This particular photo doesn't capture the whole thing lit up, but trust that this entire side of the building is one giant TV screen. And here's the 'small TV screen' that my guidebook refers to when giving directions.
And here's the madness that's people crossing the street right out of Shibuya Station.
Shibuya is apparently shopper's heaven, and just full of Japanese youth. Well, the ones that are too normal for Harajuku anyway. The above picture by the way, was taken from my amazing window seat at Starbucks, in the second floor of some big department store complex. It has huge glass windows looking over Shibuya's big crosswalks, and so is a perfect place for people watching whilst sipping on an Azuki frappachino. Which is DELICIOUS by the way. But I thought it was interesting that Japan only has one size in all their Starbucks' across the country: tall. (which is the smallest size, for the coffee uninformed). Apparently Japanese people don't drink ventis? Oh well. The point is that I got a few shots of random street fashion (and I wasn't the only one doing so), before feeling too much like a creep for taking pictures of people without their knowledge, and leaving.
Some Harajuku/punk-goth style, juxtaposed to a salaryman, the ultimate in conformity. Though the existence of a particular 'harajuku style' seems to contradict the very principles of uniformity it seems to rebel against. Very interesting....
Parasols. All the ladies have them. I feel like I'm in a kid's dollhouse. Aside from a lot of people trying to keep their skin light, which I guess explains the existence of parasols, I feel the need to point out the specific popularity of parasols that I would describe as somewhat gothic lolita. What with the lace and flowers and color scheme being either monochrome or pastel. However, most of the people with these gothieloli parasols are completely normal-looking, and not at all into the lolita thing. I'm talking middle-aged housewives here. But yeah, parasols are very in. They range from the $10 one I got at a discount store in Asakusa earlier that day, to $150 one from Ginza with intricate embroidery. And folding umbrellas aren't very much in style either, even among boys. Most people carry the full-length ones. Which has no purpose other than aesthetics, because the wind here, at least during the summer rainy season, isn't strong enough to warrant not having a folding umbrella. I gotta say though, they're cute, and I'll probably get another one before I go back to Boston, where non-folding umbrellas are VERY much warranted.
Opaque over-the-knee black socks with heels. Seriously, they're EVERYWHERE. And now that I was looking for someone with them one, I was only barely able to catch one.... oh well. Anyway, I have no idea what the deal is with this. Over-the-knee socks?! These can be risky in that they only work if you have really, really nice legs. If you don't, they pinch above your knee and make your thighs look huge. But I guess enough people here have really skinny legs that these were able to come into mainstream fashion. And I bet they make walking in heels a little more endurable, since all females here have some sort of lift or heel to their shoes. I just don't get the black, over-the-knee part, since it's REALLY HOT here in summer.
Speaking of legs, they're the hottest thing here since hair bleach. Case in point: the girl with the black/pink/white mini-dress and pink shopping bag. I suppose fashion trends gear themselves to whatever flatters a particular group of people's stereotypical body type. For example, 'urban fashion' (which, as Allan so tactfully puts it, is really just a euphemism for black) tends to accentuate curvy females and broad-shouldered males. And since Japanese girls don't have much in the way of curves, but tend to be really really skinny, it's all about the legs here. Short-shorts and mini-skirts are really popular, but hardly do I see a female besides me in spaghetti straps. Strangely enough, tank tops are far more common among guys than among girls, but I'll get to that in a moment.
You can't tell in this picture, but the volume of that girl's hair to the size of her head was ricidulous. The 80s just rolled over in their grave. But anyway, typical Japanese consumer girl: rich, bleached hair, short skirts, and high heels. It's like a uniform almost.
And brand names. It's all about the brand names. I can't see the bag's label from here, but I'm sure I recognize it from last month's Vogue. Is it Chanel? I know a few years ago, everyone over 25 HAD to have a little black Prada bag...
And now from fashion, we'll move onto music. The starbucks was actually on the same floor as a music store, so I spent a while looking around there, and taking photos of the displays for the ones I recognized. ^_^
Gackt! I'm not a Gackt fangirl exactly, but I think he's ok, and from what I heard of his new single in the sampling booth, it sounds awesome. ^_^ Note: He's playing a concert in LA at AX this year, with his band SKIN, which involves Miyavi and possibly Yoshiki. It think it may already have happened though...
The fact that there was a section called 'J-punk' but not 'J-rock' amused me, since we differentiate j-rock and j-pop in the states, but not j-punk. Interesting. I've never heard of any of these though, so I'm curious to see what their adaptation of punk sounds like, since both rock and pop have their own idiosyncrasies that separate them from American rock/pop.
Raison Detre!! Nightmare! D'spairs Ray!!
And THESE boys have been haunting me ever since I arrived. Apparently they're the next big thing, or they just have the best publicist on the face of the earth. They're seriously everywhere I look. On the big screen in Shibuya. Plastered on the Subway Station posters in Roppongi station. Playing on the DVD players in Akihabara. Seated in the place of honor in all the record stores. Kai-tun. Anyway, Japan does the boy band thing WAY better than the US ever did, probably because I didn't even think of them as a boy band until from referred to them as such to me, I guess because in the states 'boy band' carries a connotation of cheesiness, choreography, and matching white suits a la Backstreet Boys. But technically Kai-Tun is a boy band, since it's a five-singer group, just not quite as delightfully dork as say, W-inds. Regardless, they sounded pretty catchy when I sampled their stuff. ^^
So afterwards, I went shopping around, getting distracted from my original pursuit of finding the mythical 100 yen shop mega-store by all the cute little fashion shops. Shibuya is just crawling with the young and trendy, and the stores totally cater to that.
And here pretty much the coolest boys fashion store ever, called Zen Mall. Like I said before, the guys here are much more stylish than the guys in the states, so there's actually a market here for stores geared to specifically guys' styles. I think I might buy something from here before I go though, since I'm probably too big for teenage girls' clothes here, and the boys clothes here are practically girls' clothes in the states anyway. ^^
And now, the famous 109 building:
It's a bit of a landmark in Shibuya.
Note the crowd of high school/college girls making a beeline for the store.
And the floors upon floors listing all sorts of small trendy boutiques. ^_^ They weren't all prohibitively expensive either, which is I guess part of the reason it's so popular among the younger folk.
I was a little tired after getting up early and seeing all the sights, so I actually was boring and just went home after all this. ^^
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