Gakusei Travels

My feet are literally on fire after today ( ；∀；) I’ve never walked so much in my life.

This weekend is leading up to the start of Golden Week, so I have no class Monday April 29th or Friday May 3rd. Golden Week is a national holiday in Japan, and according to one of my Japanese friends, a lot of people have the day off and students have off of school. The holiday is to celebrate 子供の日 or Children’s Day. Since I technically have a long weekend, I decided to explore.

I opted in going by myself this time. It’s not that I didn’t want to go with others, I kind of wanted a self care day. Since I’ve been struggling adapting, I figured I should take a day to myself and go at my own pace. This time, I searched through TikTok to see what are some of the best places to visit in Shibuya so that I had somewhat of a game plan. The top places I wanted to visit were: Shibuya Crossing, Shibuya 109, and the Shibuya Pokémon Center. I just about completed most of my list, with a few exceptions.

To get from the university to Shibuya, I had to change train lines 3 times. I feel like I’m a pro at this by now, but what’s really helpful is that the train lines are separated by color. So I just know to look for the orange line or the green line, etc depending on where I’m going. Once I got to Shinjuku, the line was actually pretty interesting. The Yamanote Line, which runs through Shinjuku and connects to Shibuya, actually just goes in one big circle. The train runs either clockwise or counterclockwise. I thought that was interesting to see on the map.

Upon arrival to Shibuya, I’m met with a hoard of people. It felt like I was at the airport or something with how crowded it was. It made it a little difficult to try to read the signs, because you didn’t want to be standing in anybody’s way. I eventually found my way out after being pushed around a bit.

The first thing I did was cross the famous Shibuya crossing. lol. Pretty basic huh? But Shibuya crossing is well known for being the busiest intersection in Tokyo and it was quite the experience walking through. You really just have to walk fast and know where you’re going, because there’s no stopping to check your phone. You’ll either be in the way of others or run out of time to cross the street. I would honestly hate to drive through there, because it seems so confusing.

I first did some shopping at Shibuya 109, which is a popular department store here. Along the way I saw a pop up shop for the new Blue Lock movie that recently released. I really wanted to check it out, but tickets were sold out for the day, sadly. Shibuya 109 had their own pop up shop collab going on with the K-pop girl group New Jeans, so their music was playing throughout the stores and they had exclusive merchandise for sale. I did splurge a little on myself. I bought a new outfit from one of the stores and just browsed the other floors. I was honestly surprised the things fit, because I bought a pair of overalls in a small, and the employee told me the shirts I got were a one size fits all. A one size fits who??? T^T.

I will say, clothing shopping has pushed me out of my comfort zone. I realize part of the problem is I’m very scared to actually speak Japanese in a casual setting. We never went over in the textbooks how to order at a restaurant or how to try on clothes at a clothing store. So I’m very intimidated to actually speak it when I have to. But the employee was super kind and really patient with me. I also looked up some new phrases that were helpful such as, “試着してもいいですか” or “can I please try this on?” She was honestly hyping me up too much too lol, saying the clothes on me were めちゃくちゃ可愛い and that I was オシャレ. It might’ve been her ploy to get me to buy more things, but I really didn’t want to spend too too much money. If I bought every single thing I had liked, I would, in fact, have no more money.

Next, I wanted to visit the Pokemon Center in Shibuya. I’ve always been a huge Pokemon fan. I’ve played just about all the games, watched the shows, and my brother and I collected cards as a kid, It took me a minute to find it, cause it was inside yet another department store, and I honestly abandoned ship after five minutes lol. It was so packed! I was getting hot. I could barely move. The line was so long and wrapped through the entire store that it didn’t even seem worth walking around anymore. My plan is next time, go around when they open so I can be in and out. I won’t say it was a total fail, because I got to see the cool MewTwo, but next time I will be more prepared.

Afterwards, I got lunch at this ramen shop I found on TikTok. So far, in the three weeks I’ve been in Japan, this is my favorite ramen place. It’s called Oreryu Shio Ramen. I believe there are multiple locations. It’s a small, almost hole in the wall, restaurant, so you almost don’t notice it at first. The waitress spoke English (even though I was prepared to use my trashy Japanese if need be), but I shouldn’t have been surprised since Shibuya is super touristy. I saw more tourists there, actually then in Shinjuku. I ordered the Butter Garlic Cheese Ramen, and it was so good. It came with pork and fried chicken, and it was actually a bit spicy. Now, I’m honestly a spice wimp, so take what I say as spicy with a grain of salt. Either way, it was a 10/10.

I walked around for a bit after lunch, so that I wouldn’t get tired after eating such a filling meal. I ventured to a few more department stores, but nothing really caught my eye until I found the next location on my checklist: The Loft. It’s another pretty famous department store that sells just a little bit of everything from stationary to home goods to computer equipment. I really want to find my parents and brother a nice souvenir from Japan, but I just do not know what to get. I’ve been trying to find something as a mother’s day gift for my mom, but nothing has really stuck out to me. I also wanted to get my brother a belated birthday gift, and nothing just screams “get it!” And I feel like if I send them something home, I should send something to my stepdad even though he doesn’t like getting gifts lol. I think I really want something that is clearly from Japan yet not a tacky T-shirt or cheap mug. I’m going to keep looking, because I’m not sold on anything yet. I know they would be appreciative of anything I got, I’m just really picky lol.

After a few hours Shibuya lowkey started to give me a headache lol. It was around 5 PM, so still a little early to go home in my opinion. I originally planned to do it another day, but decided going to explore Harajuku a bit. It was only one train stop away from Shibuya.

I explored yet another famous location: Takeshita Street. It’s a shopping strip with many shops, restaurants, and cafes. It was also super crowded. I spent a couple hours walking around and ended up buying some skirts that I thought were cute. Again, some of the stores had that “one size fits all” thing going, and I’m like, there’s no way I can fit my left thigh into this skirt…One store had size S, M, and L, and I was luckily able to fit the size L.

I ended my adventure by getting a crepe, cause I was craving something sweet after that savory ramen. It was a Tiramisu crepe with whipped cream and chocolate. Very sweet, but very good. By this point though, I was so exhausted. My feet were throbbing and my back and shoulder ached from lugging around my bags. When I think about it, the only time I sat down the whole day was when I ate lunch. There aren’t many rest areas in Tokyo, so you’re literally either walking or standing, This also really sucked, because the train was packed on my way back to campus. I stood the entire hour long train ride. By the time I made it back to the dorm, my apple watch calculated that I walked 15,807 steps!