Harajuku Girls

The plan was to go to Shibuya which is direct from my place then walk to Shinjuku via Harajuku. It was pritty easy going as it is really all in a straight line almost anyway. At one point i did cross the road then just instinct told me i was gong the wrong way so i decided to turn left instead, a bit risky when you dont know where you are going but it paid off and i saw road signs to Shinjuku ahead. Sometimes its just best to go with what feels right, god knows where i would have ended up. If you do get lost you can just ask where the nearest rail station is find you way from there. Touch wood (touches head) i haven't gotten lost so far.

I like Shibuya for its youthfulness. Most shops are for the young and tried as i might to get to Harajuku in good time i must have stopped off in at least six shops maybe more. I need to find a film called 'Love and Pop' which uses really interesting camera angles but i forgot about it.

One thing i was pleased to see in Shibuya was graffiti it was just as shame it was BAD :(. Ok so i know this isn't most peoples idea of a good thing but i am one of those people who thinks huge brightly coloured intresting and risky pieces of graff actually brighten a large boring gray wall. Then i got thinking does Tokyo really need this? after all it is almost like daylight in the evenings in Akiba it is so lit-up. You can shoot at 1/200th F1.7 its so god dam bright! The electric signs and neon lights almost replace graffiti. I know that it is here! maybe my eyes are to interested in other things to notice or that the graff hides from the neon lights down the darker back allies.

bad Japanese graffiti


woman at a smaller crossing on the way to Harajuku




So after about a 15min walk i made it to Harajuku and was ready to see the cosplay-zoku. The weather was fine so i thought there would be a few people out. My flat mate told me when he last went there were only about 5 or 6. There were about 20-30 when i arrived. There were so many westerners snapping away it was the most amount of gaijin i saw since arriving in Japan.

The girls were huddled in small groups, usually with their backs turned slightly away from the crowds of people snapping away. I couldn't blame them for this but apart of me thought 'well why do you dress up like this and stand around in the streets all day?. Instead of sticking my face in their faces like most other people with huge SLR's i had a little walk around and tried to get a few sniper shots. They were not very good i regret that i did not just ask them to pose for me.







I wasn't really impressed at all with the Harajuku girls. I imagined something so much more. If you like anime/mange then i would recommend it to people but as i am not such a fan i don't even know who they are dressing as. Also if you like to see grumpy teenagers standing around looking bored then i would also go, but for me well im sure there are better things to see in Tokyo. In the summer i would bet the place is a lot more lively and more worth the visit. The trip was not wasted thought as the Miji shrine was just down the path to the left of the bridge the Harajuku girls stood around.



1/2 down the path were shops and food. i snipered this women selling what looked like dried leave, tea as a guess


Sake barrels lining the path






this little girl was running around causing mischief but she was so cute


Then i saw a crowd gathing around me and i was lucky i was near the front. At first i saw a line people walking slowing through the temple. I was unsure if it was a funeral or a wedding so i kept my camera quite. As soon i released it was a wedding i tried to capture it. Eam reassured me it was a wedding because 'they are wearing them funny hats' haha!



I'm not to sure what was happening i will need to try read about Buddhist wedding ceremony's but the bride and groom are under the umbrella


this looks like the family members of the bridge and groom, maybe they stand behind their own son and daughter


I was really lucky to see the ceremony. I also took a little video

Wedding at the Maji Shrine in Harajuku from jo kirk on Vimeo.

After i visited the shrine i began to walk to towards Shinjuku where i was going to get the Sobu line to Eams house were we were planning to get a traditional meal. On the way i saw some more graff


i also capture one or two nice street scenes i have been keeping these out of my diary as towards the end of my trip i would like to post them all up.




As i passed an arcade in Shinjuku i saw this middle aged man stood 1/2way inside just staring at young girls trying to capture soft toys. Really scary photograph.


So i got to Aims, it was feasting time! best part of the day if you ask me haha
We went to a place the name escapes me but you almost sat ont he floor around a large table which has a grill in the middle and you cook your own food to your tastes. Similar to the hotpot but with a grill. All around were big families relaxing and chatting away sometimes smoking.

One thing that really does annoy me about Japan, or maybe just Tokyo life! It is illegal so smoke in the streets, yet acceptable to light up and smoke WHILE eating sat next to someone who is also eating. If you ask me i would rather them smoke outside. Lucky we were quite a distance from any smokers so we could enjoy our meal in peace from death smoke.



This is the meat we were given it cost is about ¥2400 for the plate which is maybe about £16-17. I don't usually like beef cooked in this way, but when i say this i truelly mean it... it was the best meat i have tasted in my life. I don't know what flavors they gave the beef but it was just amazing.




So once we ran out of meat we ordered a few more to make the most of the evening. We order beef wrapped around a spring onion and garlic filling. Again the meat was just out of this world and the filling just spilled out into your mouth adding more and more layers of flavors.




We also order sashimi which just means 'sliced' in Japanese so to be more precise beef sashimi, basiclly raw beef cuts. I was a bit worried about raw beef a lot more so than raw fish for some reason. Aim told me the cow was most likely killed the day before or they couldn't serve it. I hoped he was right. We ate a slice each together with no soya and it tasted really bland, there was actually very little flavor in the meat. This was most likely due to the fats still being a solid. With soya sauce and ginger or garlic it added a nicer flavor while the meat just melted in the mouth. It was nice but very expensive compared to fish sushi. Each slice of sashimi worked out about £1 where as a piece of sushi was 25pence!


After the mean those guys too me into a 'chav' shop and i nearly bought a white training tracksuit for a laugh but it was a tiny bit to small. Heres me pissing about with some stupid tiger mask and my chav top :)