Sat 28th, Harajuku Madness

Well, where to start with today? Had a really long sleep and feel much better for it. We left the hotel this morning and headed for Harajuku as planned. Took the Tokyo subway which was like trying to get onto the London Underground at rush hour.
When we got to Harajuku we went straight down Takeshita Dori which is the main little shopping street (see pic). It's really narrow and just full of people, little shops and (rather randomly) crepe stands. It was insane and was like nothing we could have expected although Mr Magees description from yesterday comes close.
Next we headed up the road to a rather insane posh shopping centre. It was basically a spiral with shops on one side so you just kept walking anti-clockwise and ended up at the top!
By now it was lunch time and we both needed a sit down so we managed to order some snadwiches from a coffee shop using the pointing at the picture on the menu technique (something we're getting rather proficient at!) and took them to the park to eat.
Whilst in the park we visited the Meiji Shrine, which has the largest Tori Gate of it's style in the country, standing at about 11 or 12m high. Was like we expected but we had the added bonus of seeing a bride all done up in traditional dress.
After some more people watching and another scrum up Takeshita Dori we headed back to the hotel for a rest before undertaking another Sushi mission.
After Sushi Mr Magee wanted to look in some more camera shops (yawn) and then we went looking for the random rainbow building we can see from the hotel - it's about 8 floors tall and each one is lit in a different colour. Yes very random but we are in the middle of a neon city. On our way there we stumbled across the sleezy area, with all the strip clubs and what appeared to be gigolos working the streets! They all dress in tight black jeans with leather jackets and big hair. Can't say I was tempted although I did have a good laugh.
Found a random frozen delight, really small blob of ice-cream surrounded in a gelatinous paste. Strangely morish. Now sitting watching Japanese TV and drinking lemon beer (Kirin Chi-Hi) which is far too drinkable and dangerously comes as either 6% or 8%
Planning on going to Shibuya tomorrow to do some people watching and visit some mad shop where sex toys sit next to shoes apparently.