Monday, June 20, 2011

竹下通り Takeshita Doori ♥

A little walk-through shopping guide to the stores on Takeshita Doori (竹下通り). Obviously these aren't all the stores along the street, but mainly the ones that I like, the ones that cater to gyaru and the more general everyone-can-find-something-they-like ones

When you go out of Harajuku 原宿 station at the Takeshita Doori 竹下通り exit, you'll see this arch. The decor changes every now and then, but the street is the same. This is how it looks like on a lazy day, no crowds. One of the first things you'll see on the left is stairs going down to a Family Mart. People like to take shelter there when it rains ^^

This is my condensed map of Takeshita Doori, listed on it are the stores I like (: It's not all the stores, just the more general ones and ones catering to gyaru. Not exactly drawn to scale, but the I guarantee that the locations are quite accurate!

Brief description of the stores, starting from the right side of Takeshita Doori:
Family Mart: Convenience store
I love looking at all the drinks and desserts they have in convenience stores! Family Mart sells delicious mini choux puffs that come in packs of 10pcs for 150yen!

Lotteria, McDonalds: Fast food

Paris Kids: 315yen accessories store.
Lots of pretty hair accessories, necklaces, phone straps, earrings etc, all for 315yen.

Daiso: 105yen store
6 storeys I believe? Lots of different goods, all for 105yen.

大戸屋 (Ootoya): Japanese restaurant

Fancy Pocket (2F): Cheap hair accessories/school bag deco, by Sunhoseki
Conomi (1F): School uniform style clothes

SBY Happy Room: Gyaru store
Sells gyaru cosmetics, lashes, accessories, small goods, bags.

Main store is in Shibuya 109, which is amazing! This Harajuku store just sells goods, but the store in 109 has a little cafe where you'll often see highschool gyarus hanging around, and it also has a dolling-up station where they have curling irons/straigteners, makeup and big mirrors on the walls, you can sit there and use them all to doll yourself up. For free! The staff are really friendly too

Claire's: Accessories

Angels Heart Crepes: Crepes


Marion Crepes: Crepes
(This is right beside the public toilets though!)

7-11: Convenience store

Liz Lisa: LIZ LISA!
Also has Tralala and the Chambre a coucher on the upper levels.
To be honest, I almost missed this cos the store name is in lights but the lights weren't on, and against the white wall background they were hardly visible. I only noticed it after seeing the red floor mat!

Aimer Feel: Lingerie

Left side of Takeshita Doori:
Yoshinoya: Beef bowls, really delish!

Mighty Soxer: Socks

Harada's: Gyaru clothes
Goodday House: Gyaru clothes
Momo: Gyaru clothes

Tutuanna: Hosiery, legwear.
Upper floor is lingerie.

Luceo: Gyaru clothes

ManiaQ: Fairy-kei clothes

MatsuKiyo: Drugstore
There's no Donki at Harajuku, so if you must get cosmetics you can try MatsuKiyo. They have shower stuff, sheet masks, loads of drugstore cosmetics like Majomajo, Kate, Integrate etc. They have lashes too! Luminous Change, Astrea V., Tsuji-chan, Dolly Wink, older Diamond Lash. However if you want gyaru/model-produced cosmetics go to SBY Happy Room!

Cafe Crepes: Crepes

ANAP: Clothes
Thank You Mart: 390yen store
Toko Kirakira: 500yen store

SoLaDo: A building.
Houses Pink Latte, Claire's, Wego (used clothing) and others.

Pink Latte: Pink, girly accessories, clothes and candy.

Lotteria: Fastfood

At the end of Takeshita Doori, turn right to Meiji Doori 明治通り:
Forever 21: American clothing store chain
The shopping bags are NEON PINK!
They also have the regular yellow ones, but the NEON PINK ones are so cool!

H&M: Swedish clothing store chain
Don't let that 799yen sign fool you. H&M is comparatively more expensive in Japan? It's more expensive than Forever21. Perhaps my comparison basis isn't fair because when I spammed H&M it was in Marseille and Barcelona during summer sales^^

ABC Mart: shoes
After ABC mart, around Laforet, right where there starts to be railings on the sidewalk, lots of magazine photographers/editors/staff or whatnot like to hang around? In the two times on two different days (a Thursday and a Saturday) that I walked by that exact same spot I was approached thrice. Exact same spot. And you can't really differentiate staff from regular peopl cos they're just...around and blend in? :/

Laforet: department store.
Houses many brands including Kitson and Swimmer, a cute small goods store.

