All the old posts from the old Your-Japan.com on the Your-Japan Blog Network

Sukiko, Mai, and Nana took me around Harajuku on Sunday. For those of you not in the know, Harajuku is THE fashion district in Tokyo. It’s mostly a place to see and be seen, to show off new or or fashonable clothes and to buy even more. The three of them were sort of amused at how excited I was to go there. And I didn’t know this before then- but Nana is a Gothic Lolita. When Sukiko and I met them at the station, I was thinking, "Who’s that Little Bo Peep next to Mai??". She was all in white and pink, wearing more lace than Liberace and her face painted whiter than a sheet. I had done my research on Goth Loli fashion before, and seen a more subdued version of it around New Orleans and the underground goth scene there. But this was a new level of extravagance. Mai and Sukiko didn’t blink an eye, either, we just kept going to Harajuku. I saw a few other GothLoli girls on the train, and silently meditated the similarities and differences in their appearance, as well as trying to figure out how much each one had spent in time and money looking the way they did. As we got closer and closer to Harajuku, I was beginning to feel more and more out of place. I had tried my best to look somewhat "fashionable", without trying to be something I wasn’t. It was difficult, considering that my hair color has now faded to a bright goldenrod, and all the clothes I have look best with auburn red hair. This might not be a big deal to most of you, but my other girls know what I’m talking about. I managed to piece together some designer jeans with a yellow scoop-neck top and a green sash belt. However, the top fit a bit tighter than I rememeberd it to, so I threw on a jacket and just covered that "area" up. When we left the house, I was wearing some of the most "fashionable" street clothes I own. When we stepped out of Harajuku station, I felt like a bag lady.

First thing I wasn’t prepared for: colors. A huge kaleidoscopic mass of bright, blinding colors. Just entering Takeshitadorii, I could see that my clothes were nowhere near the style and detail of the locals. Just as I was beginning to doubt myself, however, the four of us began walking, and we hit a bright patch of sunlight. All of a sudden, the people we passed slowed down to look at me, and a few whispered to their friends and pointed. Oh, shit. My stomach dropped- but then I saw my reflection in a storefront window, and I seriously had to slow down and take my sunglasses off.

BLONDE??? I was a BLONDE NOW?!

To be fair, it’s more of a strawberry/goldenrod shade, but in that sunlight my hair gleamed GOLD.

My self-esteem thoroughly perked, I caught up with Sukiko and the others and began my shopping spree. First, though, I wanted to see more of the people around me. GOD it was crowded. Everywhere I went I was stepping on a skirt or bumping into a shoulder or knocking over a display. (If you heard a loud, LOUD clatter along the Takeshitadorii about a block away from Harajuku bridge, that was me, running into and knocking over three full hat racks.)

I made my escape from the Evil Hat Rack Ojiichan, and we finally came to the Harajuku Bridge in Yoyogi Park. Nana was thrilled, and immediately saw a half-dozen of her closest GothLoli friends. We agreed to meet up with her later, and Mai, Sukiko, and I set off on our own around the area. After that, I got to play, "Boy or Girl?" for about an hour. SO MANY TIMES, I was wrong. I would look at someone, and immediately say, "Wow, she looks good in a skirt," or "That guy shouldn’t wear pinstripes." only to see later that my gender guess was incorrect. For ONE person, I even took a photo, and I’m STILL not sure one way or the other about whether it’s a boy or girl. But the game is fun- and addictive. So if I ever get a random Sunday afternoon to myself, I’m going to go back to Harajuku and just people watch.

Mai and Sukiko helped me pick out the good stores to shop at, and go through the racks with me. There were so many funky shirts and pants, it really just made me want to laugh. Oh! and while we were walking around, I saw several Engrish shirts. Two of the most memorable were "HOUND me POUND me ALL night LONG" and "Reigning in the crazy bitch". I ended up buying five (non-Engrish) shirts, two skirts, a pair of pants and a cute sundress. EVERYWHERE we went, I got stared at- especially in the sun. At this rate, I’ll be Gwen Stefani blonde by next week. I’m thinking about dying back to my natural color, but as it is, I’m enjoying standing out. At school, I always fly under the radar, doing just enough to break the rules, but not enough to get caught. Here (even though the bout with the discipline committee was more than enough of an encounter with the Japanese rules system), it feels good to have a semi-free pass to be different and break some of the cultural rules once in a while.

Also- I was suprised and slightly ecstatic to see a few other foreigners in Harajuku. There were two separate instances, one at Harajuku Station, and the other shortly after the Hat Rack Incident. Both times, I spotted them before they saw me, they felt my gaze, looked over, and we both kinda half smile/waved in that "Ha-ha-look-you’re-in-Japan,-too.-Isn’t-it-weird-here?-Let’s-both-go-enjoy-our-trip-through-Japanese-culture-now,-okay,-bye." sort of way.

We ate lunch in a McDonald’s there- AWESOME experience. I was SO looking forward to that after Az posted his Mega Mac story, and his experience at Japanese McDonald’s. I was feeling uber-victorious about my first trip to Harajuku, and I really got to know Mai better. Turns out she’s a whiz at ikebana (flower arrangement) and tea ceremony. She said that she’d show me how sometime, so I’m really looking forward to it. After lunch, we walked on to Shibuya, which I was suprised to find out that it’s not that long of a walk if you follow the train tracks. Sukiko whipped out her cell phone and called Nana, and we met her about ten minutes later at the Hachiko statue in Shibuya. I was hoping to tour Shibuya a bit, too, and I was kind of sad I didn’t get to see the shrine next to Harajuku station, but Sukiko said I was welcome to go back any time I wanted to, so I guess I can wait to see that. Plus, we had already walked around all day, and we were all tired.

We got on our train at Shibuya station- and that’s when my day went quickly downhill.

It was a Sunday afternoon at Shibuya Station. Of course, the place was packed FULL. Sukiko, Mai, and Nana just went along with the stream of people, but they’re used to it. I’m still not, and I had some difficulty. I was pressed into the car just barely by one of those white-glove guys. If I had known then what was about to happen, I would have elbowed through the glass window of the train door and pulled myself out of there.

To be continued….

Trackback URI | Comments RSS