdressers, cafes and craft shops. It is a good place to get away from crowds that pack the main street, and ideal for a spot of cafe hunting to rest those achy feet.
Just a few houses uphill is the Higuma Doughnuts and Coffee (11am – 6pm, closed Wednesday), a cafe with large glass-plated windows fronting the street and a cosy interior wrapped around a sunken, centralised seating area. It is mash of two brands – Coffee Wright and Higuma Doughnuts. Coffee Wright sells hand-dripped coffee and other variants (¥400 – ¥700), while Higuma doughnuts source their ingredients from Hokkaido and come in a variety of flavours. We didn’t get a chance to try it out as it was extremely crowded, but well, till next time!
Nearby is the Mikan Club (daily 12 – 6pm), a wooden two storey building that pretty much blends discreetly into the neighbourhood. It houses a mixture of cafes on the first floor, and an art gallery and spacious toilets on the second, accessible by a rickety wooden staircase at the front.
There are five different stalls selling all manner of food and desserts, from pasta and curry rice, to matcha parfait and dango. If the place is full, benches are provided in the small but beautiful courtyard outside, and waitresses hand over menus for customers to peruse and select their preferred stall.
We selected the Mikan Club (the cafe’s namesake) and luckily, were immediately seated. The interior was cosy and finished in wood – it was doing a brisk business with many customers – and had large tables in the middle for guests who want to try food from different stalls.
We sampled their special flavoured drinks (pomelo soda and udon tea) and a creamed anmitsu with agar, strawberry, ice cream and shiratama, neatly arranged and served in a gorgeous ceramic bowl.
We also ordered their speciality, the angel’s tear drop set: a transparent warabi mochi jelly resembling a water droplet, paired with a sweet molasses sauce and grated peanut. Beautifully presented in a cloud-shaped plate, it looked almost too ethereal to eat. When mixed well with the peanut and molasses, the concoction results in an excellent texture and flavour (¥1,300).
Back outside, Omotesando Hills provides a wonderful opportunity for a leisure stroll around the neighbourhood, whether window shopping at the various artisanal handicraft shops, watching the various customers getting their hair shampooed through the big glass windows of hairdressers, or simply taking a peek through the gates of many modern residential houses.
The hills becomes particularly fetching during dusk, when the streets empty of people and cars, and a peacefulness and warm glow surrounds the area. Just down the road is the windy Cat Street, which is not as its name suggests, is awash with stray cats, but associated with those aspiring to model the catwalk. This street feels more alive and accessible with fashion boutiques, bars, restaurants and ice cream parlours.
Moving further away from Harajuku is the luxurious yet laid back neighbourhood of Aoyama, with many high-end fashion and boutique outlets such as Prada and Issey Miyake that boast hypermodern storefronts full of glass. Fortunately, some of them have taken over existing buildings with beautiful facades that help retain the old neighbourhood charm. While Omotesando feels like a bustling High Street with its loud sights and sounds, this area has an exclusive and classy suburban feel, with a wonderful mix of facades lining the street. Move aside Omotesando; Aoyama positively brims with quiet confidence.
Just when you think it can’t get any better, right at the end of the street is the beautifully designed Nezu Museum. Started by businessman Nezu Kaichiro, it houses a diverse collection of pre-modern Japanese and East-Asian art. First opened on this site in 1941, it was destroyed by a large fire during WWII. Luckily, it managed to stage a revival as most of its art was safely stored in another location.
The Nezu’s more than 7,000 works include seven National Treasures, 91 Important Cultural Properties, and 95 Important Art Objects. Amongst its collection includes calligraphy, sculptures, metalworks, wood and bamboo, and textiles. Even if you don’t enjoy the collection, the building itself is a work of art. Designed by renowned Japanese architect Kuma Kengo (named Time magazine’s most influential architect in 2021), it attempts, according to the website, to “create a sense of harmony between the building, its collection of artistic masterpieces, and the garden, a delicate, and characteristically Japanese, serenity”.
If serenity is putting you to sleep, for a large dose of colour and liveliness, head in the opposite direction, past Omotesando Hills, to Takeshita Street, thronging with the usual assortment of young people and curious tourists. This is the birth place of Tokyo’s iconic fashion, and the place to go for the latest trends.
Besides the more famous “kawaii” culture that this street is internationally known for, it also has boutiques specialising in all kinds of fashion styles, from common themes such as punk and cosplay, to those that you may not have heard of, such as Gyaru (childlike and girly caricature), Ganguro (accessories and make-up associated with artificially tanned girls) and visual Kei (garish costumes and flamboyant hair).
