What to do on your last day in Tokyo? The options are many, but it’s hard to imagine anything better than spending the afternoon in Harajuku, shopping, people-watching, and snacking.

If you’ve never been to Harajuku, it’s a bit hard to explain. You kind of have to see it to understand (or at least enjoy the experience of totally not understanding). When you think of the weird side of Japan – wild fashion, rebellious youth, trendy shops, goths, cosplayers, and the like – Harajuku is the place you probably envision. The streets are lined with little shops, selling mostly fashion items ranging from the affordable to the super posh. There are young people everywhere, sporting the latest unusual fashions, shopping, and just “being seen.”

If that sounds just like any typical shopping mall anywhere else in the world, you’ll just have to believe me when I say that Harajuku takes it to a whole other level.

Takeshita-dori, a narrow street leading to the train station, is kind of what I think of as the center of Harajuku. It’s positively packed with people – shopping, talking, eating, walking. (But not eating and walking at the same time – a “no-no” in Japan.)

There’s no place quite like it.

The variety of shops is striking. Sometimes it’s best not to ask questions…

These two crepe stands – Angels Heart and Marion Crepes – are located literally feet apart, along Takeshita-dori. They’ve been competitors for a long time, but the competition looked friendly enough. This was our second visit to the street; we’d previously tried Angels Heart and loved it. 

This time we tried both, to see which one is truly the best. Each offers many flavors and combinations.

It’s fun to watch (and smell) the crepes being made. The batter is wiped across a large circular griddle and cooked there for just a few seconds, then filled with fruit, ice cream, or one of many other fillings.  The whole thing is wrapped in a paper and served like an ice cream cone. It’s so good.

In the end, we decided we had a slight preference for Angels Heart (mostly just because they have our favorite flavor: strawberry, whipped cream and ice cream). But, both establishments do a bang-up job and the crepes are very enjoyable, especially on a warm night. You can’t really go wrong.

Our other big plan for the day was lunch at Maisen, a tonkatsu restaurant nearby that we had never tried. I did a little research on this one before we arrived in Japan – it’s supposed to be some of the best fried pork to be found in Tokyo. Maisen is buried in a little street behind the Omotesando Hills shopping mall (which, by the way, is worth a look inside; it’s one of the flashiest malls I have ever seen).

For most of this trip, our iPhone’s GPS (assisted by a very handy pocket wi-fi) had worked flawlessly, leading us from destination from destination… but this time, we were totally lost.  When we arrived where the phone told us to go, there was no sign of Maisen. Luckily, we tried the other side of the street and saw one of the little signs I had read about online, which guide hopeful eaters from the busy main street to the actual store, which is a ways back. 

The trick was finding the first one. I found a little map that might help you here.  Once you spot them, just follow the arrows.

So it’s just a little tonkatsu place – but a very good one. The building is sort of unusual; converted from an old bathhouse, from what I understand. The staff is friendly and the place very comfortable. We sat at the counter and ordered two tonkatsu lunches.

The “rosu” (I believe this is supposed to sound in Japanese like “roast,” which means juicier tenderloin meat) black pork is the signature dish, if you want the very best. It will cost about 2900 yen or roughly $30. They also offer a cheaper version which is just a bit less juicy (more like american pork cutlet) but still miles beyond most we had ever had. Both come with pickles, miso soup and the light shredded cabbage often served with tonkatsu. Several variations of the dark, sweet/sour tonkatsu sauce are offered – a special thicker one seemed to come out when we ordered the black pork.

We got a little sorbet at the end, which was refreshing on a hot day. It was a perfect meal: some of the best tonkatsu we’ve ever had, if not the best, and all of the supporting sides equally as nice. Best tonkatsu in Tokyo? Could well be.

After lunch, we walked around downtown Omotesando and the surrounding areas, shopping at Kiddyland – probably the coolest toy store in the world – and Uniqlo “UT,” a very unusual apparel store. Uniqlo is sort of the GAP of Japan, and the stores have a similar, somewhat boring feel to them – nothing too fancy – except for this one.

The Harajuku Uniqlo seems to be some sort of concept store featuring mostly just t-shirts, and, more noticably, everything in vending-machine-style canisters as opposed to clothing racks and shelves. It’s by far the most unique clothing store we’ve ever shopped! We had fun browsing the store, which turned out to be quite large (4 floors).

Only in Tokyo…