Hipsters, cats and street art

Dear friends,

As promised, I will continue with last week's experiences here. Still so much to catch up on, I barely get everything done! :P Hope you enjoy.

I came here for the coffee

On Wednesday, I had some work to finish, but also wanted to use the time when I didn't have classes to explore new places. So I thought: Why not combine the two things and find a nice café in an interesting place to write in? That's why I grabbed my laptop and headed for Shimokitazawa, Tokyo's hipster area which is said to have lots of vintage and second-hand shops, alternative cafés and restaurants. It is often called a more relaxed version of Shibuya.

I was there around 6 in the evening, and it was already (or still?) quite empty in some areas. Shimokita, as its called by locals, is definitely not crowded, plus it offers unique clothing and other weird shops like these:

If you want a caricature of someone (or yourself), you know where to go

I have no idea what this shop was about

Searching for hipster cafés, unfortunately, I found them all either too full, too small or closed. So I ended up in a Segafredo. ;)

Cats, so many cats!

Pompompurin Train at Shibuya station

Thursday after class, I was spontaneously invited by Tharshi to join a cat café visit together with Brianne, Jess and Iwana. We went the Mocha Cat Café in Shibuya, which is home to around 20 cats - several different sorts, from kittens to older animals. They roam the café freely and you can pet them and play with them if they let you, and there are also cats snacks to purchase :)

Dinner time!

At the entrance, you have to take off your shoes and change into slippers, and desinfect your hands. The whole place looks like a nice, cosy flat whose furnishing reminds me of Butlers. You can buy hot and cold drinks from vending machines and the whole fun costs 200 yen for every 10 minutes + 500 yen for all-you-can-drink. Sooo cute!

Doesn't it look comfy?

The tablet shows you the name of the meowing residents

Roppongi Art Night

Saturday was my usual lazy day, but I still wanted to go to make use of it because there were two major festivals taking place. One of them was the Roppongi Art Night, which featured sculptures in different areas of Roppongi, as well as street performances.

Sculpture at the National Art Center

Roppongi Mid-town

On the way to Roppongi Hills

I must say that I expected more of it. Maybe I was just disappointed that I could not watch the big performance in Roppongi Hills, because there were just too many people - no matter how high you got on the tower nearby. I could only hear music and let my imagination fill in the rest. You can see the crowd here:

German teahouse?!

This was between the Ebisu and Meguro stations, where I had to change

On Sunday and Monday, however, a LOT of new cultural and artistic "Wow" moments had been waiting for me, which I will tell you about in the next few days. Prepare yourself for fantastic pictures and have a good week! :)

P.S. for German speakers: Habt ihr schon meine neuen Artikel über Höfliche Anrede in Japan und Sukiyaki entdeckt? :)