I’ve always heard that Daikanyama is a very fashionable and hip area (I guess that’s inevitable since it’s wedged in between Shibuya and Ebisu). I’ve only actually been around there once and I didn’t remember it to be a very high-fashion neighborhood when I went. The things I do remember about it are the many hills and how happy I was to find a Mr. Friendly shop. The kids and I went to check it out and look for kid-friendly places. 
Not overly crowded like Harajuku and Shibuya, but still there’s an eclectic mix of shops, cafes and restaurants. There are small tree-lined winding streets, a mix of both old and new small buildings and older homes peeping out from behind. There are definitely a lot of nice clothing shops for me to look at, but only if I could actually stay in a shop longer than five minutes without Keiji tugging at my arm saying “Mmmmommyy let’s goooo” and Arisa wandering off somewhere beyond my vision. It’s a very pleasant area that still has a bit of a local neighborhood vibe but where speaking English doesn’t bring on stares from others. One Japanese woman and her elementary-school aged daughter were walking towards us and saw that Arisa dropped something behind me and so they both told me in Japanese. But they quickly recognized my confused face and said “You dropped something” after which the young girl picked it up for me and said with quite natural English “Here you go.” So maybe that doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but in our town it’s not very often I meet people who speak English, or at least who will admit to speaking English (there are a lot of secret English speakers, but don’t ask me why they hide it- I really don’t know). Anyhow, Keiji was skeptical of where we were going when he didn’t see any toy stores or playgrounds around. I just kept him motivated saying we’re on a quest to look for the playgrounds and toys. But he and Arisa finally warmed up to the place when we arrived at a huge open space in front of Daikanyama Adress
, where they excitedly ran around in circles for nearly an hour. I think they get excited about any large open space. We saw lots of moms with kids in strollers. Some of them were eating their obento at some benches. The women from a cute shop called Dad-Way inside the La Fuente building told me Daikanyama jidoukan is near but it was closed that day. Inside La Fuente there is also outdoor seating areas, cafes, some children’s shops and a milk room where they have also hot water for formula. On the way back to Daikanyama train station we found a small playground in front of one of the mansions. Once this rainy weather passes we’ll be back to look around more.