This famous area has a lot of shopping, an amazing park and other surprises just waiting to be discovered.

The girls are looking for something very specific,

but will they find what they're looking for, or something completely different in the end?

It's always a guess, when you're heading on adventure to Harajuku.

[Life in Japan Theme Song]

Oo, the train is here! Here we go.

Whoa, nice guys.

We're moving, here we go.

[Announcer] The next stop is Yoyogi Koen, C2.

It's a beautiful day, so we're going to Harajuku to meet up with family and friends.

We're ready to have fun, and it doesn't take us long to make our first crazy discovery.

We've heard about a public toilet like no other, but we're about to see it for ourselves.

Oh my - look! You can see.

This is not a bathroom!

Yes it is! Look!

Can you see it?

OK, let's see what happens when Becca goes in.

She locks it.

You have to lock it Becca.

Uh!

Oh!! There we go!

We can't see Becca. Can you see us, Becca?

Wait I want to try!

I want to try, open it up!

Yea yea, OK Joshua, let's try.

I'm going to video you

OK, ready Dude?

OK. Ew, it kind of stinks in here.

Just like a good public bathroom does.

OK Dude- whoa!

How cool is that, huh? Whoa!

Oh, here comes Anna.

You kind of get nervous that someone's looking at you.

I would imagine!

I was like "Wait, can anybody see me?"

Alright.

Who ever though we would do a video on a toilet?

Well, Japan has the coolest toilets in the world. There you go.

Having scratched Japan's Translucent Public Bathroom off of our bucket list,

it was time to go meet up with some friends and family at Yoyogi Park before adventuring on to explore Harajuku.

Only stay on the rocks.

Only stay on the rocks!

What a challenge, Dude!

I'm wearing a 3/4 t-shirt, Life in Japan T-shirt.

They're on our webstore

For Japan only right now,

But go check it out, there's some fun stuff there.

Some nice bags...

Things.

It is a pretty fall day. Not even cold.

Oh Sarah, what do we have there?

You keep it together.

See! It's like a sandwich cookie.

Maple Sandwich Cookie.

How is it? Glorious?

What's up, what's up?!

How's it going?

Look who scooters in!

Nice scooter.

Thanks man. It's my wife's.

Yoyogi Park is a popular place for many subculture groups to meet up,

Izzy! And Evie! And Eliana!

And today our group is meeting up here to enjoy some outdoor games and time together.

Oh good job, Anna!

On the other side of the park sits Harajuku station and shopping area, which we will soon head to.

Are you going to take a little nap, Sarah?

Yea!

Anna, what are you drawing?

A tree.

A tree, yes. Look at that.

I think it's that one over there, isn't it?

Yea.

After some fun at the park, it was time to look for lunch and shopping.

We might eat McDonalds now!

Oh is that right? Is that what you guys want to eat?

Sarah, where are we going now?

Next is Harajuku.

Is it? Whoa.

Next is Harajuku.

Joshua too.

OK girls, what are you hoping to find in Harajuku?

pencil case

Is that so?

Anything else?

Presents? That we want? Birthday? Yeah.

Oh, birthday ideas, huh? Your birthday is almost here.

In a week. Oh, in a week.

How old are you going to be? 13.

13, a teenager!

Oh! Two teenagers in the house.

Oh my goodness.

OK Anna, you need to go like this, ok?

Open it up.

OK, and then hold onto the tree.

What?!! No no no no no!

Becca, don't drop me.

I can't hold on.

I know, it's too big for her to hold on.

Hold on.

Daddy! Becca!!

For real! For real! I can't take it.

What was that like?

It's scary and hard at the same time.

You have to hold on for your life!

Oh my!

And if the person is mean, they won't help you.

Rebecca's nice.

But one time I didn't help her.

Oh no!

Did you guys see that tree?

Doesn't that look like something out of Breath of the Wild?

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild?

What do you think? What?

That tree there.

That? Yea.

OK, who's going to read the plaque for us?

It's 1921.

Whoa, it's almost it's birthday.

1921, yea it's almost 100 years old.

It's 101 years old.

It's a pretty tree.

Look at those trees — the orange.

Oh, look at the colors here today are just awesome.

Smile.

Big smiles.

3, 2, 1...

Now crazy face! Go!

OK heading out of the park and we're going to go into the shopping.

There's Harajuku!

My goodness.

Lots and lots of people today

Look at these views — whoa!

