Waking up feeling blessed and grateful. It was my birthday and I couldn't feel thankful enough. It was a special day for me that I could celebrate my birthday here in Japan.

Today, we were going to explore around Shibuya, Harajuku, and Omotesando. These three areas can be explored within walking distance. To start the day, we had breakfast in Gyukatsu Motomura, a popular katsu restaurant. People have talked about how the good the beef katsu is and surely I didn't want to miss it while I was here.

It is said the queue is crazy and you could wait for 2 hours. I  arrived at around 11.30pm. The queue wasn't that long but we were ready if we had to wait. A few minutes after we joined the queue, a woman staff said we could get a seat after an hour. We were okay then she gave us the menu and took our order immediately. We ordered the set meal that consists of 130gr beef cutlet, rice, miso soup, cabbage, potato salad, pickles, and two kinds of sauce and rock salt with no yam.

Thankfully, before an hour passed, we were called to come inside. The place is so small and the seat capacity is only for 9 people. We sat and waited for the food to be served. I just couldn't wait to taste it. When they served it, my eyes went wide. The staff explained something to us in Japanese which we didn't understand so we just nodded our head and smiled. Before I came here, I had read the post from Anak Jajan which is really helpful so I knew how to eat this.

First, I took a slice and dipped it with the soy sauce. Then I put the on the stone grill provided in front of me for 5 to 10 seconds on each side. I ate it along with the rice. Oh, my, goodness. People are not exaggerating. This is the first food that made me wanted to cry from the first bite. Truly a definition of a delicious food. When I tried the second slice with the horse radish sauce, I feel like I wanted to jump because it taste so good! You just have to try it by yourselves. I ate so slowly and enjoyed every bite until the stone grill was off before I finished the cutlets. Oh no! I quickly put the rest of the cutlet altogether onto the grill and finished them all. I wish I had ordered the 260gr size directly to really make the most of it. When we left the restaurant, we saw the queue was much longer than we came. Thank God.




After happily having the best meal I've had in my life, we walked around Shibuya. One of must-do list is taking photos with the famous Hachiko statue. I was surprised that nobody was taking pictures here. I thought there would be many people crowding around taking turns. Instead, people were just standing and sitting around. Well, it's good then.

Hachiko statue

Shibuya is a lively area with youthful vibe. I could see people were really enjoying their Sunday.

Shibuya crossing

Dolci Silkcream

We moved to Harajuku by walking. We passed this quite and friendly neighbourhood with apartments, sport field, and schools nearby. After about 20 minutes walking, we arrived in Harajuku. We sat for a while to rest. I saw some trucks promoting popular singers' new album passing by while playing the songs loudly. They were not only Japan artists, but also Korea and even the US.

Here we come to Takeshita Street, a shopping street filled with shops (d'oh, of course!) and eating places. I don't know because it was Sunday or it has always been like this, but the street was crowded indeed. Although it is a pedestrian street, there was 'traffic jam'. Even so, I enjoyed being in this area since there is much to see and try. Yes, we there were just too many interesting food here. Colours are popping from the shops.

Trying this cotton candy from Totti Candy Factory just because we saw many people holding this.

Custard Caramel Cheese Cake from Marion Crepes. Very tasty yet so light.

Churros, Poterico Salad, and Sweet Chocolate Potato Chips from Calbee

Moving from fun and trendy area in Harajuku, Omotesando is more high-end. People here also look more stylish and fashionable. I was going to try the famous Frozen Marshmallow from Dominique Ansel Bakery, but when we got there, the queue was long. Since we just tried many food before this, we skipped it and walked around.



We spent the rest of the night back in Ginza. We needed to buy Tokyo Banana for our relatives but looking for them wasn't as easy as we thought. We went to Laox Duty Free Shop and only found the original flavour. We were disappointed but still ended up buying it.

Before we closed the day, we ate in Yoshinoya again for dinner. Second time eating here, I wanted to try something else so I had this pork bowl with soft-boiled egg. It was yummy!


At the end of the day, I feel very happy for having such a great birthday. Thank you, God :)