Shane’s Japan Trip Report Day 11

Day 11: Sightseeing in Harajuku, Omotesando, and Ginza

Today’s plan is to visit Harajuku and check out the cosplay fashion and street bands and rockability and whatever else we may find, and then stroll around Ginza for a bit.

No More Sunday Cosplay in Harajuku?

So we went to Harajuku Sunday morning in anticipation of seeing all the cosplay mania near Harajuku Station, and we were in for a surprise: not a cosplayer anywhere. Did this trend come to a sudden end? No, it turned out that, possibly due to tightened security for the APEC conference in Japan, or possibly due to local complaints, police tightened regulations so that the cosplay gathering was prohibited. Bummer, especially for the foreign visitors who look forward to this attraction. This random lolita was about the only interesting character we saw.

Oh well, I figured we could at least see the street musicians at Yoyogi Park, but uh oh, no one here either. Just a quiet park on a Sunday morning full of picnicking couples and families. It turns out that street music was also banned from the area, so it appears that a once-vibrant cultural phenomenon is now over, unless the festivities have moved to another location I’m not aware of, or, for the reason stated above, the ban was just temporary.

With no cosplay to gawk at, we strolled down Takeshita Doori with the usual assortment of clothing boutiques:

As well as crepe stands, and cafes:

This was my favorite store along Takeshita-dori:

Then we made our way to Omotesando Doori, which also hadn’t changed much. There was a cafe near Omotesando Hills that had possibly the most expensive cup of coffee (1,000 yen) that I had ever seen.

Street Snaps, Yaki-onigiri and Artistic Cake on Omotesando-doori

One interesting thing you’ll see in Omotesando/Harajuku is “street snaps,” which is basically young fashion magazine photographers hanging out on Omotesando-doori looking for creatively dressed passersby. When a stylish person walks by, the photographer asks permission to take their photo and include it in the magazine. Of course most would-be models are happy to comply, and in fact many youth even make it a practice to dress up and walk up and down the street in hopes of being discovered.

I decided to take my own little video “street snap” of the people and fashions on Omotesando-doori on this Sunday:

We were a little hungry, so we bought two soy and miso-flavored yaki-onigiri, which were delicious!

We checked out Omotesando Hills, an extremely upscale shopping complex. There we found the usual assortment of pricey brand boutiques. Even though I’m not a big chocolate fan, this chocolate store always makes my mouth begin to water.

There was a Tokyo Sweets Collection exhibition of stunningly designed cakes along the staircase leading to the lower floor. Words can’t really describe how remarkable these cakes were, so I’ll let pictures do the talking instead. Here are just a few:

Why Japanese Wait in Long Lines for Krispy Kreme Donuts

After leaving Omotesando Hills, we strolled down several of the side streets, and discovered a long line down one of them. Curious, we went to the head of the line to see what the fuss was all about. It turns out that the line was a wait to get into the Harajuku Eggs ‘n Things, a Hawaiian-based breakfast restaurant that had opened recently in Harajuku.

Other than the fact that the restaurant is from abroad, there is probably nothing special about this restaurant. Japanese are curious eaters, and in the past have formed and waited in hour-plus-long lines for their turn at sampling such American standards as Krispy Kreme, Cinnabon, and Cold Stone Creamery. In fact, my wife and I have often joked that our shortest route to financial affluence may be to start a food business in the U.S., and then open a shop in Japan and advertise it as the next huge thing from the U.S. We’d be guaranteed at least one year of long lines until Japanese foodies get bored, as they always do, and move onto the next trend.

Chili Shrimp Tofu Burger, Baked Donuts, and Free Internet in Ginza

As for us, we ate takoyaki at my favorite nearby takoyaki stand, where I took a little video of a vendor showing off his awesome takoyaki-making skills:

And then decided to check out Ginza. Ginza’s main avenue is closed off during the weekends and the atmosphere is festive. While walking down the street, we passed by filming for the Japanese TV show Cool Japan, which features a bunch of gaijin searching out cool aspects of Japanese culture. This is actually a good show for Japanese-challenged foreigners to watch, since the gaijin on the show only speak English, with Japanese subtitles added.

Free Internet at Apple Store in Ginza

I first headed to the big Apple store in Ginza, one of the few places in Tokyo where you can look at the Internet free of charge to your heart’s content on any of the showroom floor computers.

After checking my email and the sports scores, we went over to the Printemps department store, which has a tasty depachikafood court. There we at a quick lunch at R Burger, where I had a chili shrimp tofu burger that was quite good.

We also bought a baked donut at Meil and pumpkin flavored soft serve ice cream.

Cheap Manga at Book Off

On our way home, we stopped by the Book Off used book shop in Jiyuugaoka, where I purchased 14 volumes of Shima Kosaku, my favorite manga, for 100 yen per volume, a nice score since the same volumes cost $3.50 per back in the U.S. Another big dinner awaited us at home courtesy of Oba-san:

And then I killed the rest of the evening watching Chiba Lotte Marines defeat the Chunichi Dragons to win the Japan Championship baseball series before turning in for the night.

Proceed to Shane’s Japan Trip Report Day 12