Japan 2025, July 23

The breakfast choices were almost the same as yesterday, with tiny bowls for cereal and fruit, and the custard taiyaki were back, but would have been much better if they were warm.

Today's conditions for running were much more bearable than yesterday so I went over 10 kilometres. I ran across a bridge to the other side of the river but came across some weird one way signs taped on the ground. Firstly people were ignoring the signs and going the wrong way, and secondly the arrow directions just changed half way along the path, not at any intersection. I waited for traffic at a bridge crossing and got a lot further north this time, the path is more spacious and less confusing as it goes on.

I had a bit of a later start since I didn't need to be at Shibuya Sky until 11am, getting a single train all the way from Asakusa. Getting out at Shibuya station was just as confusing as I expected, with so many different exits, different levels, and different buildings. Even the station entrances are spread out in many unconnected locations.

I had about 30 minutes remaining still to go before my scheduled time, so I could have tried to find the Square Enix Garden merchandise store but didn't want to risk getting lost. After just having a look around nearby I went up the entrance lift just as they were putting out a sign that the outdoor level was cancelled. I'm guessing it was because of the temperature already, but it's quite disappointing you can't even go outside for a minute.

With the same weather conditions every day these cancellations must be occurring almost every day  in summer until sunset. There is an option to get a full refund, but then you've missed out completely. They should really give a 25-50% discount instead and let you continue on. Since I was there already I just continued on, and they were much better views that Tokyo Skytree is the full 360 degrees. After getting some good views and photos it became more of a shame the outdoor area couldn't have been enjoyed too. It was also amazing to see how much greenery there was close by around Yoyogi Park, maybe four times as much as I expected to see there. I got a Shibuya magnet from the gift shop then headed down and it was almost 12pm already.

I wasn't quite sure where I was but followed the crowd and ended up at the famous Shibuya crossing quickly. The intersection actually wasn't that busy, so my photos weren't very special. This whole Shibuya area is lots of narrow streets, running at weird angles, and not much traffic to worry about. The first thing I saw was Asahi beer advertising everywhere, featuring the four girls from Black Pink including Mook from The White Lotus.

I spent a while just walking around a few streets then ended up in Loft which I remembered having good gifts last time. On one of the floors they had some interesting video game items, most related to Sony. There was a really nice looking bag made to look like a PlayStation One console for about $70. It wasn't big enough for a laptop though, so I didn't think I would have much use for it. Instead I got a PlayStation towel and some other small gifts.

Next I found my way to Parco which again has a whole level dedicated to merchandise, and a new Sega store just opened up. The Sega store was small so they were handing out tickets for designated time when you were allowed to go in. It was about 12:30pm and I got a ticket for 2:30pm, a bit awkward as I'd have preferred sooner or later, not in the middle of the afternoon.

I had a quick look in Nintendo also, which has busy and seemed a bit worse than the Osaka store overall. The Capcom store had nothing again, and the Pokemon store had a crazy queue. I had to decide what do to between now and 2:30pm, and if I was even going to bother coming back just for the Sega store. I settled on walking up towards Yoyogi Park near Harajuku, and the surrounding area, then see how I was going for time and energy.

It actually took longer than expected to get to Yoyogi Park, and then parts of it were closed off anyway, so there was nothing much special to look at. It was getting close to 1:30pm so I planned to speed through a bit of Harajuku then get the train one stop back to Shibuya. I thought I might even have time to go to Meiji Jingu shrine, but definitely didn't, particularly since it's not accessible directly via Yoyogi Park either.

A Nike store was in sight so I went in with no expectations. Instead I found a good purple running shirt and risked getting the large size again, although I hadn't tried on the Asics shirt yet. Next it was down the hill to Takeshita Street which was very crowded as usual. I saw a Capcom capsule store but didn't have time to investigate. Maybe they have something rare Final Fight or Ghosts And Goblins items, but I doubt it. There was some other interesting things along the way like a Micro Pig cafe, but mostly it was tourist stuff. After a very quick walk to the other end of the street was an Asics store, so I got another large running shirt since it was on sale for about half price.

Rushing back to Harajuku station was hard with the crowds, and everyone had their umbrellas out to protect from the sun. I just missed a train but only had to wait four minutes for the next, and still made it back to Shibuya Parco from the station with 10 minutes to spare.

Inside the Sega store was a bit too much Sonic, which was predictable. I would have like to see some other unusual stuff, like Alex Kidd, Ecco The Dolphin, or whatever other brands they have. A lot of stuff was either plush toys or things I couldn't really figure out what they were for, like hard plastic coasters of different sizes. I couldn't buy the largest Sonic as it probably wouldn't fit in my suitcase, so I settled for a medium size one. I also got a small Sega pillow and a small Tails plush toy to go with my one from the short lived Sega World Sydney.

Once that was done I didn't make another attempt at Nintendo or Pokemon and headed back to the station. The Ginza line entrance was a long walk that was separate to the rest of the station entrances, I ended up scanning my IC card in the wrong entry and had to go back out again.

Back at the hotel I tried on all three Asics and Nike shirts and they fit well. Maybe they are marginally longer in length, but the overall fit in similar to my usual US medium. Even though it was a bit of a shorter day and had less specific activities, it still ended up close to 25,000 steps. I had a little more planning to do than usual with a whole day trip to Yokohama on a combination of local Tokyo and local Yokohama trains coming up.

Public transport = 650 yen

Steps = 24,984 with 10.5 kilometres running