Harajuku Girls

Today, of course, was sweltering again. In my mind, Tokyo is a cloudy, smoggy city, where the sky is always covered in a film of white. But today, the sky was as blue as Sydney, although the air was still heavy with humidity. But I felt a little at home with the bright, blue sky.

So at around 11, we set off to Harajuku. Today being Respect for the Aged Day, it was a public holiday and the main drag of Harajuku was very, very crowded.

(I still don't know how to rotate photos) Takeshita-Dori

I went with Ben, from Melbourne and Robert, from Toronto. So these two white guys were very nice to put up with me and my ducking into various tiny stores. Ben, especially, is over 190 cm, so it was very amusing to see him within a sea of Japanese teenage girls. Especially since I went into one of those stores that sold celebrity photos, and Rob and Ben were the only two guys in this tiny space crammed with girls.

So we walked around Takeshita-Dori, gawking at the costumes and craziness, as well as the girl Japanese manbags. Here's Ben with one:

And here are some of the costumes sold on Takeshita Dori:

Amazing huh? And of course, by this time, we were starving and wilting in the heat, so we decided to get lunch on Omote-sando, which is an upper class, tree lined shoping area near Harajuku. We went to Goemon, a fusion pasta place. The pasta was unexpectedly, really, really good! The tomato, basil and mozzarella pasta was some of the best I've had in a long time, and definitely the best I've had for the price (1560 yen for the half and half set). The flavours were very distinct and strong - really lovely. The other pasta is crab and shimp spaghetti in a cream sauce.

Half and half set
Ben and me in Goemon

Afterwards, we made the obligatory trip to the bridge that links Harajuku and Meiji Jingu Shrine, otherwise known as Freaky Cosplay Bridge...

Robert and me on the bridge across Harajuku, with Harajuku station in the background.

Robert and me with death gown girl. When we asked her for a photo, she pointed at herself, looking surprised, and asked "Me?"

But she was very nice and did strange poses for us... close up, her lipstick was a bit smeared, which actually gave her an even scarier look. I keep wondering, in the 34 degree heat, how did she keep her make up from melting off?

There were heaps of other cosplay, from the gothic Lolitas to some dude wearing a horse head mask.

These guys were so awesomely colour co-ordinated, there was a line to take pictures with them, just like Disneyland characters! Though I'm sure they'd hate to be compared to Disney. They all do cool posing stuff when we take pictures, and they're pretty nice, actually. But still a bit scary and overwhelming. The funny thing was, when Ben went to take a photo with them, they look up (and up) at him and said "Oh, so big" and looked kind of freaked. Haha! We somehow managed to surprise these people...


For a total change, we walked into the park that surrounds Meiji Jingu shrine, one of the nicest shrines in Tokyo, because it's such a huge difference from the chaos of Harajuku. Entering the beautiful green area, dappled in the sunlight, gave me an instant sense of peace. It was really relaxing and lovely.

Torii of Meiji Shrine



Washing hands in front of the shrine

So, it was a totally exhausting, but really fun day. Tomorrow, I'm going out with a Japanese friend, Yuki and her boyfriend Nobu and staying over at Nobu's house.