Harajuku Daytime Stroll 「 原宿 」
2/17/2016▲ Today's entry is about my daytime walk through Harajuku on 1/19. Harajuku is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo best known for its icon...
2/17/2016
▲ Today's entry is about my daytime walk through Harajuku on 1/19. Harajuku is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo best known for its iconic street fashion around the world. The main locations covered will be Takeshita Street (Takeshita-dori or 竹下通り) & Laforet. I unfortunately did not have enough time to visit Omotesando or Meiji Jingu this time around. Keep reading to follow my mini tour and see what caught my eye. My blog posts are less about writing and more about the photographic journey so be aware that this is going to be very image heavy!
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Takeshita-dori is a long street in Harajuku most famously known for its unique indie and alternative clothing shops. There are also places to dine, some mainstream chains like McDonald's, and other miscellany including one of Tokyo's largest hyaku yen (100 yen) stores, Daiso. CUTE CUBE, the building I introduced in my previous post, is also located on this street. It houses the Ojipan and Pom Pom Purin Cafe which are both covered by this blog. With cute trinkets hanging left and right and attention-grabbing fashion, Takeshita-dori is a very colorful and lively spot with a lot to explore.
I suggest coming here on the weekdays (when it is not a holiday) because it is heavily packed during the weekends to the point that it becomes hard to walk. You'll literally need to shuffle your feet the whole way to the end. I came here on a Tuesday and it wasn't bad at all. ▼
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| View of the entrance to Takeshita-dori across the street from Harajuku Station. |
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| This new WEGO store has a lot of fashionable hats and cute accessories. |
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| 'Totti Candy Factory' and 'Etude House' are two new additions to Takeshita-dori I did not see when I was here last winter. |
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| This ALTA is a new addition I did not see last year either. |
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| One out of multiple 'ACDC Rag' alternative stores spread through Takeshita-dori. |
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| Inside 'ACDC Rag'. |
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| An inside look at a popular Japanese drugstore, 'Matsumoto Kiyoshi'. You can find their chain throughout Japan. |
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| Such cute makeup! Japan really makes you spend all your money on cute packaging. |
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| A nice contrast between different types of alternative fashions - lolita/cosplay & goth/punk. |
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| Crepe stands on Takeshita-dori and around Harajuku are like what Starbucks are to New York City. They're everywhere. |
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| This is the only 'Liz Lisa' store on Takeshita-dori. Beware of entering this store during sales, it is chaotic. |
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| An inside look into CUTE CUBE's 'SPINNS' store. |
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| Right outside the end of Takeshita-dori. |
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| Next stop: Laforet. It is located close to Omotesando and within walking distance from Takeshita-dori. |
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| An advertisement for a 'K Project' pop-up shop in the basement of Laforet. |
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. ▼
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| monomania! This is my favorite Japanese clothing brand. I've got quite a collection of their stuff at home. All bought over time, of course. |
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| This is 'Like an Edison.com', a store featuring visual kei merchandise and CDs. This store usually sells brand new items at full price, but if you are looking for cheap vkei goods, I'd recommend checking out the Closet Child in Ikebukuro. There are also quite a few second hand vkei stores in Shinjuku that you can check out too. |
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| Finally stumbled on the 'K Project' pop-up. It was here for a limited amount of time so I decided it was worth the stop. |
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| Photos of the merchandise being sold was prohibited so I just took photos of the surrounding posters. |
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| Hotties you could stop and take selfies with. |
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!
Takeshita-dori
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.
Laforet
Website:
Address:
1-11-6 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001
Hours:
Mon - Sun: 11 AM - 9 PM (Weekdays & Weekends)