Shibuya
Shibuya 109 is a large young and trendy shopping centre stretching up many floors - it reminded me greatly of malls in China except for prices were far higher and you couldn’t bargain. Still it’s fun to look around, sells many cute things and there’s a café that sells cake. It mostly caters to Gal styles and includes branches of Liz Lisa and Tralala.
If you’re coming on the metro then look for signs - the basement floor opens right up into Shibuya 109.
Christion Café
Christion Café was a bitter disappointment and charged us foreigner prices - I don’t recommend you go there. It is in Shibuya if you want to go though; if you come out of the ground floor of Shibuya 109 and stand at the ‘point’ of it (turn around so you're facing the door to 109 you just came out of). Behind you is the big crossing and to either side of 109 is a road. Take the left hand one and head up a little way. I believe it’s on the other side of the road but it’s well sign posted and hard to miss.
Cat Café
We found a cat café in Shibuya called Hapineko (
http://hapineko.com/) it was clean, the drink very nice (I had a macha latte) and the cats cute and excitable. If you head up the left hand road again (same as Christion) but keep on the same side of the road as 109 and you should eventually come to a pet store (you’ll see a large picture of a dog anyway) by a side road. Walk past it (keep on the same road, not the side street) and you should see a cat café sign in the building on your right. Alternatively, find Christion café, cross the road, walk back to 109 whilst looking up and you should see a sign that way. It was fun but rather expensive (Y1,000) considering you’re just sat in a room with cats for half an hour.
There’s lots of places to eat in Shibuya too and they’re used to foreigners.
Ikebukuro
It’s not really worth it in my opinion to go all the way to Ikebukuro just for Closet Child. It is small and doesn’t have a particularly good selection. Still, there’s a couple of other things here that are worth a look if you fancy it as a half day.
Leave the station and cross the big main road in front of you. Walk slightly to your right and turn left up the big road in front of you.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&client=firefox&q=ikebukuro&ie=UTF8&hq=ikebukuro&hnear=&source=embed&ll=35.730004,139.714145&spn=0.025083,0.038581&z=15 Keep going up until you see a road leading of diagonally to your left (where the KFC is on the map). Look out for café Spazzio (we laughed and then ate cake) and a small Sanrio store to check you’re on the right road.
Go down this road and you’ll see lots of arcade buildings on your left and a Tokio Hands department store on your right. This is where Closet Child used to be. Note the ‘used to’, lol. New Closet child is right near by though - hooray!
A rather stupid way of explaining it but it’ll get you there easy: Look up and see the black windows of closet child in the building next to Tokio Hands. This is the old one - this is gone. Walk towards Tokio Hands and pass it and they’ll be a big ass road in front of you. Turn left. Turn left again and walk down the road parallel to the one you were just on. Look up and to the right - do you see it? Yay! New Closet Child! If you don’t see CC signs look for Disk Wave. It’s in the Disk Wave shop.
Tokio Hands
Kinda like Beals or another run down English department store Tokio Hands is still worth a look in. There are a lot of video games merchandise, cheap stickers, cute home wear etc. We also saw sort of every flavour fruit drops like tekkon yakki flavour which sounded disgusting.
If you’re not yet all catted out from the cat café go to the top floor. Here you can pay Y600 (Y500 each if you’re a couple) to sit in a room and play with cats. No time limit but also no drink so it’s swings and roundabouts really.
Swimmer and Chocoholic
Back in the station is a swimmer shop with a swimmer bakery (Chocoholic I *think* it’s called) Things are really cute and not too expensive (A bunny shaped cake big enough for the two of us was Y500) and you can also get cute gifts like a Swimmer mug filled with biscuits.
Ginza
We only went to Ginza for the Vampire café but it’s a nice huge place with massive designer stores. Go for the culture shock if you’re not used to big cities.
Vampire Café
Vampire Café was very hard to find! Just took me ages to find it on street view in Google ^^;; You can’t actually see it; just a black sign with red writing - I’m only recognising it because I’ve been there.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=vampire%20cafe&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl See the map from the vampire café? Print it out, even if you can’t read it. See the Louis Vitton and its relationship to the Vampire café?
Now Google ‘Louis Vitton Ginza’, it's the one marked ‘B’. Print out that map and mark the Vampire Café according to the VC map.
Edit! Google maps now lists the Vampire cafe!!! Hooray!
When you’re in Tokyo get your hotel to book you a table since it’s bookings only apparently.
Take the tube to Ginza leaving plenty of time to find it. At Ginza look for Dior on the exit map and take that exit. Find the big white Dior building and walk past it down a side alley. This is the street Vampire Café’s on - Yay! Walk until you get to a cross roads, cross and then you’ll be on the right ‘block’. Look out for signs and it’s on your right - Hooray for vampirey fun!
Vampire Café charges a table charge like Christion Café does. It’s drinks are very expensive Y600-Y1,000 alchoholic or non and the portions are tiny. We chose the set menu which was Y5,000 yen each for seven courses. Even though you pay per person you get one plate between you. The courses were: amuse bouche, salad, breaded prawns, pasta, lobster tail, steak and dessert (you can see pictures on facebook)
If you have a flyer you can get money off. We didn’t have one but our waiter was lovely and took Y2,000 off the bill anyway.
Asakusa
Come here when you’re feeling cultural as it’s old style Tokyo and has a temple. We came when there was a festival and it was wonderful - street food, people in kimono etc. Very touristy place.
Disney land
Can’t believe I nearly forgot this! Take the Yurakucho line to Shin-Kiba and then take the JR line one stop to Disney land - YAY!
In general everyone was very friendly and lovely in Tokyo. Take maps in Japanese as well as English as people will stop and try and help you if you stand there and look lost with a map. We had one guy in Shinjuku take us all the way out of his way to help us find Maruione and then an old man took us to closet child. Say arigato gozaimasu and bow if someone helps you!
Lolita is even more strange/frowned upon in Japan than here so people will give you funny looks and it’s rather uncomfortable. It’s much happier in the main shopping districts though and I’ve had countless school children, shop workers and even an old lady say I was cute ^_^
Vending machines are everywhere and drinks cost between Y100-Y200 (normally closest to the Y150 mark) Melon Cream Soda is especially nice! Starbucks etc will charge about Y500 for a frappe or hot drink ^^;;;;; Cake in cafes is normally about Y500 but you often get a glass of water with it if you’re cheap like me!
Rice balls from convenience stores make a good breakfast for around Y100 but meals don’t normally cost more than Y1,000.
I think Kera is around Y500 and the GLB, Ageha and Alice Deco ala Mode Y1,000
If you’re just going shopping you’ll need around Y3,000 a day for food and travel. Obviously if you’re going to themed cafes or Disneyland you’ll need more.