So yesterday me and a couple of guys I met in the hostel went to Harujuku to see the crazy dressed up people, and to see what the part of Tokyo you see on the T.V is actually like. It was a little too hot for all the costume people yesterday, so there weren't that many out and about; but the dedicated few who were present provided quite a show.
After one of the party members left to head to Osaka (I think) we decided to go to Shibuya, where he hit some arcades and I laughed as he got whooped repeatedly.
After another hundred mile day we got home, and after agreeing to meet up for dinner I fell asleep and woke up at 8 this morning. Oops.
Onto the photos!
Welcome to jam packed Tokyo. This bit is the cool section, evidenced by the macdonalds signs everywhere, and the western shops on every corner. For the record, it was in the high twenty degrees with a whopping humidity, bear that in mind when you see some of the costumes...
These dodgy maid outfits are everywhere. I thought they were just myth, but they actually exist.
Is this a well recognised chain?
Ok that red suit is head to toe... Hot much? Those glasses are also awesome and so is the hat. He even moves as if he were a robot. I have no idea what he's selling, if he's selling anything at all. I do want his glasses though.
Same guy again, he's worth three pictures I think.
Again, I don't know what she's selling, all I know is that it's worth 980円. This picture has a spiderman just offscreen. He was livid that we were taking pictures of this girl, and we presumed that was because he fancied her, and was trying to chat her up. He was awfully friendly with her, for simply being colleagues...
We saw this guy a few times around the place, but were never able to get a good shot. He is some kind of tron/power rangers mix, and the bicycle he walks around with kind of makes me lean towards tron more.
This guy/girl was standing in the exact spot for more than three hours, we walked past him twice! A lot of effort went into this one, ten out of ten!
These girls went the extra mile, even putting blue contact lenses in. Tons of effort also went into these costumes, 10/10!
Same guys again, slightly closer to show the detail that's gone into these madhat costumes.
The golden flowers mean this is some kind of imperial owned site I think.
Shinto priests. A wedding procession went past while we were ambling around the site. It felt kind of weird to take pictures of the procession as tourists, not knowing the couple and generally being an unwanted nuisance. From a selfish perspective however, I'll never get an opportunity to see that again so I took as many discreet photos as I could.
More covert photographs.
This is the procession. Everyone doled up in their finery.
A closer look at the formalities. I was going to use the word 'festivities,' but somehow it doesn't seem apt for this particular photo.
They had the whole thing filmed, and all the cameramen wore green armbands. To make sure everyone knew who was holding the camera?
The woman in the green/gold/beige was running around in and out of train organising everyone and everything.
I noticed that I hadn't managed to get a photo of someone wearing the traditional dress, so I pretended to be american, and asked this woman if I could take a photo. The exasperation was evident in her demeanour, but it was a minor victory for non american English speakers everywhere.
As you can probably see by now, these ornately constructed roof and edge parts of their shrines hold a particular fascination for me, look at how detailed and ornate they are!
Another covert photo op.
I don't know whether these guys are asian or what, but they are insane looking.
These are the guys I went around with. Whereas Europeans try to look normal in photos, and Asians do the two finger peace thing, americans try to look like they're about to shoot you.
As they would say, 'go figure.'
Also, never follow a texan, their sense of direction is awful.
Elvis is not dead. He has been cloned, and taught to 'bodypop,' and now performs in duplicate, in the park at harujuku. I bet you didn't see that one coming!
Showing off is showing off in any country.
I've no idea how you spell didgerydoo. But his has a mic and is attached to an amp...
This dog park, is in the middle of the normal park and has several zones. The little dogs go here, and the big dogs go elsewhere. This is quite possibly the most pointless thing ever. For one, how do you get the dogs here without taking them through the normal park?
There were a lot of people chatting away though, so maybe it's more of a way to meet people than to do some actual dog based exercise.
The weight categories made no sense either, 3kg - 12kg? That's mike tyson versus me. That's plainly not fair.
One of their old olympic facilities.
This is the picture of Tokyo you see in the news, on tele generally and in the films. This is the view from street level.
This is the same view from a few storeys up. This is a non-crowded, average, any time of day scenario for crossing this street.
There is a person inside that, waving his or her arms up and down in a slightly worried kind of way...
For all your voltage testing needs. They had about five stalls in a row, owned by different people all trying to peddle the exact same models of these. Strange. And kind of utilitarian for a country that doesn't have the D.I.Y concept.
It's a real shame this photo came out badly, because these guys were good.
That's all for yesterdays trips.
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