Bloom In Japan

Since I will be working most Sundays, I decided to take advantage of my last day before work (Sept 9) and embarked on a little adventure. There is this place called Harajuku in downtown Tokyo that is famous for its street performers and shopping, and it really comes alive on Sunday afternoons. So I took the Tobu Tojo line into Ikebukuro, transferred over to the Yamanote line, and landed in Harajuku ready to see what all the fuss was about. I didn’t have a map, so I basically had to guess where to go, but right off the bat I found myself walking down Takeshita Street. Takeshita Street is basically this long-ass, pedestrian only street that is lined from end to end with various shops and restaurants. It’s quite a trip walking through it, as it is packed from end to end with people, so if you are claustrophobic you may not make it out alive. After working my way through that craziness I found myself in Omotesando, and took a stroll down Omotesando Street. Right away I was lucky enough to see some sort of traditional parade, of which I took video of and plan on putting up soon. Omotesando is known for its super high class shops and whatnot, so I was reserved to just enjoying the sights and keeping my wallet in my pants.

After wandering around for a bit, I finally found what I was looking for…the street performers. After taking some video of the cosplayers, I worked my way over to the entrance of Yoyogi Park. It was like entering a time warp and being thrown back to the 1950s, as I watched the Rockabilly dancers and another performance group strut their stuff in front of the tourists. I stuck around there for a bit until I finally heard some modern sounding music. As I walked around the bend, I was amazed to see some random rock band setup on the side of the street putting on a free show, amps and all. I watched a few songs and then continued walking down the path and found no less than 5 other bands within the next 500 feet or so. I imagine you could spend all day walking back and forth and see 20-30 different bands, it’s awesome.

After watching that group of bands for awhile, I crossed the street to some sort of festival grounds where there was a Brazilian festival going on. I wandered around there for a bit, took in some live Brazilian jazz, and then continued to the other side of the grounds. What was I met with? Oh just another group of about 20 bands playing up and down this huge walkway. I was looking forward to catching some local Japanese acts, but to have so many in one place was amazing. Some of them were pretty amateurish, but there were a few that definitely had some skill, making it well worth a watch. I finally dragged myself away, and walked towards the city. Twenty or so minutes later I found another thing I had wanted to see very badly, the world famous Shibuya crossing. It’s basically an intersection connecting 5 or 6 streets, but every 5 minutes or so the lights turn red and thousands of people cross the street in various directions. It’s hard to explain with words, but the video I put up later will show you what I mean.

After walking around Shibuya some more, I headed back and walked through Yoyogi Park itself. When you think of Tokyo, you think of masses of buildings and zero grass, but this park is incredibly huge. It took me a good hour and a half to walk around in a circle, and I don’t even think I saw all of it. Bike trails, running trails, dog parks, recreational areas; it has everything. It began to get late, and I had to meet Eric in Ikebukuro after he got off work, so I finished my solo adventure and hopped back on the train to grab a few drinks with the roomie. I’ll do my best to get the videos ripped and posted on YouTube sometime this week.