Harajuku

Never heard of it before? Let me tell you about it.
The girl’s hair on the left is freaking cool!

Here goes nothing! Harajuku is known as Tokyo’s teenager town. It is a entire district catering for the young and trendy Tokyoite. The precinct is jam packed with hundreds of small boutiques, cafes, stores and restaurants all focusing on the youth market. Harajuku is one of the best places in Tokyo to people watch you will see just about everthing from Goths, to Punks to adult girls in school uniforms and guys in cowboy suits.You could describe the fashion as ridiculous, crazy or disgusting but you cant disagree its fun and cool at the same time. For the young and fashionable teenager, spending time in Harajuku (原宿) on the weekends is practically a necessity. Even older folks will want to visit the area, though, to see Meiji Jingu shrine, Yoyogi Park or go shopping in Omotesando or Takeshita-dori. Harajuku is within the special ward of Shibuya. Heres a map of Shinjuku showing where Harajuku is located.

Takeshita-dori is a narrow street packed with young fashionable people and lined with fashion boutiques and cafes. This is definitely the place to be seen if you are young Tokyoite, but well worth visiting as a tourist. Takeshita-dori represents the cutting edge of fashion in Tokyo where you can see all the latest in Japanese street fashion and then buy in the boutiques. Takeshita-dori is opposite the exit to Harajuku station.

If it’s Harajuku’s youth culture you want to see, don’t even bother unless it’s the weekend and preferably a Sunday. The bridge across the train tracks from Harajuku station to Yoyogi Park is full of Gothic Lolita or GothLoli. The costumes are very outstanding and you can’t miss them. It is funny to see the surprise of the western tourists heading to Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu who clearly had not read their guide books fully on Harajuku. You can hear their comments that make it very clear they just don’t understand what is going on. Essentially the youth who have dressed up are just hanging out with friends, many of them come with the hope of being snapped by one of the many magazine photographers who mingle in the crowd.

What kind of fashion can you actually find in Harajuku?

• Gothic Lolita involves wearing gothic, feminine and elegant clothes, to the extent that you look like a living Victorian doll.
• Japanese punks, inspired by the punk movement that began in London in the 70s, magnify rebelliousness with over-the-top clothes, accessories, makeup, and piercings.
• Cosplay entails dressing up like your favorite cartoon/anime or computer game character.
• Decora style favors bright colors, flamboyance and accessories from head to toe. You decorate yourself with plastic toys and jewelry, and it’s not uncommon to have so many that you can hear them click together when the person moves.
• Kawaii (literally translating from Japanese to “cute”) places an emphasis on childlike playfulness–anime characters, ruffles, pastel colors, toys, and so on.
• Wamono refers to mixing traditional Japanese attire with Western fashion

And here are some pictures of the fashions in Harajuku. =)

The blue outfit girl looks cool!

Pink hair girl looks cool and scary.

Colours of Harajuku.

Gotta say that this girl’s hair is cool!!

Now thats what i call kawaii!

My opinion says that among all the pictures,
This girl wins!!

Well i guess thats all. If i missed out anything, i’m sorry as i don’t live in Japan and never been to Harajuku before. If only i can afford to go to Japan. I will definitely visit Harajuku! So dear readers, if any of you all are going to Japan, take my advice and visit this cool place. Lastly heres some guidelines that teaches you how to dress Harajuku Style. I don’t know much about it since i found it while surfing the internet but its by wikiHow so you might as well just read it if you are interested. Its quite interesting though. Credits of the pictures goes to JapanForum. And so i hope all of you enjoy reading this post.