On any typical weekend, it’s not uncommon to see congregations of young boys and girls (and perhaps the occasional man undergoing a mid-life crisis) wearing cute and colourful clothing, accompanied by bright neon wigs with lots of ribbons and bows. However nowadays tourists, in their comparatively boring outfits, seem to outnumber these iconic fashion trendsetters by a factor of 10 to 1.
Stand at the start of either end of Takeshita Street and pose just before a gateway, usually festooned in balloons and other objects in rainbow colours, announcing the name of the street. Congratulations, you’ve died and entered Sugar Rush heaven.
Throughout a stretch of 400m you’ll find some unusual, over-the-top costume shops as mentioned earlier, colourful candy stores (including one that sells rainbow cotton floss as large as your head) and, increasingly, stores selling all kinds of tacky yet bland souvenirs for tourists. In keeping with the spirit of this infamous street, the advertisements and announcements, in all manner of bright colours, cutesy music and childlike tones, literally shout out at you.
If a saunter along this street doesn’t relive some of your childhood fantasies or give you a visual sugar rush, there are some other gems as well. Midway along, its hard not to salivate at a large window displaying more than 100 crepe toppings. This is Marion Crepes Takeshita-dori, Japan’s longest running crepe stand, which started life as a food truck in 1976 and moved to the current premises the year after that. The plastic models of crepe toppings, known as Shokuhin Sampuru, showcasing every flavour and ingredient imaginable, and its crepes, which are soft and flavourful, are made on the spot. Taking a bite out of a hot and delicious strawberry and chocolate crepe whilst ambling down Takeshita street may just be the definitive Harajuku experience for you.
Behind the store’s snaking queues, and up a flight of steps, is the Togo Shrine, dedicated to a Navy Admiral. This smallish shrine and courtyard has some interesting pictures and illustrations of ships and Navy personnel in the small alters lining the outer building.
Naturally, all the exploring has gotten you hungry. Fortunately, just a short walk away along Meji-dori avenue, is a branch of Gyukatsu Motomura (11am – 10pm, no reservations), tucked in the basement of an office building with queues snaking out to the sidewalk. This tiny 15 seater outlet sells breaded wagyu beef set meals (with 1 – 3 side dishes), cooked on a sizzling hot stone served with Japanese barley rice, shredded vegetables, pickles, miso soup and dipping sauces (¥1,300 for the basic set).
Although there isn’t much variety in the menu, what they do, they do it extremely well. You can even decide the doneness of your meat. For a well-done consistency, simply let the beef slice sizzle for a longer time on the hot plate in front of you. Because the slices of beef are thin, and due to the cut and marbling, a medium-well doneness rarely requires more than 10 seconds on the grill, and boy is it brimming with flavour with a melt-in-your-mouth texture.
After a hearty meal, a good place to walk off those calories is just across the busy traffic crossing from Omotesando boulevard and within Yoyogi Park. This is the serene and beautiful Meji Jingu, possibly the most famous Shinto shrine in all of Japan, and also one of the most visited.
Meiji Jingu is a dedication to the souls of the former Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken, who is officially known as the imperial consort. Both their tombs are in Kyoto. After both of them passed away in the 1910s, the people of Tokyo decided to build this shrine to commemorate their virtues and to venerate them forever, and thus they are now revered as deities. Money poured in to construct the shrine and re-plant over 100,000 trees from all over Japan to create this manmade forest that currently surrounds the shrine. During WWII, most of the shrine complex was burnt down, but thankfully the forest survived. Through further donations, the shrine was revived to its original grandeur in 1958.
The entrance is just south of Harajuku Station, where a massive torii gate stands, symbolising the transition from the mortal world into a sacred and spiritual space. A gravel walking path shaded with trees brings you past the Shinkyo, the sacred bridge, erected over a small but picturesque stream, before heading to the Meiji Jingu Museum, designed by architect Kuma Kengo (didn’t we hear about him earlier?). It was opened in 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Meiji Jingu. This two storey museum gives a good description of the history of the shrine and houses some important artefacts used by the Emperor and Empress.
Just after the museum are two interesting sights: on the right is a large display of colourful sake casks wrapped in straw, offered by sake breweries around Japan as a respect to the Emperor and his wife, and also as prayers for the continued prosperity of the merchants and their businesses.
