Day 3 was Sunday and we headed off to Harajuku, although I’m
not that interested in the fashions there anymore I had to go and have a look
around as I know teenage me would be furious if I didn’t at least go and look
there.
It was only one stop on the train, to be honest with you we
could have walked but as we were doing so much walking we decided that the
train was the way to go. We arrived really early and got to walk up and down Takeshita
Street which was directly outside the train station. The shops weren’t quite
open so we had around an hour wait until everything was open. It was nice
though it gave us chance to have a look up and down the street while it was
fairly quiet and we also found the awesome fluffy clock that I had seen in so
many photos online.
Once the shops were open Takeshita Street was buzzing with
people. You could hardly move and the atmosphere there was exciting and alive.
There were crepe stalls everywhere so we stopped to try one and oh my goodness
they were so good. We sat down and were surrounded by a swarm of sparrows that
were so tame Matt was able to feed them from his hand. I found a cool shop selling
some anime products lots of Free!, Haikyuu!! And of course Yuri!!! On Ice
products.
After walking around and looking at all the shops we headed
to find some food and to have a look around Yoyogi Park. It was absolutely
stunning and we walked along up to the shrine. Although they were doing maintenance
on the shrine it was still beautiful and we looked around there.
Because my converse were rubbing so badly the day
before I choose to wear my Toms, but they are NOT walking shoes and the bottoms
of my feet were so sore and hurting so much. There was a little park area that
had a sacred well at the end of it and I think it was about 500Yen to go into
it and we decided to do that mostly so we could find a seat to sit down for a
while.
It was a beautiful area with a pond and gardens inside. We
stopped for a while and enjoyed the view and the rest. Afterwards we followed
the path round to the sacred well and then back through the gardens.
I then stopped to use the toilets and when I came out Matt
was sitting in a small secluded area. I went over and sat with him. We shared a
cuddle and a kiss and the suddenly he asked “I was just wondering if you would
like to marry me” and pulled out a beautiful diamond and blue sapphire ring. I
was so surprised I hadn’t expected it at all and I squealed, teared up and said
“YES of course I want to marry you!”.
I couldn’t believe it and it was so perfect in a beautiful
location on the trip of a life time. I very excitedly put the ring on which was
perfect as well. It was so me and after years of talking about what I would
like he had listened to me and I just loved it.
After I had calmed down we made our way back through the
gardens and it even turned out that he had rang my Dad and asked the night
before we flew. I had to wait a little while to call my Mum and Dad as I think
it was about 7am in the morning in the UK but I called them and showed my Mum, she had no
idea!!
After that I was on cloud 9 and in my own little bubble and
we made our way back towards Harajuku. I was so excited on a real high that we
still hadn’t had lunch so we walked past a Takoyaki stand and as I had seen
them everywhere I said to Matt “lets try them!!”. Turns out they have octopus
in them, but as they day and trip so far had been so perfect I was feeling
super brave so we got some to share….. now insert the the picture of me excitedly
about to try them (look at the happiness on my face before the doooom!).
The first one I ate the octopus fell out so I didn’t eat
that, and then the next one a tentacle flopped out as I bit into it. It was too
much for me with its little suckers and UUUGH it was just no, no absolutely
not. They then went in the bin, but I was proud that at least I was brave
enough to try and try them ha ha!
We settled for 7Eleven and had rice balls and melon bread
instead, and although a little small and bland considering how hungry we were
(although I had lost some of my appetite since the tentacle incident) they were
nice and filled a hole.
After a quick look round the shops once more we decided to
head back, but first Matt talked me into popping into Sketchers. Now I have
never been a girl who had bought shoes based on practicality ever! However my
feet were so sore and we still had 5 days of solid walking ahead of us and I was
in agony. So as it was a day of many firsts I bought myself a pair of memory
foam trainers based on practicality alone. I changed into them as soon as we
were outside and they were like a hug to my feet. They saved me for the rest of
the trip and allowed me to walk all day for the rest of the holiday!
On our way back I did some googling and found a shop called Mandarake
in Shibuya. It was full of Anime and manga related products a lot second hand
so stuff that was no longer available. However what made me want to go was apparently
the HUGE selection of doujinshi they had. I was pretty excited to see it was
just down the road from our Airbnb, it was a dark shop and we had to walk down
several flights of stairs, but when we got inside it was absolutely massive and
doujinshi stacked from floor to ceiling thousands and thousands of them. Matt
said to take my time and I probably took way too long and bought WAY too many doujinshi.
My fujoshi heart was content and eventually we left with many purchases made!
Again I can’t remember where we went to eat that night, I
have a feeling we tried another ramen place which was the same system as the
previous one (you bought a ticket on the machine outside) but this one you took
a seat round a bar so it was more sociable. It wasn’t as nice as the previous
one but we still really enjoyed it! Afterwards we headed home and ate pudding
(we kept buying pudding cups to eat at the Airbnb) and day 3 came to and end!
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