Harajuku

For my last full day in Japan, I decided to head out to Harajuku, the home of the famed Harajuku girls, but also home to one of the most impressive Shinto Shines in Tokyo. I had mixed fortunes upon arrival, with the Harajuku Girls, and their crazy fashion, seemingly brushed aside for a youth dance festival. The area surrounding the train station, as well as the main strip being over taken by performers. There were maybe a dozen or so Girls that had taken the effort to dress up in their fashions, but a least have of these were Americans trying join in rather poorly. Despite my disappointment, the dance festival did make for an entertaining day.

Harajuku appears to be a centre for youth fashion in general the streets in the surrounding areas were filled almost exclusively with clothing stores, drawing crowds comparable to Shibuya, despite the heavy rain that came through in the evening.

  

Practically boarding on to the train station were the grounds of the local Shinto Shine. Consisting of quiet a large nature reserve with the Shine, as well as a museum dedicated to artefacts belonging to the Imperial Family within.

Similar to the gate at the Asakusa Temple, the Shinto Gate was impressive. Normally are not to the scale of one at the main entrance to the Harajuku Shine (there were other, smaller gates around the grounds).

   

 

For 500 Yen you could buy a wooden slate to write prayers and wishes, seemingly popular with locals and tourists alike.

  

The grounds were remarkably dense with trees and undergrowth, there were also very few people actually walking the grounds after visiting the Shine. Besides the occasional sounds of trains passing by, you could easily forget that you were literally in the middle of Tokyo City.

One last shot of the Shinjuku station sign before I left for Narita Airport this morning. I enjoyed being able to use Shinjuku station, firstly because it services a huge number of people each day, with masses flowing in Shinjuku in the morning and away again in the evening, flowing between home and offices, I’m just a little proud of myself to know that I managed to conquer it. Secondly, because once you have conquered it, you realise that you can access almost any part of the city from this single station, with almost all others being a single transfer away.

A mix between my Lonely Planet city guide and an iPhone app which recommends a path to areas between stations meant that I was able to traverse the city without any major incidents. Looking forward to doing similar in London.

A picture update

A quick update with some pictures after my first full day in Tokyo.

A Totoro, as promised, for my brother (there were larger Totoros, but I would never have gotten one, along with all my clothes, to fit in my suitcase).

A squirrel fox from Laputa and Nausicaa for myself, and a Cat Bus for a friend. (Just me Mum, all of this makes perfect sense…)

Ponyo, because I’m most likely to miss the Australian theatrical release due to being in the country the film was made! The caution sign is in the elevator of the hotel. Besides the poor spelling and grammar, I was amused by the fact that it says when and earthquake occurs, rather than if.

Just a couple to provide a perspective of the city. The first being a street in Akihabara, and the second being the view West from the Tokyo Government Building, looking away from the city and into the suburbs. My hotel is at the bottom of the pic, right in the middle.

Below is more of Akihabara, with the Yodobasi-Akiba department store, which is just intense! Rather than having separate stores for different things, the building is split up by floor, with each floor having its own them (like computers, cameras, game consoles or books and music). Surprisingly though, it is relatively easy to find someone to give you help with the products. Almost every single variety of a product is on offer, rather than just a selection (i.e. you can find every type of camera companies like Nikon or Canon currently produce)