Look, it's a tiny IKEA.

Well I don't know if it's tiny, but it's tinier than the other ones.

And a nice Uniqlo store.

Oh yea, look at that guys.

There's a McDonalds!

Alright, lunch time. Oh boy!

And look over there...

They're having their lunch, oh yes!

OK, lunch is done and now, Anna, what do you hope to find?

pencil case

That's right.

Uh oh. Is this what we really want here?

No.

Oh my, look at that, Sarah!

Holy cow!

Can I buy it?

Would you get it for Sarah?

Oh! Pencil case.

Very cool.

Wow.

If you didn't know, this comes and it can like open up the whole thing.

Yeah?

Like that.

Cool.

Of the pencil cases the girls saw, they didn't see any that were cute enough for their standards.

We would move on.

Oh here we go. It's packed in here!

Oh my goodness!

It must be a popular place.

Even though it was the girls day out shopping, it was Joshua who soon found something he wanted.

Oh my. Joshua and Sarah found there Pokemons.

He's too cute!

Becca, any luck yet? Did you find any cool ones?

No.

How about you, Anna?

No. Not yet?

Joshua, what did you find?

EV

EV Pokemon? Yep.

Whoa, is that what you want to get? Yep.

There's a Pokemon card of EV...

You have a Pokemon card of him?

No, Sarah.

Sarah does?

Yea, and Asher.

Oh cool.

After scouting out a number of other places, the girls hadn't found just what they wanted yet.

How ironic is it that the girls went shopping but only Joshua found something to buy?

OK, let's go over here.

There was a lot of people out there today, huh?

But Joshua got a little buddy.

Oh look at that— look at all the seats for us right there. Isn't that perfect?

Even though the girls didn't find exactly what they wanted, everyone was thrilled to sit down for a bit.

Anyone who has spent the day in the city knows the joy of finding an open seat on a train after a long day on their feet!

It was on this train ride home that we decided a plan B for finding a pencil case the girls liked.

OK Sarah, can you be our narrator here?

Ok.

Yea Anna, can you say the [announcement sound]?

Please be careful not to touch

Thank you. Goodbye.

Here's our train.

I don't think we'll have to squeeze in this time.

This morning we sure did, didn't we Sarah?

Yea.

Oh, here we go. We made it.

EV! Oh, did you get EV out?

Parkour

Oh yea, alright.

Whoa- oh!

Whoa Anna, look at that, it looks so good!

How about this little place here?

This is nice.

Whoa. I think you maybe have a new favorite spot here?

Yea.

Wow, what a spot.

I like what you're drawing. That's what you started at the park, huh?

Yep.

Cool.

There you go. Want me to cut this off too?

Well, I'll wait.

Becca's going to town!

No!

As night fell, we geared up for one more excursion to see if we couldn't find something locally.

Spending a little more time together exploring our new local surroundings would be fun,

even if we didn't find anything the girls liked yet.

Look how pretty it is.

I know, it's pretty at night, isn't it?

Yea, you can see what it's going to look like once it's all done.

Oh how pretty.

It's peachy at night.

We're going to do some parkour?

OK, 3, 2, 1

Oh! That is scary!

It's scary?

Joshua's like "I have got to try this."

Oh! Are you ok?!

Are you ok, Dude?!

It did not look good.

You don't do it without mommy.

I like Sarah's way of doing it.

That's a little more like it.

Well Sarah chan, we didn't find... well we didn't find anything for you guys earlier, did we?

Only EV

No, so now we're going to go look for something, huh?

Daddy, look back!

Yes yes! Take a video of Becca!

Not the train, Becca. Becca's more funny than the train

3, 2, 1 "Y M C A!"

Y M C A!

We're just look to see if Becca and Anna find any stores that might have a pencil case.

We stopped in more stores, but still didn't find what they wanted.

We did however continue to make some other fun discoveries along the way.

What- you found your name, Sarah?

Yeah. Is it all the letters you need?

Hey everybody, my name is a palindrome

It's a palindrome.

My name is "A N N A" so you can spell it from backwards and forwards.

Oh, the same way, huh?

More important than what we did or did not find was the quality time our family spent together.

Every family is different in what they like to do,

but spending quality time together and being completely engaged in it is a decision that generates healthier relationships in the family,

which in turn generates more love and trust.

And this is what fuels healthy family life.

Whoa!

There it goes! Getting off the tracks for sure, huh?

We don't want to be blah!