so, tokyo. i'd been a couple times before but the last time was about 20 years ago. aside from that, my knowledge of tokyo began and ended with narita airport, a frequent layover on my way to taiwan. basically, i knew nothing about tokyo except for what everyone was telling me, which was mostly stuff about how amazing and interesting and exciting it was. my impressions: i loved that every train/subway station has a totally clean and very usable bathroom. we all know the value of a clean public toilet. that's an important part of enjoying one's vacation, don't you think? that alone made it a pretty cool place. anyway, onwards. another great thing about toyko was yoyogi village. it's an interesting spot right outside the jr yoyogi station, an entire complex of galleries, restaurants, cafes, and businesses all within a park-like atmosphere. the plant life was really impressive - there were all kinds of plants from different regions, and they were labeled with information and their country of origin. we went on a sleepy, rainy weekday, so it wasn't too crowded, but there were a few people in each cafe hanging out or working on their laptops.
we wandered around a bit, checking out the restaurants and stores and popped into pour-kur, the bakery on the premises.
a travel agency called love, peace, travel sits at the top of the stairs.
all the stores and restaurants are in double-stacked shipping containers that have been painted white, with walkways connecting them on the second floor.
one mile wear by urban research is the only clothing shop in the village (that i could see). it carries "pre-organic" (??) clothing in minimalist styles. like all the other stores we went into on our trip, it was beautifully designed.
the walkway to one mile wear.
a corner of the shop.
code kurkku, the restaurant/event space collaboration between that is the mainstay of yoyogi village. it's described as "kyoto-italian," but we didn't have a chance to try it out since we were stuffed from all the other things we'd already eaten that day. next time.
kurkku cafe is upstairs, an offshoot of code kurkku.
the path leading to code kurkku.
lush greenery on the first level.
the view from the street.
a map of the village can be seen here. it's a nice spot to spend the afternoon! next up...rose bakery.