Harajuku: Takeshita Street, Omotesando, Meiji Shrine, and How to See All Three Without Wasting the Day

Harajuku is one station and three very different streets. Takeshita Street is the 400-metre teenage lane of crepe stands, thrift and idol shops that made the name famous in the 1990s. Omotesando, the zelkova-lined avenue running downhill from the shrine gate, is the opposite: flagship architecture by Ando, Ito and Herzog and de Meuron, and the calmest expensive street in the city. Between them, Cat Street winds towards Shibuya through cafes and small labels. The cosplay crowds on the Jingu bridge that the guidebooks still describe faded more than a decade ago; what remains is the fashion, and the shrine forest that started it all.

Meiji Jingu, dedicated in 1920 to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, sits in 70 hectares of forest planted from 100,000 donated trees, and it is the reason to arrive early: at 8:00 the gravel avenue under the great torii is quiet, the sake-barrel wall and the inner garden (small fee, irises in June) are empty, and you will often see a Shinto wedding procession on weekend mornings. Entry is free. The station exit is directly beside the first torii. The Tokyo 3-day itinerary places this as the start of the west-side day.

Takeshita opens around 10:00 and by noon on a weekend it is shoulder to shoulder. Go at 10:30 on a weekday, buy the crepe, look at the purikura photo booths and the 100-yen cosmetics, and leave within forty minutes; that is the honest amount of time it rewards. The side lanes (Harajuku street and Urahara behind it) are where the streetwear labels actually are, and they are calm at any hour.

Walk down Omotesando from the Jingu-mae crossing. Tokyu Plaza's mirrored entrance, the Prada building's diamond glass, Omotesando Hills, and Nezu Museum at the bottom of the hill (Aoyama, a bamboo entrance path and a garden that is worth the ticket). Turn into Cat Street a third of the way down and follow it south for twenty minutes and you arrive at Shibuya, which is the natural end of the day: the Shibuya Crossing guide picks up from there.

Eat late lunch on Cat Street or in the backstreets between Omotesando and Aoyama, where the cafes are good and the queues are short. On Sundays, the rockabilly dancers still gather at the Yoyogi park entrance near the shrine in the early afternoon, and the park's flea markets and food events run most weekends; it is the best day for the park and the worst for Takeshita. Harajuku is a half day; pair it with Shibuya after, or the shrine plus Shinjuku before.