Japan 2019: Meiji Shrine & Yayoi Kusama Museum
DAY 7
Aaaaaaannnnd we are BACK in Tokyo! Thinking back on my experience in Kyoto, I would love to just spend a couple of days exploring Kyoto slowly and with no set itinerary. It’s so beautiful and relaxing in Kyoto… but since this was my mom’s first time visiting, you know, we had to do the most popular things - just for the experience.
The main thing on our schedule for to day was the Yoyoi Kusama Museum. The location seemed to be in the middle of a residential area - there’s no major attraction or even train station near the area - so we just decided to add on something easy to do. So off to Meiji Shrine we go
MEIJI SHRINE
It’s so interesting how you can have something so quiet and peaceful (once you actually reach the shrine) right in the middle of Harajuku - especially Takeshita Street (which is a popular and well known street lined with shops).
The entrance to Meiji Shrine is right behind Harajuku station. When I tried going back in 2018, Google Maps wasn’t clear in directing me to the entrance… When I exited the station, I turned left and continued walking for a bit and never saw an entrance. It wasn’t until I reached a dead end and residential buildings I thought, I’m probably not getting in from this way… so I had to turn all the way around. So, a note for all you reading, once you exit the station towards Takeshita Street, turn right and shortly after, you’ll see a small bridge to your right, walk over it and you’ll see the entrance (the huge gate in the photo above)!
Pretty close to the entrance, you’ll see this really cool art display of sake barrels. No, they aren’t holding any actual sake in these barrels.
It would have been great to get a picture straight from the middle but I’ve read and heard that you really shouldn’t be walking right in the middle of the path - you should be walking on the sides - the middle is a path for the deities (correct me if I’m wrong). So I stayed away from the middle unless I needed to walk straight across to the opposite side.
At the second entrance of Meiji Shrine, there is a place where you can cleanse yourself. Where you wash your hands and rinse out your mouth. I would watch how others do it, I don’t quite remember how to cleanse [I think it might be rinse right hand, left hand, pour some water in your left hand and use it to rinse your mouth, and then hold the scoop upright so the remaining water can rinse the handle]. Somethings to note, don’t drink from the scoop, don’t drink the water, and when you spit out the water, don’t spit it where people are scooping the water from… (I’ve seen way too many people with no common sense).
Unfortunately, it rained a bit earlier so it was cloudy and the ground was a bit wet, so the photo wasn’t the best (check out the photo I took last year!). Nonetheless, the area was so peaceful. You can head straight up to the shrine and pray if you wish (throw in your 5 yen coin for that extra bit of luck (it’s on how you pronounce the coins in Japanese which give them certain meanings) I probably wouldn’t pray with a 1 yen coin, I don’t think there’s a rule against it but it seems cheap, no?).
You’ll also be able to purchase charms or a votive tablet when the stalls open. You can write your wishes on the votive tablet, hang it up and the shrine will pray for your wish to come true (or you can take it home if you wanted it for a souvenir).
MISTER DONUT
[Preamble: Honestly, I can’t remember when I did certain things, this happened back in October of 2019 and I am writing this blog post as of December 22, 2020 lol]
If you haven’t tried Mister Donut yet, you HAVE to. Their mochi donuts or well… I think they’re more correctly called pon de ring donuts, are the best thing ever. I crave them ALL the time. There is no place in Toronto that I can get them (at least I don’t think so) but I doubt it’ll taste anything alike anyway. But, these have the best bite and chew to them that normal donuts don’t give. Regular donuts are this soft bite, insulin heightening mess (jokes, I like regular donuts too) but these ones?! O M G I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THEM.
The strawberry and the glazed are CLASSICS. The sweet potato one was a special they were having and this donut wasn’t a pon de ring… the sweet potato was much more cakey than springy and bouncy. Anyway, please try this donut out if you get the chance and please remember to come back and tell me how much you loved it so I can reminisce about it (lol).
CAT CAFE
Our experience at the shiba cafe in Kyoto wasn’t the best and we still had some time to spare… and since we were in Harajuku and near different cafes, we decided to stop by a cat cafe. We came at the best timing because we were the only ones there, so we got to see and play with all the cats by ourselves. There is a set price for entrance and the first 30 minutes I believe (you must be out and have given your key back right on time or else you’ll be charged for the next 30 minute window as well).
