Today was kind of a busy day. I think it's a mix of normal events just happening on weekends but also heading into the fall so fall festivals and things are beginning to happen. I had bookmarked a few festivals I had wanted to attend in the Tokyo area while I was visiting and today marked the start of a couple of them.
Since one was in the Shibuya area and there were a few other limited-time events going on in the area, I decided to make my way over there for the day. My first stop was a popup shop by an artist I follow on Twitter, Hoshimiya Toto. They are multitalented and seem to have a widespread interest in creative activies so they do singing, illustration, etc. They were holding a 2-day popup shop event for yesterday and today so I decided to go check it out.
I had seen on Twitter that some things were sold out already so I was a bit worried everything would be sold out by the time I got there. Lukcily, it wasn't and they still had the acrylic keychain I had wanted. It is a miniature acrylic CD case and inside has a mini acrylic CD that you can even pop out! It's really cool because it has NFC so if you touch your phone to the the mini CD, it automatically opens up so that you can play or download the music!! Even cooler, they signed it!
It was cool to interact with the artist in their popup shop, although there were some communication issues because I don't practice enoguh and get confused even for phrases that I actually know the meaning of lol Their English was definitely better than my Japanese!
After leaving the popup, I visited a couple other stores in the area that I had on my list to visit. The area seemed pretty hip and cool, which makes sense since it's basically in or right next to Harajuku. Around this time it started pouring rain, which was pretty unfortunate because for some reason I had taken the umbrella that I keep in my bag out of my bag. Why?? I was considering waiting it out but ended up popping into 7/11 to buy another one. Actually I saw a few people do the same. I wonder what percentage of umbrella sales happen when it's already raining? That's something people don't generally buy ahead of time right?
While I was in the area, I stopped by Togo Shrine. Unfortunately I was under the impressions that you couldn't take pictures inside but they had Sanrio Character goshuin. I actually didn't even notice until after I had purchased the regular kind and was a little embarrassed to get another one then and there so maybe I'll have to go back to get one later
I then made my way to Miyashita Park for the ABEMA Anime Festival. As far as I can tell, ABEMA is an online streaming service so this was bascially a way to promote the service as well as upcoming anime. Around the rooftop of the park, there were various standee exhibits to take photos of and some of them had special custom voice recordings for the event by the voice actors.
Also girls were basically only taking photos with Bakugo wtf
There was also a stage area and small area with vendors and food. When you went in they gave a small bag of like promotional flyers and some gummy snacks. I think some of the vendors were giving out free plushies if you signed up for a credit card or something but I didn't want to stand around trying to read the Japanese while the salesperson looked at me (if that's what it was lol)
Not sure if I'm personally even hyped about Chainsaw Man anymore
I then headed to Hikawa Shrine which was holding a festival today. On the way, I first stopped at Konnoh Hachimangu Shrine. I didn't know at the time because I basically just stopped because I saw it, but they even have an English website and gave me a few pamplets about it in English as well.
According to their website I just missed a festival here the day I arrived in Japan
Once I made it to Hikawa Shrine, I realized I was at the wrong Hikawa Shrine LOL At least I had gotten the time right this time though! I had made my way to Shibuya Hikawa Shrine but actually was meant to go to Akasaka Hikawa Shrine which was a 30 minute train ride or 40 minute walk away. At least it was still in Tokyo and relatively close!
For some reason this is the only photo I got of Shibuya Hikawa Shrine
Since it was still relatively early and I wasn't completely exhausted yet, I made my way to Akasaka. For some reason, there was an mural with an English pun along the way
Once I made it to the Akasaka Hikawa Shrine, I was able to quickly verify that there was indeed an event today. I only took one photo from outside because I didn't want to snap too many photos of people but there were a lot of food stalls and tons of games and knick knacks too.
I was hungry so I ended up getting some really good karaage. I also saw it being made fresh and still bit into it right away. I'm sorry to the roof of my mouth for burning you, please forgive me!
I almost bought some mini castellas too but figured it was probably not a super great idea to eat a whole bag of them by myself.
By this time I was feeling pretty worn out and decided to go home. It was time to stop being outside for the day.
Or that would have been the case if I didn't see this post from McDonaldsJapan (warning: catchy). The song and video are a remix (parody?) of Tententengokujigokugoku (actually 天天天国地獄国) by the same artist, Aiobahn +81. I'd actually been really into this song and a few of his other tracks after discovering them recently. After watching this how could I not try whatever they were selling? This blueberry yogurt McFlurry?
The McFlurry was pretty good but I don't think personally a flavor I would get usually. In addition to the blueberry and yogurt flavors, it also had oreos or something similar.
Oh and it was a collab for My Melody & Kuromi lol It's like a collab within a collab
Originally from the Sanrio website: https://www.sanrio.co.jp/news/goods/mu-mcdonalds-20250917/
Tomorrow, I will see if I can get to the other things I originally had on my list before my legs had decided to get super sore. I think it should only be a one festival I didn't make it to today, but you'll just have to find out on tomorrow's episode!