Content in Part II of my Tokyo adventures covers Day 2 to Day 7:
- Odaiba including Hello Kitty’s Kawaii Paradise and Palette Town
- Stores including Candy, Opening Ceremony, La Foret Mall, The Virgin Mary, Fafi x Faline, Maison Martin Margiela, Katie, Spank Me Darling and 6%DOKIDOKI
- More general photos from Shibuya and Harajuku, Daikanyama, and Sweets Paradise cake buffet
Day 2: Asakusa and Odaiba
Sweet potato flavoured ice-cream. I’d seen somebody post this on tumblr saying it was their favourite, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I didn’t dislike it, but nor did I really like it either… It was a totally bizarre combination of sweet and savoury and creamy that I could only finish half of before it was too much!
The brand new Tokyo Skytree (東京スカイツリ) visible at the end of the road.
Odaiba
Nyan de Cafe cat cafe
At the front of the driverless monorail.
Palette Town Arcade, Odaiba
There was a ton of awesome stuff at Palette Town, and the enormous arcade was amazing! I played a ton of claw machine games and even a real-life baseball game which I’d seen in a few animes where you hit actual balls being pitched from a machine. Also TONS of gachapon, my favourite! I can never have enough phone charms.
Where’s Sofie?
Day 3: Shibuya and Harajuku
While in Shibuya we checked out Candy (see FAKETOKYO.com), yet another store on my list which was really incredible to visit! It’s definitely smaller than I expected, but nonetheless amazing. I also had a look in Sister upstairs, which stocks a lot of really beautiful vintage and overall more feminine styles of clothing. Opening Ceremony was nearby (which was something like 7 or 8 floors high?!), and it is the second physical store of OC I’ve visited, the first being the one in LA.
Harajuku
This is when I went to La Foret (ラフォーレ原宿) shopping centre for the first time! It stocks a ton of amazing brands, with stores including Joyrich (ジョイリッチ), GR8 Japan, Monomania (モノマニア), Mercibeaucoup (メルシーボークー、), Topshop etc.
Day 4, Daikanyama, Harajuku and Shibuya.
Maison Martin Margiela store.
Katie the Store, Ebisu, Shibuya.
I’d seen photos of Katie products and I knew a fair bit about their staff, in particular Risa (@RISA_DOLL). The style is very sweet, feminine and pastelly, and a lot of their designs feature heart motifs and cherub prints. While it is on the pricier side, many of their products including their jewellery are handmade.
Katie the Store entrance.
Katie clothing is so girly and cute ♥
Some of the super friendly Katie staff!
Takeshita Dori, Harajuku.
Super busy on the weekend of course!
Fafi x Faline
While in Harajuku we ran into the staff from Tokyo Fashion who were lovely to meet. It’s fascinating to see them in action, and sure enough I was able to recognise the spot where they take most of their Harajuku snaps, just outside of Nadia. Below is Juria (@Juria41/Juri41) getting snapped for them.
Design Festa gallery, Harajuku.
The Virgin Mary, Harajuku
Known by its unique Cult Party Kei style, The Virgin Mary was another famous store in Harajuku that I was dying to see! The whole vibe once stepping inside is definitely something that needs to be experienced in-person. The interior is decorated with things like doll parts, antique chandeliers, ribbon, lace and old stuffed toys, and a very eerie kind of electronic music is playing. So amazing. And of course, the well-known sign out the front with hair forming the letters. The staff were lovely to talk to, and we spoke to the owner Ari the most (pictured below with the bob haircut and the bow in her hair). After she found out I was from Australia too like the rest of our gang, she told me she loved koalas 🙂 hehe
Spank Me Darling!, Shibuya.
In the evening we hooked up with Tavuchi again, and before heading to dinner together she took us to Spank Me Darling!, the 2nd Spank! store.
Day 5, Harajuku.
As the trip went on, the days became a little less hectic and super busy days had some more chill days in between. Like this day, I took my time wandering around Harajuku by myself which I loved! Shopping alone can be ideal for me because I’m incredibly slow, I like to be thorough and spend a lot of time thinking about whether I want to purchase something or not. Some of the best and most inspiring times in Tokyo were when I was just exploring on my own and at my own pace.
Sweets Paradise (スイーツパラダイス)
I actually went to a cake buffet!!! This was on my list of things to do in Japan after I saw it on Lucky Star, and I stumbled across it by accident. I think it was something like 1300 Yen for just myself, and that was for about 1 hour and 20 minutes of eating as much cake as I pleased. My favourites were the strawberry shortcake, the sliced eclair cake and the green tea flavoured cake. There was a very small savoury section too that from what I could see was pasta and vegetables. Drinks on offer included various teas, juices and milk.
And some snacks from 7/11. Can I just say – 7/11 in Tokyo is FREAKING AMAZING. It’s one of the things I miss the most about Japan. The selection of food including sandwiches, onigiri (rice balls), salads and ready-made meals (which they heat up for you at the counter) are the bomb. I do suggest for those of you who can’t read any japanese and plan on buying onigiri at 7/11, learn the japanese words for some of the main flavours… I think next time I need to write up a Rice Ball Guide for myself, because whenever I bought them it was basically lucky dip.
Day 7, Shinjuku and Shibuya.
I checked out the LUMINE shopping centres in Shinjuku by myself on this day, and picked up a Green Tea Frapuccino at Starbucks, so good.
6%DOKIDOKI, Harajuku.
