Fashion Victims

Saturday, like any other normal Saturday, was spent wandering the streets of Tokyo's youth-oriented shopping district of Shibuya, taking in the sights and just generally observing the radical fashions that seem to permeate the young (and sometimes the not-so-young) portion this nation. The main element which is quite noticably different to my home is the number of females that wear short skirts or shorts and knee-high socks, usually with heels or boots... to boot. Even in quite cold weather, as we experienced in our last few days in Tokyo, this remains the normal outfit for a lot of teenagers and 20-somethings. I've seen only one girl shivering in our whole time in Japan so far. Tough cookies, all in the name of fashion...
In general, I love the Japanese version of "fashion".. It's so out there and random, and very addictive once you start buying accessories :) The hats, the coats, the shoes, the shirts, the bags, the headphones, the scarfs, the list goes on... Those of you with a slightly strange and alternative wardrobe would definitely love this place!

Now, no trip to Japan is complete without visiting the Imperial Palace, the home of Japan's Emperor and Imperial family. We did exactly that, after managing to initially get off at the wrong subway station, however only got as far as the grounds on the outskirts since the palace is only open to the public 2 days in a year - it is, after all, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Akihito's family's pad.

After all that fun, in the evening we decided to go out on the town with two Canadian girls we had met in the hostel, Laura and Megan. As we were getting ready a camera crew bust into our room and requested interviews about the hostel. I was the first to have a go, followed by the two girls, laying casually on our respective beds and answering mundane questions about what we liked best about the hostel, etc. So look out for any Japanese TV show about hostels in Tokyo and you should see me looking like a tool :)
The area we went to was called Roppongi: full of Western-friendly bars and just generally lousy in my opinion.. I wasn't feeling it. The problem is, as I understand, that there are basically two types of clubs - there's the Western-friendly ones (full of mainly Westerners, which is not what you want to see when you head to a bar in Japan) or the Japanese-only ones which will not let you in if you are a foreigner (unless you have a friend on the inside). Based on this, it seems as though the Japanese seem to be slightly racist, as attested by one of the only Japanese girls I found in a club called Gas Panic. Strange name.. maybe inspired by the poison gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system in 1995?Now where were we? Ah yes, fashion.. Harajuku is the area in Tokyo where all the crazy kids (along with their fashion) head to, especially on Sunday afternoons - which just so happened to be when we went their, coincidentally. I suspect that cherry blossom season had something to do with the number of people there but it was, as I say, crazy. So many people dressed up and it was almost like some of them were straight out of a fairytale. Some sort of peace-conscious concert, called One Korea, was on in the park there and along with it came many cool sideshows such as local Japanese cover bands, miming and interpretive dance, comedy skits and even a whole group of Japanese "Grease T-bird" impersonators. I had such a great time and after all of that we came across a makeshift open-air dance party in the middle of the park where a DJ had just set up his gear and started pumping out some awesome beats.
The rain came and we retreated to a nearby cafe for coffee and warmth before braving the elements and checking out the beautiful Meiji-Jingu temple nearby. Another marathon Manga session was on the cards for this night and we headed back to Shinjuku as there are a multitude of these places located there. Here, in another cafe, we met 3 Japanese school girls just about to embark on a huge expedition of their own - two are heading to the US to study for 9 months and the other to Melbourne in my home country. How exciting!

Photos:
1. Pachinko! Casinos are illegal in Japan, so many Japanese instead head to Pachinko parlours to play "poker-style" machines with steel ball bearings.
2. That cone is normal size, it's Lee that's small..
3. An example of fashion
4. A pedestrian crossing in Shibuya
5. The Imperial Palace
6. The Imperial Gardens
7. an Interview
8. Megan, Lee, Laura and I out and about
9. In Harajuku
10. Fairytale picnic
11. Go Grease Lightning!
12. Interpretive dance in Harajuku