What a way to spend the weekend exploring the core shopping areas of Tokyo! Here are the remaining pictures of the places I covered today. I must say, the monetary damage is far less than what was suffered the day before, although the weather seems to be getting much colder and more dreary without the sunshine. Nonetheless, the planned itinerary had to be completed.
First stop of the day: Ameyoko shopping street which is just a 3-minute walk from the Ueno subway station. A friend recommended Ueno for the famous park and shrines, but I suppose my shopping habit overwhelmed me and once again I was off to finding some good bargains along this very bustling street teemed with all manners of produce (even of the market variety). However, shoes, sporting goods and food items dominate this area, which wasn't my area of interest but based on preliminary perusal of the prices, most items appeared to be pretty affordable.
And this was where majority of my time at Ameyoko was spent, scavenging through heaps of Japanese titbits, chocolates and what-have-yous in this tiny street filled with people stocking up by the truckloads due to the wholesale prices.
Shibuya at night is indeed a fascinating sight with the bright lights and throngs of people crossing the multi-way junction every 5 minutes. It's also a shopping mecca with literally something for everyone. Aside from Harajuku, this is the place to gawk at the very trendy young localites dressed to the nines in the latest fashion and men with very well-plucked eyebrows (I'm morbidly impressed with this very metrosexual habit proliferating the new generation).
Omote-sando is just off Harajuku and is yet another one of those shopping areas for the wealthy or brand conscious. This huge GAP store located at the corner towards the subway station is well-stocked with the current American fashion and seems to be very well-received by the Japanese given the sheer volume of people visiting the store.
Yet another Zara I spotted along the same street and wasted no time browsing the racks and resisting temptation to buy something that would've cost much less back home. Then I realised that there was a much bigger store in Shibuya itself and I was comforted to know that women all round the world have good enough fashion sense for the label to be this popular in terms of store availability. Okay, I'm just trying to justify my spending habits.
So there you go, one weekend put to good u$e and the end result of having too many shopping bags strewn all over the hotel room. This is not about gloating, it is a serious problem that I have to develop a resolution for this New Year. Give me credit please, at least I'm trying.