Today, I popped over to Harajuku, the district most famous for the local young ‘uns, who dress up in whatever extreme fashion style takes their fancy and hang out on the bridge. Unfortunately, Tribal Day is Sunday and I’ll be gone by then, so I didn’t get to see any of the teens in their crazy outfits.
Coming out of Harajuku station, you have two choices. One exit leads out to Yoyogi Park…
This leads to Meiji Shrine and, eventually, to the Japanese Sword Museum; somewhere I’ve been trying to see for two trips now. Sadly, I still didn’t get to the museum as the area around the park entrance here smelled so bad, it was making me feel sick, so I turned around and headed the other way, into commerce.
On the surface, Harajuku looks like a lot of other Tokyo districts: clean, big safe brands, flashing lights. The whole nine yards. Where this place really comes alive is in the backstreets behind all the big malls.
There seems to be two main areas: Harajuku Street and Takeshita Street (which we’ll get to in a bit). They are packed with every type of clothing shop imaginable and are to the fashionista what Akihabara is to the gadget freak.
The two areas are on opposite sides of a main road and couldn’t be more different. Harajuku Street is more upmarket, with independent and name boutiques, where as Takeshita Street… well…
It’s more like a market. The shops’ wares are cheaper and more extreme than the other side of the road. Shop staff stand outside their shops, waving placards and bellowing about their latest deals. It’s also packed at noon on a Friday…
…and ruder…
Somewhere in the middle of all this is Jingumae, which appears to be where the twain meet.
Any kind of clothing you want can be yours in Harajuku. From an S&M Geisha maid with cat ears (yep) to “Base Station”, who pride themselves on selling good quality, but very plain underwear, socks, vests and T-shirts. That said, when I needed jumpers, I went corporate and ended up at UniQlo. Turns out I’m the perfect UniQlo Japan size Large. Who knew?
A year or so ago, a kid’s Power Rangers style TV show called Rescue Fire started up and made the emergency services cool, so this place sells fashions based entirely around the emergency services.
And while the boys are playing in there, directly across the road..
…is a fancy ladies boutique. Oh, and Spiderman graffiti…
There’s also an art gallery:-
…a snack van…
…and, in the middle of all this chaos, mania and commerce, this quite beautiful thing…
I love this crazy city.
