In the late afternoon, I paid a visit to Harajuku.

Harajuku Station

The wooden dark brown and white Harajuku station looked rather unique to me, very much unlike other subway stations.

Guy selling calligraphy outside Harajuku Station, Tokyo

Outside the station this guy was writing and selling calligraphy.

Cosplayers in Harajuku, Tokyo
Photo by lao-ocean

Harajuku is an area in Shibuya that’s a popular haunt for cosplayers. If you go there on a weekend, you would see Japanese teenagers dressed up in various anime and goth characters. But well, I was there on a weekday so I missed all the action. That wasn’t what I was there for anyway.

Harajuku, Tokyo

The evening before, I was also in Harajuku when I chanced upon a tiny shop selling Care Bear merchandise. But it was late and the shop was already closed! Authentic vintage Care Bear merchandise is just so rare and expensive in Singapore. So this time round I was there again to browse all the stuff to my heart’s content.

I was contemplating whether to get a jumbo-sized Care Bear plush toy. (it was a rare vintage edition that could never be found in Singapore.) but carrying it with all my heavy luggage back to Singapore would be a total bitch. So in the end I got just these tiny little Care Bears instead:

Care Bear keychains


Care bear keychains! Say hello to bedtime bear (in blue) and love-a-lot bear (in pink)!