On the left are stacks of wine barrels imported from Burgundy in France as a tribute to the Emperor, who helped open up the country to western culture and technology whilst preserving its traditions and identity, which could be said to have laid the foundations for a modern Japan. As Emperor Meiji was very fond of drinking wine himself, the drink became popular in the Imperial Court and amongst high-ranking government officials. Every December, about 180 bottles of wine from 60 wineries are offered to the Meiji Shrine during the Memorial Ceremony on July 30, which commemorates the anniversary of the Emperor’s death.
Further in, and past the second torii gate (the largest in Japan at 12m high and 17m wide, constructed from a single 1,500 year old cypress tree found in Taiwan), the main Meiji Jingu complex presents itself. After performing the ritual purification at the temizuya by cleansing one’s hands and mouth with purified spring water, enter through the intricately decorated Main Gate, or Minami Shinmon, which is the most important out of three gates that open onto the courtyard.
Facing you is the Honden, or Main Shrine, the most sacred building in the complex. First constructed in 1920 and rebuilt in 1958, the shrine is built in the traditional nagare zukuri style that is popular throughout Japan. Its inner sanctum is where the tablets of the Emperor and Empress are enshrined, and it is forbidden for the public to enter. The building also contains the Shinto prayer recital hall and an inner and outer shrine hall; the latter is at the front where visitors go to offer their prayers and in turn wish for good luck and happiness.
In the courtyard are two camphor trees (the picture below is a little misleading as both trees are to the left of the shrine, and not on each side as depicted), said to represent the Emperor and his wife, who were very much in love throughout their lives. These “husband and wife” trees are joined by a rope known as a shimenawa, signifying their sacred connection, and is also used in Shinto religion to indicate sacredness and to ward off evil spirits. Because of this, many young Japanese visit the trees, hoping to find their life partner and possibly to ward off clingy, toxic people.
For those wanting something more tangible, Meiji Jingu also offers a special amulet (omamori) known as the sowa mamori, which is said to bring luck to one’s love life. Sold at the amulet office nearby, it is infused with the aroma of the “husband and wife” camphor trees and it is a neat little gift for those who pester you every Valentine’s Day.
Visiting Meiji Jingu also offers one an opportunity to cross paths a traditional Japanese wedding. There are many ceremonies held in the shrine itself and couples often take wedding photos around the courtyard and the gardens when the flowers are in bloom (we counted three separate wedding photoshoots). On our visit there, we were lucky enough to witness the a traditional wedding procession exiting from the Kaguraden, or the Hall of Shinto music and dance, where probably the blessings and reception was held. Led by a Shinto priest, the bride and groom’s entourage walked solemnly around the courtyard, past eager tourists snapping pictures as well as local well wishers. The bride was looking elegant in a white kimono, sheltered under a red umbrella, and it was probably one of the most beautiful and dignified processions I had ever encountered.
A hidden gem within Meiji Jingu is its Inner Garden, or Gyoen, accessible by a small entrance opposite the Meiji Jingu Museum, on the path near the front entrance. The Gyoen (daily, 9am – 4pm, ¥500) is the only part that had existed before the construction of the Meiji Jingu and therefore visited by both Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The gardens were designed by the Emperor himself for the Empress, and it includes a small pond and fishing spot said to give her fresh energy.
It has some breathtakingly beautiful trails dotted with pavilions constructed in straw and wood that allow you a chance to sit and appreciate the scenery, especially during the autumn when trees lining the banks are in various shades of red, yellow and gold. At the end of the trail, signposted and a short five minutes walk away, is Kiyomasa’s Well, a symbolic spiritual spot named after a famous Samurai warrior. There’s nothing much to see except for a small hole in the ground, but it is known to have brought positive energy to people who regularly visit here.
Despite the entrance fee, the Inner Garden is worth a visit because it is probably the only part that is truly associated with the Emperor and his wife, since the main shrine was erected eight years after the passing of the Emperor. It is not so much as a sacred place of worship, but simply as a gift from a husband to his wife, where the beauty of nature is exceeded only by his love for her.
It is perhaps apt to leave you here, gazing at the tranquil beauty and enjoying the peacefulness of it all, with a traditional Waka poetry comprising of 31 syllables, composed by the Empress Shoken, on her thoughts of the world and her country, and equally perhaps, on how the Meiji Jingu embodies the spirit and character of both Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken:
Traveling from afar
foreign people visit us,
And day after day
Our reign is becoming
One of growing friendships.
