D4: We {heart} Shibuya

On Friday we went to Shibuya and Harajuku, some of the shopping districts famous for extravagance and super-fashionable teens.

We wandered through major avenues as well as smaller, hilly, crooked streets packed with tiny shops and trendy boutiques, love hotels, cafes and pet grooming stores (seriously, hair salons and pet-grooming stores seem to on every single block of every neighborhood.)

We also spent some time in some of the major department stores.  In Tokyo, department stores have a much stronger role in culture than they do in, say, New Jersey.  They often have galleries, for instance, and apparently it is a pretty big deal for an artist to have a show at a department store gallery.  It would appear that we wandered into an artistic installation at Parco, one of the famous department stores, because all of a sudden, Don and I were in a room up to our waists in heart shaped mylar balloons…

Don, looking bewildered by the balloon exhibit into which I dragged him

Don in balloons

Hmmm, I don't do this quite as well as the women on the wall...

Drowning in balloons!

Yes, I insisted we take an adorable-couple-shot while covered in heart balloons.