Somehow, I can't seem to get Gwen Stefani's voice out of my head. I can see why she is so fascinated with the Harajuku district of Tokyo. It is internationally known as the center forJapanese youth culture and fashion and it is the capital of "kawaii," or cute, and it is truly like no other place we've ever been. It is the scene to see and be seen, and clearly all of Tokyo agrees. The place is absolutely wall-to-wall accessories, clothing, sweet shops and toys (yes, toys!) all geared towards girls in their late teens and early twenties. Hello Kitty? Check! Candies of every imaginable color and flavor? Check! Flower wreaths for your hair and tons and tons of sparly costume jewelry? Double check! But the real story here is the fashion. Yes, there are plenty of cute clothing stores catering to juniors - Ashley made out like a bandit. Finally, clothes that fit! - but there are plenty of stores that cater strictly to "Harajuku style." Harajuku style - how to describe it? The girls all dress up in over-the-top cutsie dresses, complete with outlandishly colored crazy hair and often stuffed animal companions. Think less hoochie-mama and more babydoll gone wild. Let's just say that since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll save my fingers and show you what I'm talking about.
She was super cute and happy to have her picture taken.
Sorry I ambush photographed you!
This was our favorite of the night. She was having dinner in the same restaurant as we were and very sweetly allowed us to take her picture.
Another fun thing that goes on in Harajuku is that there are these huge trucks that just drive up and down the street blaring music. They are plastered on all sides with lit-up picutes of what I can only guess are Japan's version of boy bands. I'm guessing that these trucks are some kind of continuous rolling advertising scheme to get the bands' music out there. Interesting and fun, and it just added to the super cool chaos that is Harajuku.
So after six hours of getting our Harajuku on, we were ready to move on to our next adventure, Tokyo Tower. More about that in my next post.
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