2018 Japan Vacation, Day 8 - More Pokémon, Shibuya, Harajuku

We awoke to find that the typhoon had made landfall overnight south of Tokyo. The brunt of the typhoon was in Hiroshima which had suffered severe flooding just weeks ago.

The evening before, the winds of the typhoon cooled things off. But this morning it had already gotten hot and humid again. We had a sweaty walk to the train station. A couple days earlier, we learned about cooling wipes that clean away sweat while also giving an instant icy-cool refreshing feel. I thought it was great for these sweltering days but Kai was already too crabby from the heat to appreciate it.

My wife had plans to meet friends so this would be a guys-only day. Though we did take the subway together for a few stops until my wife got off at her stop.

We are finally used to the time change but Kai hasn't been getting as much sleep as he gets as home so he was feeling tired on the train and napped against Mom until she got off.

We were on two trains for about an hour before we got to our first destination of the day - yet another Pokémon Center. Kai had researched and found out that there was a new Pokémon Center on the other side of the city that we had never been to before. Called "DX" for deluxe, Kai was looking forward to seeing if there were any different Pokémon here.

He scanned the shelves.

The Pokémon Centers all have the mostly same selection, but this one did have some different special edition Pikachus.

Kai was not interested in collecting different Pikachus. He was looking for different Pokémon and did find a couple that he did not see at the other stores.

We then went to Shibuya to walk around and see the area.

Kai got upset when we came out of the large train station on the wrong side and needed a few minutes to get our bearings. I lost the internet connection on my phone and couldn't access Google maps for a few minutes. It wasn't a big deal but with Kai, little things often turn into big things. He got angry and complained about the heat and the walk, saying he wanted to go home. As we had spent much of the morning going to the other side of town for his Pokémon, it upset me that he couldn't tolerate something that someone other than he wanted to do. When he gets like this, it takes all the fun out of the life (at least for the moment). I know that it is part of his autism that he has high anxiety that can flare up in unfamiliar places especially, but it frustrates me that he expresses it in the most negative and harsh way.

It was lunchtime and we found a sushi restaurant to eat and to cool off, both literally and emotionally.

It was very tasty sushi!

Per usual, Kai only wanted tako (octopus), along with miso soup.

By the time we finished lunch, we were ready to resume our sightseeing. First we went to the famous Shibuya crossing intersection (which is hard to capture in a photograph taken at street level).

Next we took the subway one stop to Harajuku, renown for its bustling shops and fashion scene.

Takeshita Street is at the center of Harajuku's activities and it was packed full of people today.

There are many places on Takeshita to get snacks. We went to Long! Longer!! Longest!!! which sells an assortment of long snacks.

They have long ice cream, churros, fried potatoes, and, as seen in the photo below, cotton candy.

Kai actually got the one item that was not very long, rainbow ice cream.

I got a frozen rainbow which is basically a long popsicle.

After that, we were ready for more walking. We hopped a train to Shinjuku and went to find a particular souvenir for family back home.

By late afternoon, we were ready to head home. We rested a bit and then it was time to head out to dinner, a yakiniku restaurant where we cooked our own beef.

I love the cook-your-own dinner places in Japan as they make the meal so much fun.

Kai loves meat, so he enjoyed it, too.

By the time we walked home from dinner, according to my smartphone, we walked more today than on any day of this vacation so far. No wonder I felt so tired!

Tomorrow, we fly out to Okinawa.