One full day of walking around Tokyo down, eight more days to go. A full night of sleep felt so refreshing.

I was ready to take on today’s itinerary: wandering Shibuya and Harajuku.

I grabbed breakfast at the hotel restaurant with my mom and her husband. I’ll rave about it always, the Blossom Hibiya’s breakfast was incredible. We started every day with this breakfast buffet. Fried egg, chicken, fresh fruits, salad, anything you could be craving was in that buffet.

*Don Quijote, Shibuya crossing and some Mario Kart racers! (Feb 2025)*

We hopped on the metro to Shibuya and had some time to kill in the area before our tickets to Shibuya Sky, so we used the classic Shibuya Crossing and headed to Don Quijote. My kryptonite. A huge discount store with absolutely anything you could want.

We would go back to Don Quijote locations around the city anytime we passed one on the trip.

Then it was time to head to Shibuya Sky for our ticketed slot. Most people try to book this lookout ticket for sunset, but we wanted to go early in our day. So if you’re trying to book for sunset hour, it’s going to be hard to book.

Even at 11:00 a.m, Shibuya Sky was a popular spot. You have to check any big bags and hats in a locker before going up to the roof, but then it’s an absolutely gorgeous spot with city views.

I don’t know if I’d recommend Shibuya Sky as a lookout in Tokyo, purely based on the people that go there. It was filled with what appeared to be mostly influencers. Or people who were there for the photos.

I love a good photo memory as much as the next person, but there were lineups to take a photo at the best locations on the roof, and so many people were milking the time when it was their turn.

Take a couple photos and move on. But folks would take up to 10 minutes each getting the best Instagram shot. It felt more like a photoshoot location than a lookout.

So we decided to head out and walk up to the Nintendo and Pokémon stores. All three of us are pretty big Nintendo fans, so it was really fun to wander the shop and find some neat and fancy Nintendo merch.

Then I popped across the hall in the shopping centre to peek at the Pokémon store. I have been a huge Pokémon fan since the 90s. Collected the cards. Played the games. Watched the shows and movies. Pokémon isn’t nostalgic for me, I still love it just as much as I did when I was a kid.

Being in the shop with plushies of every single Pokémon made me feel like a kid in a candy store. I ended up buying a Grimer. In Canada, it’s normal to find a lot of my favourites: Mew, Ditto, Snorlax. I wanted to buy a niche Pokémon. Muk is definitely a niche favourite I have, but they didn’t have any Muk, so I settled for his pre-evolution. I was happy.

*Stone grilled tofu and rice (Feb 2025)*

We were all pretty starving by this point, so we found a Chinese restaurant nearby and were stoked to be eating. Honestly, I’m so glad we accidentally stumbled upon Chinkashisai. It was one of my favourite food spots on this trip.

I ordered stone grilled tofu, and it was absolutely incredible. So flavourful and delicious to eat with a spoonful of white rice. I could have gone back for more.

But it was time to leave Shibuya, so we walked off our lunch and headed to Harajuku. Walking through the neighborhood was kind of reminiscent of Toronto’s Kensington Market — very quirky, tons of funky clothing shops, and interesting little cafes.

*Totti Candy Factory rainbow cotton candy (Feb 2025)*

Personally, I had one goal and that was to try the giant Totti Candy Factory rainbow cotton candy. All of the flavours in the cotton candy was unique to its colour, which was part of the fun!

I’m so glad we took a minute to stop and try it.

We’d been walking a lot. So it was time to head back to the hotel for a rest before dinner time.

It was finally time for us to be eating sushi in Japan! I’m allergic to shellfish, so I’m quite careful when eating sushi: no crab, no shrimp, I stick to mostly tuna or salmon and veggie options to be safe. But I still love it.

*Sushi meal and taiyaki dessert (Feb 2025)*

We poked into a small spot in Ginza, TOKYO SUSHI ITAMAE SUSHI, and I was so excited. I got a tuna sushi plate, and everything tasted so fresh. We got to sit at a table where we could watch the chef at work, which was really cool.

On our way back to the hotel, we passed by a Taiyaki shop and Mike picked up some dessert. We didn’t realize we’d end up passing by Taiyaki Kanda Daruma on our way back to the hotel almost every night, and this would be our go-to dessert spot on this trip.

I could not wait to get to sleep, because I was looking forward to the next day the most.