Shibuya Station and center-gai

Shibuya station, never a dull place to visit, has this year opted for a very austere Christmas decoration. Almost no existent if you exclude the decoration on the archs at the entrance of Center gai. 

At the same time, a more natural decoration is provided by the autumn colors, in the trees lining the streets around the station.

A pleasently surprise was the number of people on the streets, minimum by shibuya standards, undoubtedly due to an unexpected morning rain.

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The Iceberg in Harajuku

The Iceberg is an outstanding glass building structure, representative of the modern Japanese architecture, designed to reflect light from all angles.


Designed by Tokyo based British architect Benjamin Warner, completed in 2006, it is listed as one of the seven architectural wonders in Condé Nast Traveler.


The building located in Meiji street, between Harajuku and Shibuya, hidden between other structures, just stand out once you get close by its form and unique design.

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One Love Jamaica Festival

As it is now traditional, every May the “One Love Jamaica Festival” is held at the Yoyogi park. Aiming to promote cultural exchanges between Jamaica and Japan, it is one of the most look forward free events in Tokyo.


The main event is the music concert, dominated mostly by Bob Marley’s music.


Another of the attractions is the food, with several stands offering authentic Jamaican food.


As every year, the event was very busy on the first day with a larger number of visitors expected on Sunday.


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Kyu Asakura House a period house in Dainkayama

A short walk from Dainkayama station and a few meters from a busy intersection on the Kyu Yamate Street, the kyu Asakura house is hard to find as is concealed behind a small shopping center. The house is so difficult to find that even though I lived just two blocks from the house for more than five years I knew of its existence only recently.




The Kyu Asakura house house was built in sarugakucho, Shibuya city in 1919 by Torajiro Asakura, who served as Chairman of the Tokyo prefectural Assembly, and the Assembly of the city of Shibuya, taking advantage of the slopes of South east sarugakucho. the house was designated an important cultural property on 2004.




The house consist on several structures. The main structure at the north, a storage at the west, a garage and the gardens, the main building is a two-story wooden, tile roofing structure magnificently preserved. The first floor was used as a place for daily life for the family and employees, and the second floor as office and for meetings by Mr. Asakura.




The house gardens are a valuable remain of the Japanese house gardens of the period. With three gardens: A front one at the front part of the mansion. An internal with a small pond and a stone lantern, and the main one overlooking the Fuji Mountain and the Meguro River at the south of the premises, following a cliff line in the design of its paths, , with stone lanterns, landscape rocks, and small waterfall characteristics of the period.




Representative of the architecture of the Taisho period, and the beauty of the Japanese house gardens, the house offers an extraordinarily opportunity to appreciate the period lifestyle.


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Shopping and fashion at Dainkayama

Dainkanyamacho or simply Dainkanyama is a district of the Shibuya ward known for its fashion boutiques, restaurants and open cafes.



The area is very similar to the Aoyama district. The back streets are filled with old houses converted to fashion shops, a large number of this designers are graduates from harajuku (ura-hara), a step before the more expensive Aoyama.




The open cafes usually full on weekends, are recently seen a decrease on the number of customers, perhaps due to the number of foreigners that left the country after the eartquake.

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Fashion Streets in Harajuku

Tokyo women in the last 5 years, arguably lost the ‘best dressed in Asia’ title to Shanghai. However, the trendiest and coolest title still belongs to the hipsters in Harajuku, the area around the Harayuku station in Shibuya, Tokyo.





The main strip of Takeshita dori, is visited by a large number of foreigners looking for the latest trend, without the hefty price tag of the Shibuya stores.



To find the ‘next’ trend you will have to venture the back streets (ura-hara) across Meiji Street, where a large number of young designers set up shop, to create a fan base and brand building.



Many famous designers have started in this area, moving later to bigger venues out of Harajuku, or collaborating with bigger fashion houses; ironically brands in most cases will lose its street cred and the following of the trend setters with this move.


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Meiji Shrine New Year visit

Like is traditional for Japanese people to visit a shrine in the first days of the year for Hatsumode or first shrine visit. Like last year, I joined the most of three million people visiting Meiji Shrine for hatsumode.





Like last year, I avoided the first days to try to evade of the crowds, but still I found a large number of visitors, still this crowd is quite small compared with the ones found on the first day.







Unlike previous years, this year the crowd was managed better by the police, as less people were allowed into the main hall at the same time, allowing for a less stressful moment for prayer and offering to the Shrine.




To end the shrine visit, and celebrate that this year only took three hours, the best is to take a walk through Omotesando, which is beautifully illuminated this time of the year.


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