Yet another super famous store in Harajuku! I’ve always loved their accessories and how the staff members dress. This store does not allow photography inside, only photos with the staff members, so I got my photo with staff member Vani!
That concludes the epic Part II of my Tokyo activities! Part III (most likely the final part) will be coming soon. and thank you for all your comments and interest on Part I. If you do have any questions at all, go right ahead and ask them, I will reply to your comment below 🙂
✧ If you would like to see outtakes and additional photos from this trip and my other blog posts, be sure to check out and Like my new Facebook page here 🙂 ✧
Australia definitely has green tea frapuccino at Starbucks so you can get your dose here too :)Loving the Tokyo posts so far, makes me miss it a lot ^w^
yesss they do! there's something really special about having one in japan hehe.thank you! i'm glad you enjoy them 🙂
Ohh my goodness, so much visual candy in this post – especially the sweet potato soft serve and The Virginia Mary interior shots! I'm definitely excited to see the finale post of your Tokyo trip, no doubt packed with photo stories~
oh just wonderful! I was in Tokyo around the same time as you, but only for about 2 days at the beginning and end of the trip. I would have loved to check out more places!
Hanging out for your Tokyo Part III post already! These photos are amazing. Sweet potato ice cream.. who would've thought? When I do end up planning my trip (I'm definitely going next year), I will be asking you for some advice.But first of all, what season is the best to go in since I do not like the cold 🙂
Oh how exciting 😀 Personally I'd definitely recommend May for sure which is mostly when I was there, and also April and June. The weather is so lovely, not too hot or cold, just a really comfortable temperature that is easy to dress for and go out and about in 🙂 I Imagine the end of august and september would be really nice too because it's the transition between summer and autumn and would be similar kind of weather!
Great post! It was so good to get to meet you. And I totally forgot you had already been to Palette Town when I showed you that arcade at the top of Don Quixote in Akihabara, haha. Hey, at least you got to see a cafe maid girl with the "best blonde hair dyed job you'd ever seen" haha.
I'm so jealous of your trip to Tokyo! I read the first part yesterday and this one now, and it seems like you had an amazing time! Did you have to speak Japanese a lot, or we're a lot of the people familiar with speaking English? x
thank you for reading my tokyo posts! <3I spoke a bit of Japanese every single day, but literally only about 4 or 5 words and phrases all together. Speaking conversational japanese is not necessary, but a bit of memorised basic japanese is super handy.Everyone I encountered in Tokyo knew basic english! they are very used to english speaking foreigners 🙂
your so lucky what shops did you visit in shibuya
The big ones visited include Candy, Opening Ceremony, F21, Tutuanna, Shibuya 109 (which has lots of shops inside) and a ton of shops with names I don't remember!
Hey, your trip to Japan sounds so fun! I'm going there this month and I really want to shop at The Virgin Mary. I just wanted to know whether it was costly?
That is so awesome, and yesss definitely check out The Virgin Mary it's so amazing :)For me, it was not too costly as flights from Syd to Japan are quite cheap at the moment. Also, I did not stay too close to the city area like Shinjuku for example, I stayed in Koenji so it's a little less expensive for a hotel. Prices of things in Japan are fairly cheap (for an australian like me anyway where everything here is expensive!) and you can get super cheap food. It all depends on where you want to stay and what things you plan to do!
I want to punch myself for not vising all these places when I was there. The shops all look so awesome
I enjoyed the photos esp that Juria snap! I didn't realize that somehow she looks so bare irl!! XDD And wao, I thought Tokyo Fashion staff are americans hihi!! guess I'm wrong XDDD Thank you for sharing the photos, I love the whole series <333
THIS IS SO COOL. I'm so excited to see what you got! :)) I wish I could go to a cake buffet, seems so good :3
Your Tokyo trip really makes me want to teleport to Tokyo right now, all the shops, people, clothes, food etc. look amazing (and adorable)~ It must be an expensive trip though (╯︵╰,)
I'm so happy for you that you got to have such an exciting trip. Going back to Japan is definitely on my Bucket List!
Looks like you've had an amazing time!!
loving this posts so much ♥I'll be travelling to Japan in a couple of months and I already wanted to go to some of these stores, so it's really nice to see your first impressions about them. The one that I want to go the most is BUBBLES btw 🙂
AAAAAAAAH, thank you for posting all these photos Sofie! I've always wanted to go to Tokyo, but wow, now I'm pretty much dying to go. The stores and all the sites and scenery look so amazing. Also, those food shots.. incredible!
I already asked in the last post: do you speak japanese? if yes, how did you learn it?
I am sorry for this late reply to your question! I am yet to go through questions commented on part one 🙂 but I do not speak fluent japanese /at all/. I know some basic words/phrases from watching anime and japanese movies in the past, and i picked up some new words and phrases while i was there. Once again though I do not speak japanese, I could not hold a conversation in the slightest, although I would say I can understand a tiny bit more than I can speak.
i'm super jealousjust saying 😉
Wow! The interior designs for all the stores look so amazing. Sad that all we have in Australia are repetitive chain stores. Btw I love your blog!! ♡♡
You visited some amazing stores.I hadn't heard of most of them and I'd love to visit them next time I'm in Tokyo.
Sophie, your attitude to clothes and adoration of japanese stuff are so touching.I love u, Sophie-chan. Will u come back?( http://wet-panties.tumblr.com/ )
where is that polaroid shop???love your blog by the way!
Merciaswqergh Probably one of the most talked about stores in Paris, Isabel Marant Boots
perfection perfection perfectionhttp://sadgirlsonly.blogspot.com/