SHIBUYA

We stayed in Shibuya, which is pretty much the shopping district, and stayed near Shibuya station. 

Pictured is Shibuya crossing, which is the busiest intersection in the world. It may look intimidating, but it's easy to cross. People weave in and out around you pretty swiftly. It is preferred that you not walk while looking at your phone in Shibuya so there are rarely any collisions. Also pictured is 109 Men's, a large multi-level clothing store for men, but I didn't really find anything interesting there. For some reason, they have a lot of American influence merchandise so I don't think there's a point in going there. I heard the women's one is larger and trendier though.

Next to Shibuya crossing, there's a stage nearby where something interesting might be happening. There's also Maricar in Tokyo where you can dress up as Mariokart characters and drive a go-kart around Tokyo. Make sure to get your international license in the States first though. 

Sometimes you can see interesting fashion at the crossing. 

Biker store and Bape Store.  Merchandise from Bape and Bershka. One of the few stores that have more Japanese inspired clothing. If you want some great gifts/houseware that are more Japanese related, then go to Shibuya Loft. (Not Pictured) If your credit card doesn't have a transaction fee for international purchases, then use it for buying merchandise. Save your yen for food since most restaurants prefer cash. Robots, movies, and Howard the Duck (What's the fascination with Howard the Duck here?) at random electronics stores and Tower Records. 

Awesome dining experience with mega friendly chefs at Han No Daidokoro eating Kobe Beef.

Late night sushi bar with cheap, but great sushi. I even tried raw horse for the first time. (Bottom left of the sushi picture)

A casual eatery in Shibuya. Decent.  There were a few places with skewers between the gambling area near Shibuya station that were pretty good.

Ichiran ramen was really flavorful. You pay at a machine first, sit down at one of the booths, choose how rich you want your broth to be, and how firm you want the noodles.. It's simple and not too customizable, but still delicious. If you want to sit next to your friend, the dividers are actually removable so you can talk to each other easier.

At a friend's bar called Narf.  Random Justin Bieber.  Shibuya Crossing at night. 

SHINJUKU We went to the Robot Restaurant where it has a photo op out front. 

Make sure you don't sit in the back row, because if you sit directly in front of the screens. It gets uncomfortably hot. The rows are extra small too so hopefully you're skinny.

The show is fun, random, and interesting enough to experience at least once.  This is Golden Gai alley. The bars are very small and some maybe even fit only 5 people so don't expect to go drinking here if you're in a large group. Shinjuku also has a lot of hostess bars which I heard were fun. Stay away from the Nigerians on the street that try to hustle you into going to strip clubs and pay a ton of money. Capcom Cafe. I would skip this place. The themed food didn't look that great and also didn't taste so great.  Lackluster food. Tokyo has a lot of crane games and toy machines.  Sword Art Online. 

Tons of picture booths.

Shirohige's Cream Puff Factory

Original Mizayaki drawings.

In the downstairs area, there are Totoro creampuffs and cookies. If you want to eat at the normal dining area (Pasta and such), you must make a reservation. 

On the way back to the rail-station, we came across this delicious ramen place.

Sunshine City Convention Center 

Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo  A lot of pokemon merchandise exclusive to Japan.  The mall had a Studo Ghibli store with tons of awesome merchandise.  The mall also has a ton of stores with more current fashion, but they are mostly geared towards women. There were very very few stores for men.

J-World Tokyo is also in this mall. It's like a mini-anime inspired theme park. 

Dragon Ball Z Bumper cars where you run into those rectangles on the wall and tag them for points. 

Nimbus and Raditz's armor. 

The One Piece area.  You can play Chopper's game and do a scavenger hunt.

The Naruto area.

There's an option to choose a character to lead you through the Naruto adventure game and then take a picture with them afterwards. It was pretty fun even though I don't really know Japanese and what they were saying with me. Sakura still tried to speak what little English she could to me. 

More crane games and arcades in Ikebukuro. These crane games had giant food items. My friends were on a journey to find DDR in Tokyo and they finally found it here.

Akihabara also known as Electric Town

Arcades everywhere. The arcades and stores usually close around 9 though, even on the weekend so don't expect everything here to open late.

More crane games. If you're tired of spending all your money on crane games, you can actually go down the street away from the rail-station and buy the same figurines for much cheaper than you can find in the states.

Some of the stores had fun things you can buy as gifts. 

Lots of stores with anime figurines/toys that you can pretty much spend all your day going through. 

Make sure you get some delicious Kobe beef on a stick on the side of the street in Electric town for about $12! 

An Owl cafe in electric town. Yes, you can pet some of them. 

Food at the Maidreaming maid cafe was cute, but I don't think the maid cafe was worth it though. There are no other pictures indoors because they don't allow it. You can pay for them to do a singing performing, but you have to wait for a looong boring while for them to sing. Check the maidreaming website to see which girls are working at whichever location.