It's been a while since I went out with friends. It's so rare for us to meet on a Saturday late afternoon so when I woke up at 1pm, I immediately prepared to go. My plan was to be there early, so I could check out the neighborhood while waiting for my friends.
We'll be meeting at Shimo Kitazawa station, and this neighborhood is known for being hip and laid back. It's like the #1 neighborhood to go if you're doing vintage and retro shopping. I remembered Koenji and Shimo Kitazawa is an upgraded version of it.
I could have taken the train to go to Shimo Kitazawa but today I feel like walking so I took the bus. It didn't directly take me to Shimo Kitazawa station because that bus is bound for a different station so I had to walk around 15 minutes passing a quiet neighborhood of Setagaya-ku. I forgot to mention Shimo Kitazawa is located in Setagaya-ku.
I heard living in Setagaya-ku is nice and safe. The schools I've passed were also huge, and it's really a good location for families. But as I was passing the empty neighborhood streets and looking at the old houses and new apartments, I realized I didn't like to live in this part of Setagaya. One thing that discouraged me was the uphill and downhill streets. After going downhill on one alley, after turning left, it's an uphill battle. Ugh, just no. π
Long after, I reached the sign that I was about to enter the shopping street. There were so many small cafes as I walk, and of course, I wanted to get inside one because I haven't had lunch yet. I might as well grab lunch and stay there til my friends arrive.
That was the initial plan but I enjoyed exploring each alley looking at the different vintage clothes and even foreign ones, I totally forgot about my laid back small cafe experience.
There were many people but they're dispersed in different shops, so walking in the streets was just fine - not shoulder to shoulder with a stranger and definitely not alone.
I was actually thinking maybe I was out of style here as the people I've seen were dressed fashionably. Even the store clerks that were on the streets look so stylish!
Some stores were quite big like this Flamingo store - which I saw on another alley. Maybe an annex or something.
The more I know about this neighborhood, the more I feel I was like transported out of Japan. Aside from the many foreigners here, many stores were influenced by foreign fashion. This district is so different from the Japan you see and know.
Then came the meetup time. 
When Apple came, we continued exploring the neighborhood and decided taco rice for dinner. I didn't know taco rice could be so expensive.
Later, we found ourselves catching up while having kakigori (shaved ice) in front of us - the main reason why we met up. It was huge but it melted easily, but it was a bit good. I had black sesame kakigori, with kinako topping on the side.
Before going home, we tried walking on the other side of the train station, the area we haven't explored yet, and found many restaurants and more vintage shopping on this part of the town.
Don't forget to checkout the #WednesdayWalk initiative by 
Thanks for reading!
See you around! γγγγγΎγγοΌ
With love,
All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.