Thanks to Gwen Steffani many people who haven’t been to Tokyo may have heard of Harajuku due to a few references in a couple of her songs. This place is famed for its extreme teenage cultures and fashion styles with Takeshita Dori (street) being the main focal point which is a lane bursting at the seams where Tokyo’s so-called trendiest teens go shopping among the fashion shops, boutiques and crepe stands.
However, on Sundays the attention switches to an open area right next to the station where many young people gather wearing many costumes whether it be dolls, anime characters or punks etc.
Every Sunday many of them go to hang out in this area while a load of foreigners walk among the Japanese groups snapping photos. I don’t really know the meaning of it (if there is even one) but having witnessed it a few times I went to meet a friend there last Sunday with the addition of my camera. These are the lengths I go to just to have something to put on Tokyo Fox!!
As well as the aforementioned crazy costumed teens there was also a quite large group of dancing Japanese Elvis impersonators round the corner which I had heard about but never seen before. Definitely something to be experienced!
Anyway, this very unique event provides a great atmosphere and has lots of food stalls, posers and freaks but is very difficult to put into words so just check out the Harajuku photo section to catch my drift.
Tokyo Fox (東京狐) 