How to Find Harajuku Street without a Lick of Japanese

by Nathalie Mompremier (United States of America)

A leap into the unknown Japan

During my undergraduate career, I had a chance to study abroad in Seoul, South Korea for 3 months. That was one of the most pivotal summers of my life that I remember fondly almost everyday. Not only was I able to visit all of the tourist attractions in Seoul, but I also made close friends with other Korean students who invited me into their homes for a family dinner. My friends brought me to lesser known attractions, such as Little France and the Little Prince cafe, Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral, and Olympic Park. That was my first time trying octopus, Korean bbq, Korean chicken and beer, and Patbingsu (a type of ice cream and fruit dessert). Traveling attracts other people who also love to travel, so my new friends and I promptly made more travel plans together. We decided to spend a weekend in Tokyo, since we were all anime fans and it would be cheaper to fly from Seoul to Tokyo rather than from United States. Now, most of us had working knowledge of Korean and were fluent in English or Chinese, but none of us spoke Japanese. This was in 2014, 6 years ago before all of the fancy travel apps were available to us. We also did not have a Japanese phone plan so we didn't have Google Maps readily available. We still managed to get around by planning our iterninary the night before. I used the hotel computers to print out directions to a Buddhist Temple, Gundam Wing Cafe, Naruto World, and Harajuku street. We already withdrew enough cash to take the subway and we would have our meals at the hotel or nearby. Tokyo had signs only in Japanese, in comparison to Seoul which had some signs in English, Chinese and Japanese. We still managed to navigate our way around Tokyo. We found the Buddhist temple easily and waved some holy smoke on ourselves for good luck (so we were told). Afterward, my friends and I enjoyed ourselves at the Gundam Wing cafe and Naruto World. Naruto World is a mini theme park inside of a mall dedicated to the anime Naruto. Gundam Wing is also an anime, and the cafe served rice and curry, amongst other Japanese dishes, in the shape of the Gundam emblem. It was a dream to relive our childhood over again. Everything went smoothly until it was time to find Harajuku street, which is a street with shops and cafes dedicated to Japanese street fashion. My friends and I triple checked our print outs and asked for directions but still couldn't find it. We were getting exhausted and were ready to give up. There was a McDonald's that we popped into to grab a sandwich and use the bathroom. Firstly, I'd like to say that was the cleanest, most high tech McDonald's that I ever went into. The bathroom had multiple functions such as a seat warmer, bird chirping sounds and a bidet spray. I was impressed and overwhelmed! Once I got over my culture shock, I asked one of the cashiers for directions to Harajuku street best I could. I pointed to our directions printout and she smiled and nodded. Since my group and I didn't speak Japanese at all, the cashier printed out a blank receipt from the register and drew us a little map from the McDonald's to Harajuku street. We thanked her so many times and were so grateful for her help. No other cashier in my hometown would've gone out of their way to draw me a map. I still have the map saved to this day. It turns out, we walked right past Harajuku street a couple of times and didn't even notice because it was narrow and hidden behind a decorated gate. We took lots of pictures and did some souvenir shopping at Harajuku street. By sundown we were back on the subway to our hotel. I cleaned up and got ready for the return flight to Seoul the next day. We didn't have enough time to see everything we wanted, such as Mount Fuji, but I am so grateful for the help we did have exploring the rest of Tokyo.