At the intersection after Laforet, turn left for Omotesando, where all the luxury goods stores are, or turn right to go back to Harajuku station or to visit Meiji Jingu shrine. This is towards Harajuku Station.

Sembikiya, nice desserts!

Harajuku Station.
I really like this station, it's so pretty!

I love Takeshita Doori. It does however cater to a younger crowd, but everyone can love the stuff they sell there!

13 comments:

  1. I wanna go to Tokyo tooooo~~~ So envy :((((
    but thanks to make this post, I enjoying looking at your pictures ^O^

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  2. @ cominica-ai ♥

    I wanna go again! I kinda forced myself to take pictures for keepsakes, it was hard cos I was busy carrying things and shopping. Taking out the camera every now and then was a chore^^ I should've taken more pics ><

    ♥ Karisa

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  3. Shhh I wanna go back to japan! :( are the yoshinoya beef bowls the same as the ones in Singapore? Haha so are you in any magazine's street snaps? :D

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  4. @nellislica ♥

    Nooo they're worlds apart! The ones in Japan are juicier, yummier and heavenly! I never believed my Jap sensei when she said the SG ones were like trash (her words, not mine!), till I tried the Tokyo one and there is a difference haha. I used to part-time at Yoshinoya in SG before, they don't ever change the beef stock/soup. Strain soup at night, keep in fridge to use the next day, repeat. Kind of grossed me out for a while :/

    Hahaha I told them I was a tourist so nope. The ones who approached me were asking if I was interested in being regular streetsnap or 読者 models. Keyword regular^^

    ♥Karisa

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  5. OMG! That almost totally kicked me out of my yoshinoya craving! The keyword is the 'almost' :X

    Haha oh man, i thought we would get to see singapore's own karisa in a japanese gear magazine :P what were you wearing that day? Was it very gyaru or they just wanted your pics? Besides aren't street snaps supposed to of people walking by the street? I would think that there are at least some truly random street walkers in all the street snaps, they can't all be models ya? More importantly, how much do they pay for being a street snap model?

    Btw where do you go to learn Japanese? I've been learning it off and on for years but I never really had the motivation to memorize all the vocab and tenses, although I do now! :D do you take JLPT?

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  6. @ nellislica ♥

    Totally un-gyaru haha. Both days I was wearing monochrome. Two were if I wanted to be 読者models, one was a streetsnap model. After they've said their intro piece I'd just say I'm a tourist and continue off shopping...cos don't think they're from magazines I read anw! One (the streetsnap one) was a men's mag :/

    Nahh I read before that some streetsnaps are of the same person who they snap every now and then. But others really are random folk that they just stop and snap. No idea about the pay, not much I'd think. The randoms don't get paid, and the so-called regulars only appear every now and then so they can't be paid much.

    I learnt Jap for 6 years at the Ministry of Education Language Center (MOELC), during sec school and JC^^ After graduating I kinda stopped learning/using cos I was busy doing other languages in uni! I took JLPT2 in 2006. Gonna take N1 on July 3rd, so I need to begin intensive cramming^^ I'm kind of rusty :P Tenses for Japanese really aren't that bad...compared to French and Spanish!

    ♥ Karisa

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  7. This is really helpful! I will shop ard Takeshita Doori with yr guide this dec! I am just curious, are you also a singaporean?

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  8. @ Pearlin ♥

    The surrounding streets have lots of shops too, and there are lots of shops I didn't mention either (: Have fun shopping!

    Yepp I am, been living here for ~11years.

    ♥ Karisa

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  9. Wow so usefull, going to japan next year and this will help a lot!!!

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  10. LOve... i wish i could visit a Japan...
    shopping many kawaii stuff there

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  11. @Malice ♥
    Enjoy your trip! How long will you be going for? Hope it can be helpful (:

    @ .::: Princess MOMOY :::. ♥
    Haha I know right! I loved shopping there cos everything's so kawaii! Even the most random things are cute (:

    ♥ Karisa

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  12. Awwh I love the strawberry cheescake crepe X3 I bought it at least 4 times then I were in Tokyo for 10 days last spring. Can't get anything like that here in Sweden :'<

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  13. @Moa ♥
    I love crepes! ♥ There used to be Tokyo Girl crepes where I live, but they closed down after a few months :( Seems like other folk around here don't like them, can't fathom why though, crepes are delicious!!

    ♥ Karisa

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