So this trip was a personal mission to find the strangest dress sense, and fashion on a person; having seen those from this area last week I thought the odds were good that more crazy people would be out and about.
Unfortunately we had the same problem as before, namely the weather being far too hot for any sane people, so only the few insane ones were dressed up. I'm sure these guys, when compared to their sane counterparts, are dressed more extravagently anyway, but the volume of these crazies was a little lower than I had hoped.
We also had an epic walking tour of the surrounding area, walking for so many hours in all directions that we inevitably got lost. Luckily our combined brainpower was just enough to save us. Having said that Tokyo is a little like London in that if you walk far enough in a straight line you'll come across a metro or JR station at some point, either that or the ocean.
So my travelling partners on this day were Pascal, a dutch/flemish speaking Belgian, who's taken Japanese to the level above me and who also speaks amazing English. And Naree, the lost Australian woman.
The guy on the left is the same one that I managed to get last week, but his assistant sitting down in this picture is new. Random collections of fashions, including cat ears, tails and maid outfits are essential to fitting in around here...
Everyone loves dogs, even old woman/clown man/woman in the red with the cloth covering her head. Click on the image for the full size, then look closely at her face... Now that's what I call scary!
These girls were a mottley assortment of fashions, with the central one wearing traditional slip on shoes that are raised a substantial distance from the ground. Unfortunately all the other images are blurred, so you can't really see them very well. Needless to say, they look like they rolled through the offcut section of a fabric factory, while covered in glue.
These lovely ladies were offering their services for free! (see below...)
So everyone got free hugs. Although I have to say I felt quite priveliged because they made a beeline for us!
Got to love the pictures on the cards too... The one on the right has substantially more artistic talentt than her friend.
I have no idea when Elvis was alive, but his clones had 50's company that seemed quite apt. Look at those dresses! Need I say more?
So people always talk about the stark contrasts between the modern and historic. The next few photographs will provide a perfect example of this.
The trees and general greenery of the shrine.
Sandwiched between a couple of high-rise apartment buildings.
And taking this theme furrther. This building, that looks so much like a normal, albeit extravagent office space is actually a temple! They've used the first floor to create a place of worship. It might not be the first to do this, but it's certainly the most striking.
They've tried to keep the traditional entrances and tori though, with a bamboo path leading the worshippers through to the main area.
This is the bamboo lined alley. It's kind of traditional mixed with the modern. The whole place feels kind of strange, but it's cool so I think it works.
So here is a festival going on, in the middle of Harujuku. I'm not really sure how they get permission to do this, but it's really cool. They jump up and down to the rhythm set by a man with a loudspeaker; but in traditional Japanese style the loudspeaker he uses is extremely quiet, and he ends up being ignored most of the time anyway.
This is a little after the shot above, when the parade has stopped outside a shrine/temple. There's a lot of jumping and everyone is drunk; so there also tends to be a lot of falling over.
A couple of the old boys who are presumably overseeing the whole event also make some speeches, and everyone shouts as loud as possible in time with him hitting a couple of wooden blocks together. It's all very tribal, yet feels normal inside the ultra-modern city streets.
That was it for the trip to Harujuku. A good time was had by all.
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