Takeshi/Kojima wanted to check out some shops and small art galleries in the vicinity of Shibuya/Daikanyama, so we picked a day where the weather wasn’t too hot and set off in the late morning ( it turned out to be quite hot anyway ).

(above) A quaint little outdoor cafe called Sera Girl nestled in the heart of Shibuya, somewhere close to Miyashita Park, I think.

(above) Small billboards, mostly for eateries lined up outside the entrance of Daikanyama station. (below) We had lunch at a basement bakery/restaurant close to the big Tsutaya bookstore. The coffee was awesome.

The 2nd hand bookstore Ruroudou just beside Gakugei-Daigaku station. Japan has a rich reading culture and everyone takes good care of their books, so used copies are always in very good condition, and one can find many “treasures” ( out of print books that are worth much more than they were when published ) in stores like this.

Spotted – copies of Otomo Katsuhiro ( Akira ) early comics, which are very hard to come by these days.

We then stopped by for an afternoon break at Meguro Hiiragi, a well known Taiyaki shop in Meguro. Taiyaki is a fish shaped dessert/sweet hugely popular in Japan, with a crispy outer pancake batter filled with tasty Anko ( sweet red bean paste ).

I really love the no nonsense, minimalist design of the shop and it’s logo (image above); an exceeding austere outline of a fish. This speaks volumes about the confidence the shop have in their products.

(above) A spontaneous and random street fashion snap. Model : Takeshi.

And then its back to Shibuya before we headed back to Sayama by train. A nice day out !