Ern in Tokyo: A Walk to Harajuku and Back / アパートから原宿往復の散歩

Last October I had a reason for wanting to walk from our house in Wakabayashi to Harajuku. At the La Foret building, there was a KISS exhibition. I thought that would be a fun thing to check out as I had been a long time KISS fan and KISS was the first concert I went to. Walking from our apartment to Harajuku would take us about 45 minutes to an hour but we enjoying walking on the weekends.

去年の１０月、まだ東京に住んでたころ、うちにある若林から原宿まで散歩に出かけました。距離は結構ありますが、歩けば４５分が一時間に原宿に着く。今日はちゃんとした目的があって、原宿に行こうとしたんです。ラフォーレ原宿にあるラフォーレミュージアムでロックバンドのキッスの博覧会がある。キッス好きな僕は行くしかないと思った。自分の初ライブもキッスだったし、面白そうと思った。

I also like checking out public art pieces whenever we go walking.

散歩中にいろんな銅像や彫刻も興味もあり、つい写真を撮ってしまう。

Here we are at La Foret in Harajuku.

ラフォレー原宿に到着。

I was pretty excited about checking out the KISS Expo...until I saw the entrance fee. 2000yen (about 20-25 USD). That would mean almost 40 to 50 USD for me and my wife. I had thought the entrance fee would be a lot less than that. I was willing to spend no more than 1000yen. 2000yen just seemed like a rip-off to me. I'm sure we have Gene Simmons to thank for that - greedy bastard! Not wanting to contribute any more to his wealth, I told my wife we could skip the exhibition.

結構ワクワクしてたが。キッス博覧会。楽しみだ。っと思ったが入場金を見て、２０００円？その半分くらいならわかるけど、２０００円の価値あるかな。迷わず見るの諦めた。ジーン・シモンズの貪欲には貢献したくない。妻に別に見なくって良いわと言って、私たちはそのまま散歩を続けた。

Hey, but I like cool cars and in front of La Foret, this BMW was displayed.

カッコイイ車も好きなので、ラフォレーの入口の前にこのBMWが展示されてた。

Since we are in Harajuku, we decided to walk along Takeshita Street, one of the most popular tourist spots in Tokyo.

せっかく原宿にいるから、竹下通りにも散歩しました。

My image of Harajuku are the crepe shops.

原宿と言えばやっぱりクレープの店のイメージがあるな。

Harajuku Graffiti / 原宿落書き

The main entrance to Takeshita Street.

竹下通りのメインの入口。

Can you believe the city of Tokyo wants to tear down Harajuku station and replace it with a more modern structure (and a larger one too) as Harajuku on the weekends gets quite crowded. It would be a shame to lose this structure though in my opinion. We also had lunch here in Harajuku at one of the most popular ramen shops in Tokyo, but I had already written about it.

東京都が原宿駅の再開発も検討してるので、原宿駅を壊して、もっと大きくするかどうか。こんな可愛い駅を壊すのは残念と思う。僕はこのまま原宿駅が残って欲しいな。味がある駅だ。でも最近の利用客の人数が半端ないので、もしかして、このビルはなくなる。原宿の人気ラーメン店で昼食を食べましたが、そのネタは書き済でした。

And for once, there wasn't an extremely long line in front of Garrett's popcorn shop so we decided to buy some to see what all the fuss was about.

原宿にあるギャレットポップコーンの店、今日行列がないため、買っちゃいました。

Yeah, they were good, but I don't understand why anyone would stand in line for two hours to buy them.

美味しいは美味しいけど、２時間の行列に並ぶほどではないと思うな。

A mobile vegetable stand!

移動式八百屋だ！

This looks like a nice house or so I thought but my wife recognized it as a high end restaurant called [Chez Matsuo] which is owned and run by Kozo Matsuo. Oh my, I wish I knew about his place when I could still afford to indulge in high end eateries (not that I really had the money to do so), but at least once would have been enough.

この家が素敵だなと思ったら妻が家ではなく高級料理店の分かってた。店の名前は「シェ松尾」。松尾幸造の店です。渋谷の近くにこういうレストランもあったんだな。渋谷と言っても高級住宅街の松濤にある。昔からあったみたい。もっと前に知ってたら一回は行って見たかったな。でも夜は一万円から二万五千円くらいみたい。

Should we eat lunch here? The course is just a little less than a hundred dollars!

ここでランチ食べようか？ランチコースは一万円くらいみたいよ！

And a short visit to Nabeshima Shoto Park.

鍋島松濤公園をちょっと覗いてみた。

A little history about Nabeshima Shoto Park. This area was originally owned by the Tokugawa family. They then sold it to the Nabeshima family who turned the area into a tea garden and called it Shoto Garden. The tea garden closed in 1932 and the land was given to the city of Tokyo. Control of the park was then handed to Shibuya Ward in 1950 and is still Shibuya Ward's responsibility.