Today Motoi showed me around his area a bit. He lives really close to Harajuku station, which is the center of Japanese youth culture and fashion. It also hosts a lot of design and fashion institutes and with Takeshita Street a really famous shopping street.
I’m backpacking, so unfortunately can’t go shopping, but walking around the shopping street was definitely worth it. I got a good impression on Japanese youth culture. For instance those girls with logos and writings in their face; I asked Motoi about the meaning and he told me they adore some singer and put those ‘tattoos’ to show their sympathy.
I’m backpacking, so unfortunately can’t go shopping, but walking around the shopping street was definitely worth it. I got a good impression on Japanese youth culture. For instance those girls with logos and writings in their face; I asked Motoi about the meaning and he told me they adore some singer and put those ‘tattoos’ to show their sympathy.
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| Takeshita Street in the rain. Full of umbrellas. |
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| Waffles displayed on Takeshita Street. You pick one and tell the number... |
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| ...and this lady then served me. |
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| I went for the brownie one. Ice cream and brownies stuffed in a waffle. Heaven on Earth! |
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| Those flyer girls... |
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| Another food display... |
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| Isn't she cute? As everything in Japan... |
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| ...even the signs telling you what not to do. |
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| One of those face tattoo girls. |
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| And another one. |
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| Some of Harajuku's legendary cos-players posing at Jingu Bashi Bridge |
We then went to Sensoji in Asakusa district. One of Tokyo's districts, where an atmosphere of the Tokyo of past decades survives. At Sensoji Temple they have this rite to take a box with lots of sticks and shake it until one stick comes out. You then check the number on it and find out about your future. It pretty much acts as a fortune teller. So I shook the box and when I handed the stick, which came out to Motoi he laughed. I asked him why and he gave me the paper with the information about the stick written on it. Gosh, I got ‘Bad Fortune’! How can this be? It made me so upset. In my opinion there should not be a stick that tells someone bad fortune.
Lucky me, before exiting the temple we found a place, where people who got bad luck could leave it behind to make sure it stays in the temple. Fingers crossed this really is the case. I don’t need bad luck on my journey.
Lucky me, before exiting the temple we found a place, where people who got bad luck could leave it behind to make sure it stays in the temple. Fingers crossed this really is the case. I don’t need bad luck on my journey.
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| The paper telling me bad luck. |
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| Leaving the bad luck behind... |
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| Sensoji Main Hall |
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| Advertising for some comedy show. |
PS: Sorry for the backlog of posts. This was written on 30th of Nov, 2014.
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