There were cats everywhere and there are a bunch of toys around you can use to play with them. Obviously common sense, don’t be grabbing cats if they don’t want to be grabbed… There is a play the cats have that are off limits to people visiting, just in case the cats didn’t want to deal with humans. It was cute seeing so many cats (there was literally 20 of them running around) none of them really fought, they would play fight though. I’m pretty sure one of them pooped, so I ran away from that area lol.
We also came at the perfect time because it was feeding time! I think the cats already knew - the intuition - but we saw one of the workers coming in with a stack of bowls and the cats were all gathering, it was the cutest thing ever.
10/10 if you’re a cat person, 8/10 if you enjoy animals in general and probably wouldn’t recommend if you don’t like cats.
Actually… before we went to the cat café, we stopped by McDonalds for a snack - I bought a cookies & cream pie and a regular apple pie. I don’t know if I have any photos of them… I have to check. Also, just before we went to the museum, we also had lunch at a shabu shabu place (Nabezo Shinjuku).
Sorry for the crusty photo of the choco pie. We all already know (if you don’t, well now you do) Japan being the most populated city in the world… there isn’t much space. The McDonald’s in the Takeshita area has their seating in the lower floor (essentially basement) and it’s a bit dingy down there and there was a lot of small flies… the pie was maybe 5/10, it was ok. The apple pie tastes like it does in Canada.
Unfortunately, I don’t have too many photos of the shabu shabu place we went to. It was an all you can eat - the veggies is buffet style and you ask the server for the meat! It was nice to eat something cleaner (not as heavy) and the option for lots of veggies. The server was really nice - I think she saw us struggling with the whole “how to” of this shabu shabu place and she tried her best to explain to us (not quite same as Chinese hotpot, so…) I think it was about $25 CAD for the all you can eat lunch, I can’t quite remember.
YAYOI KUSAMA MUSEUM
As I said earlier, the museum was pretty out of the way - the nearest train station was about a 20 minute walk. Plus, there isn’t really anything to see near by - just a bunch of residential buildings.
I’m not sure if the museum is still open but you’ll need to reserve tickets in advance (tickets were around $15-20 CAD, I can’t remember). They were specifically showcasing the Spirits of Aggregation exhibit when we went. The museum was 5 floors high with her drawings and sculptures around - there were some floors where taking photos was prohibited (it’ll say on the walls… everywhere). The building is pretty small and you have to climb a spiraling staircase that lined the perimeter of the building to get to the next floor.
This exhibit was pretty cool, using mirrors on the top and bottom of a ladder, Kusama made it look like it was never ending. The floor it was on also rotated, which made it a little trippy.
No photos of the paintings/drawings because those were obviously prohibited from taking photos but the sculptures/3d art works were my favourite part of the museum anyway. The last photo is actually from the entrance of the museum. At the end, you take an elevator down to the first floor - which was also covered with her famous dotted design. I ended up getting a postcard set and book featuring some of her artwork.
I would say overall because of the travel and my experience here, it wasn’t really worth it. I think it was nice to see one time, sure, but I wouldn’t go again nor would I recommend going to see this (sorry - I just don’t think this particular exhibit was my cup of tea - maybe infinite mirrors).
After walking 20 minutes to the nearest train station… we decided to go to Omotesando and just explore the shops. You’ll find a lot of high end store in this area like Chanel, Gucci, etc but you’ll also find standalone stores for brands we don’t find much of here in Canada like Comme des Garcon, Stone Island, Off-White (which is now open at Yorkville I believe).
We walked all the way to the Shibuya area and for dinner we ate at Genki Sushi - which I don’t have photos of sorry. Genki sushi is a pretty popular chain though - of conveyer belt sushi. I feel its more of, order through an iPad and your order will come on the belt. The sushi is relatively good for the price - Genki sushi is definitely affordable. Then, we just spend some time exploring Shibuya again and picking up somethings.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post, might be a bit out there since I took a hiatus between my last post (but you can’t tell because I schedule these posts (lol)). There are still a few more days of Japan, so I hope you stay tuned! Thanks so much and until next time!
-Thomas