There are many things to do in Harajuku: a visit to the Meiji Shrine, a walk down the popular fashion street Takashita, and window shopping around the larger streets, where popular brands from all over the world have built their flashy multi-floor branches. Luckily for those Alice in Wonderland fanatics, Harajuku will also be your go-to place!

 

Alice on Wednesday is tucked near the entrance of a small street, only a 7-minute walk from Takeshita Street. The store explains its name choice: turning the boring day of Wednesday into a wonderland-filled day. It is an Alice in the Wonderland themed shop with snacks, jewelry, and accessories.

It is very much like the accessory shops found along the Takeshita street, with most of its customers browsing the jewelry section of the store. Pleasantly unlike most accessory shops in Harajuku, its products are moderately priced and less likely to frighten those who have accidentally discovered the shop.The store's façade is designed showing four different sized doors. Customers enter through the smallest door and are transported to Lewis Carroll’s whimsical world.

 

On the first floor, appropriately named ‘the White Queen’s Kitchen’, various ‘eat me’ biscuits and ‘drink me’ ciders are sold, along with other sweets packaged in Mad Hatter hat boxes and themed boxes. The stairwell to the second floor is dimly lit and highly decorated, complete with the blue caterpillar sitting atop his mushroom.

 

The Queen of Hearts room or the second floor, is filled with dainty necklaces, lace and ribbon headbands and chokers, rose hairpins, and delicate earrings. Like the stairwell and every other room in the store (excluding the first floor), it is dimly lit to enhance the mysterious atmosphere. Climbing up the last set of stairs decorated with framed illustrations from Lewis Carroll’s book and both Disney’s animated and live action movies, customers can find bags, phone accessories, small pillows and tea sets on the last floor, a Mad Hatter themed room.

 

Alice on Wednesday offers an immersive atmosphere that enhances the shopping experience, much like the Disney store in Shibuya.

 

This store carries products that have both prints of John Tenier (the illustrator of the Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland) otherwise known as Macmillan's version, and its Disney versions (animated and live action). Alice on Wednesday is definitely worth a visit if you're looking for reasonably priced Alice in Wonderland themed accessories or simply searching for Wonderland. . .without falling down a rabbit hole.
 


By Clara Hao