If you talk and walk with me, I could go miles and not have any idea where I’m heading or where we’ve been so use this loosely as a guide and plot your own route on a map. We had a plan for a day in Tokyo and it consisted of these 4 places:
1) Meiji Jingu Shrine (Something historical)
2) Little Nap Coffee Shop (Something for the hubby)
3) Kiddyland Toy Store (Something for the kids)
4) A Robotic Sushi Bar (Something for all of us)
We used a combination of train and walking but I have no idea where we did the train or the walking because I was too busy taking it all in. The boys probably think we walked the whole way, but they will probably also tell you that we made them walk barefeet in the snow for miles to get there too.
The Meiji Jingu shrine ended up being gorgeous even though our visit there was a little rainy. The boys enjoyed running around the trails and we even spotted a wedding in the distance. We had a lovely walk through a beautiful forest area which spilled us out into some neighborhood near train tracks. (Remember, we had our portable wifi, so we could always google or bing our way back if we got lost.)
I’ve found a correlation between good coffee shops and cute stores and this was definitely true as we walked towards Little Nap Coffee. We found the cutest little kids’ clothing shop called Chichikaka clothing hidden in what looked like an apartment. Apparently these clothes are also sold in Seattle but I can’t find them (so if you know please tell me!) and I love how they are adorable and feel soft. We bought a giraffe shirt, and I really wish I picked up a dinosaur sweatshirt I saw too.
When we arrived at the coffee shop it was just as magical as it looked in the picture from Time Magazine blog that I saw pinned. I even recognized the actual barista from the photo.
We grabbed a brownie for the kids but I wish they also had room for ice cream and ice cream sandwiches too because they sounded amazing. My iced coffee was delicious.
Once we ate, we could walk some more. The boys loved watching the trains and I loved peering into the shop windows. This seemed like a creative part of town. The stores were all filled with interesting things.
We even found a little park.
And then we found a hidden bakery. I caught a glimpse of cake as we walked by and stopped dead in my tracks. Sure enough it was an adorable, teeny, amazing bakery called Afterhours. We bought some little things but I wish we could have bought some of the cakes.
After all the walking the kids were worn out. We revitalized them with promises of Kiddyland, an amazing toyshop in Harajuku. Of course, they convinced us to walk out with half the store. (This is not the cheapest store in Tokyo for toys. We found many of our purchases at way lower prices at Bic Camera in Shibuya. FYI)
Our final stop of the day was to visit Uobei Sushi in Shibuya. My sister heard about a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi store on a tv show where instead of a traditional conveyor belt, you press a button and your sushi shoots to you on a tray. Of course I wanted to see it and I think Uobei is the place she saw. The kids had fun ordering a bunch of dishes and watching them whizz in front of us. We were close to the kitchen so we got to see everyone else’s sushi fly by too. I think we all could have eaten here numerous times. It’s a little difficult to find-I would suggest using a map app. I read it was in Shibuya station. It’s not. If you need to, ask someone where the Dogenzaka area is when you come out of Shibuya station and it’s on a busy pedestrian street.
At the end of the day we all collapsed exhausted at our hotel and I don’t think we could ever re-create the same day or find all the same places we visited even if we wanted to, but that is the beauty of a lovely trip and I hope we get to wander Tokyo like this again.
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
Robotic sushi?!? So fun! Our little ones would have gone crazy there… but they would have probably loved kiddyland even more 🙂
Japan is very family friendly! There are so many amazing things we saw that the kids talk about and want to revisit. I wish we had a robotic sushi here:)