Harajuku Girls

Harajuku is a district of Tokyo, um, somewhere between Shinjuku and Shibuya. If that means nothing to you, just imagine Harajuku as sandwitched between one group of massive expensive buildings and another. Last Sunday I went down to Harajuku to check out the famous Harajuku Girls. This is a group of trendy young Japanese people who create incredibly elaborate costumes and basically hang out by Harajuku Station to have their photos taken. Sounds contrived I know, but the experience of seeing these people is quite cool. There are loads of buskers playing music and people dancing, its a little like a street party with that oh so messed up Japanese twist. Im definitely making sunday visits to Harajuku a regular thing. Amazing opportunities for great photos.

I didnt experience Harajuku alone. My new housemate James (British dude) and our friend Krishna (also british) also tagged along. After we witnessed the Harajuku girls, we went for a walk through a small park near the station which had an amazing temple hidden inside. As I was walking through the temple gates, an old Japanese man came up behind me a grabbed my arm. He said "bride" and then pointed over to the temple entrance. I saw a bride dressed in a traditional Japanese wedding gown and the groom in what I guess is the Japanese version of the tuxedo slowly walking by. I snapped some great photos of the bride, so check out the photos link on the right! In the temple we bumped into a group of other Nova teachers we met on the plane. We all spent the rest of the day wandering. How random.

Leaving the park, we saw something truly weird. Actually it was totally hilarious. A group of about 15 Japanese dudes dressed up in elvis costumes were dancing in a circle to a beat up boom box playing blue suade shoes. How this tradition started I have no frickin idea. Only in Japan..