After a really good nights sleep (which was needed after a long travel day) we got up, had breakfast at the hotel (which was included) and took the train to Shibuya Crossing. It was a grey day and it was drizzling – but we had been told to expect a lot of rain in July! It was also very hot – in the mid 30’s!

Shibuya Crossing

We loved Shibuya Crossing – very bustling and the buildings were all covered with tv screens playing constant adverts. As it was wet rather than walk around outside we decided to visit some of the shops. We found our first Don Quijote – and it was a mega store! Don Quijote is a discount store which we had seen on tik tok and it was full of sweets, beauty products, stationary – everything you could image. It also has a very catchy song which is played constantly throughout the store! Even Tom who hates shopping enjoyed mooching around the shop and we bought lots of facemasks, mobile phone stickers and pens.

^{Shopping in Don Quijote}

^{We also found an anime shop.}

For lunch we wanted to eat ‘hot pot’ and I had already googled restaurants to visit.. We had selected Mo-Mo Paradise which was on the top floor of a shopping center. It was quite hard to find as it seemed to have its own escalator but so worth it when we did. We opted for the buffet so they bought us a selection of raw meats and we could help ourselves to noodles, vegetables and dipping sauces etc. The staff were lovely and explained to us how to cook with a hotpot – the meat should be cooked for about 5-10 seconds whilst some of the noodles and vegetables will take a few minutes. We also had ice cream for pudding. It was a lovely meal and not overly expensive,

^{Hot pot for lunch}

Meiji Shrine

By this point the rain had started to ease so we headed over to Meiji Jingu which is a huge shrine in the center of Tokyo surrounded by forest. It was lovely to get away from the traffic etc and have a walk through the trees.

^{Meiji Jingu}

^{Exploring Meiji Jingu}

We then headed over to Takeshita Street which is full of shops and food stands. However, we were starting to get very tired and as we had night time tickets for Shibuya Sky we decided to head back to the hotel and chill out for a few hours.

Shibuya Sky

When it came to heading out for the evening, Tom decided he was tired and wanted to relax at the hotel so we left him behind. Stu, Izzy and I returned to Shibuya Crossing and wandered around the shops as we waited for our timed ticket entry. Shibuya Sky was really good – it gave amazing views across all of Tokyo.

^{Night views of Tokyo from Shibuya Sky}

We then went back to the crossing to take some pictures of it all lit up before returning back to the hotel.