Wander Hour

Inside Laforet are a multitude of boutiques featuring awesome indie brands. Some of my favorites include monomania, GHOST OF HARLEM, MINT NeKO, and ALGONQUINS. These stores and more can be found in the last two floors of Laforet. If you are familiar with Harajuku fashion, you'll see that the last two floors are mainly dedicated to alternative fashion well-known to the Harajuku community. If not, try looking through an issue of KERA magazine and you'll be able to recognize most of these brands. I tend to be a Harajuku fashion junkie so I stop by here and Takeshita-dori a lot even if I don't end up buying anything. There's just so much cool stuff to see! Here are some inside snaps of Laforet. ▼

And that was the end of my light stroll through Harajuku.  I would've stayed longer but it was time to head back to Ikebukuro and meet my reserved spot at the 'Uta no Prince-sama' themed Animate Cafe. More about this will be written in my next entry.

Overall, it was a nice walk and what surprised me was how quickly things changed on Takeshita-dori and around Harajuku. Many indie stores were replaced with mainstream stuff like Etude House or shiny new department-styled buildings like ALTA. I remember just a year ago, most of this newer stuff didn't exist. This was especially true when I was here in 2014. I think these changes are largely due to the influx of tourists that increase year after year. When dealt with a different type of consumer, businesses will do what they can to catch up with what they will profit from. A few indie brands such as PEACE NOW, went bankrupt in recent years while some brands such as SEX POT ReVeNGe and monomania have closed doors on one or two of their stores. There are also some brands who have managed to hang on by keeping an online store like SEXY DYNAMITE LONDON (http://www.zaji-online.com/) but no longer have a physical store. In my opinion, if these changes continue, it will become a double-edged sword. While, yes, tourists are more inclined to buy mainstream items rather than expensive alternative clothing, on the flip side, Takeshita-dori will slowly lose its original charm and tourists will have less reason to visit. But no one knows what will happen for sure, and only time will tell if these changes will continue and last. I'll leave you with these questions: What do you think about all of this? Do you agree with these changes?

I hope you enjoyed this entry and thank you for staying with me till the end. Until next time, take care!

Website:

Address:

A five second walk from JR Harajuku Station, you really can't miss it. 

Hours:

It depends on which stores, but most of them are closed by 9PM on both weekday and weekends. There are small basement stores dedicated to purikura and those are open pretty late.

Website:

Address:

1-11-6 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001

Hours:

Mon - Sun: 11 AM - 9 PM (Weekdays & Weekends)