Today I met up with the Aussie friend I mentioned in the previous article for a very eventful Sunday. We met up Shibuya and headed to Akihabara. The better informed of you may already know what happened. Essentially, a man drove into a crowd with a rented truck and then went on a knifing rampage. Read about it here. When my friend and I arrived at the place we found a large area taped off, full of the emergency service's vehicles and personell, with several helicopters circling the area. 

We saw a curious scene around this policeman. A somewhat old, bald man with kanji written on his face and eyebrows thickened with what seemed like felt tip first shoved at my friend and then entered the taped off area. The officer in the picture dragged him back and threw him beside a wall, where he continued to lie clutching his cell phone. 

Nevertheless we continued our sightseeing in the electric town, somewhat hindered by the size of the crimescene, apart from which, Akihabara seemed to be fairly normal. I did notice a larger amount of cosplayers than usual though. Lunch was had at Mos Burger, a Japanese style burger restaurant which serves Japanese size yet exceedingly good burgers.

After sufficient wandering and wondering, we headed to Harajuku, for I think that no Sunday in Tokyo is complete without a tour of the day's eccentrics.

The eccentric population was particularly high today. Perhaps it is better to visit later in the afternoon.

 
I usually try to ask for permission to take a picture as well as whether or not I can post it on the internet, which makes taking pictures sometimes difficult due to the amount of tourists.

Voter apathy is common in Japan, and because (if I correctly recall) Japanese campaign law forbids the use of the internet at a campaigning tool, candidates blast their messages from on top of vans like these. Generally you only see a few, usually older people, listening to them.

On our way back home we stopped at Shibuya, where we found a large crowd gathered outside a magazine store. We thought there might be a famous person, but moved on for a visit to my favourite arcade and the Shibuya Apple Store. When we returned however, we tried to see what all the fuss was about; some famous model apparently. Just as I had manouvered myself to one side of the crowd, the model pushed through the crowd with her bodyguards, running right past me. I had my camera on hand, but it was all over far too soon.

Apologies for the recent lack of updates; partly due to the fact that I've simply been very busy at school and partly because I haven't had anything interesting to write about. It dawned on me one day that I should write about what it is like to be an exchange student 'That'll give me loads to write about!' I though, but I can't actually think of anything worth saying that isn't made up emotional dribble or practical advice like... err... remember to by some adapters at the airport for example.

Now however, I have two weeks with loads of free time. This is because it is now the week before test week at my school, and all clubs are taking a break, including the Kendo club. Next week, test week, is also club free, with every day ending at 11:40 so those poor Japanese students can go study all day and all night. Last Sunday then I wen't to Harajuku once more, the previous Sunday having been a YFU orientation day.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera's memory card at home, so I only had the camera's internal memory. This would have been suffice had I realised how to decrease the whopping resolution of the pictures, but try as I might I could not figure it out, which meant I could only take so many pictures. Only upon returning home did I realise I could have taken pictures with my perfectly adequate mobile phone camera. At home I also figured out how to change the resolution after about three seconds of fidgeting. God damn I hate being an idiot sometimes...

Unfortunately I don't real have pictures of the eccentrics today, as they were all gathered in the shady corner being oggled by an annoying number of tourists with huge cameras. Whenever any of them would pose some fat american (Don't you just love how nobody cares about prejudice against American tourists?) would shove in so their friend could take a picture. So instead I headed off to Yoyogi park for the first time, and bumbed into some of these fellows.

Another of Harajuku's Sunday spectacles is the congregation of so called "rockabillys", who dress up in leather, do their hair and put on a show. I had heard of these guys before and I wasn't expecting it to be very good, but I actually found them to be brilliant entertainament.

I swear it didn't even sway in the wind. 

And what better car for these eccentric scallywags than a pink cadillac? 

From there a followed a path on the left of the park which was crowded with lots of bands, most of them quite good. (Unlike the not-quite-so-skiled rapper I saw outside Shibuya station; felt a bit sorry for him when he said thank you into the microphone even though nobody even gave him a glance... then I found it amusing.) The interesting thing was that there would occasionally be two bands right next to each other, playing at the same time, which it seems results in a discreet yet furious battle with some volume knobs. I know my right ear was bleeding after passing them.
A nice band composed entirely of drums and barrels.

 
Also found these hippies painting the canvas for their new peace tent. 

 
Yoyogi park seems like a great place to go for a picnic, hard to believe a place like this exists in the middle of Tokyo. 

And finally I bumped into these girls on the bridge on my way back. Needless to say I made the most of their offer. As did a tall nerdy fellow who sort of stood in front of them with a petrified look on his face until one of the girls hugged him nervously while he stood there with his arms straight.

On Sunday I met up with some friends to go to Harajuku for the first time. Unlike Akihabara which is almost thirty minutes away by train, Harajuku is right next to Shibuya - which means I can go there every Sunday to take more photos, hooray!

For the non-japanophiles who read my blog, Harajuku is one of the better known places in Tokyo, the Harajuku bridge and the eccentricly dressed teenagers that frequent it being particularly well known through their occasional appearance in foreign media (and Gwen Stefani's music video.) It is also right next to Yoyogi park, the Meijijingu shrine and the fashionable Omotesando shopping street.

The second major street is the alley-like Takeshitadôri, which is more popular among young people, with plenty of clothing shops catering to youth fashions and subcultures such as Gothloli and the like. For some reason it also has loads of stalls selling crepes, rolled up into cones and filled with ice cream, chocolate, fruits, berries, cheesecake, cheese (note the difference) or even prosciutto ham if you fancy a savory option. 

Check out which country's design brand is on Harajuku Fashion Joyboard 11, heh heh.

Everything is happening in Japan! Have you bumped into a skateboarding dog recently? The dog would put his/her front paws on the board, push it for some speed and then hop on. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have with "Harajuku Girls" in it, but I will be sure to put up more soon (next Sunday.)

As in the future I will probably be taking many photos around Tokyo, I've decided to organise my photo gallery regionally, with all new photos going to their respective categories. From now on I will also tag all the articles that go with the photos with "Harajuku Photos" and so on so that you can easily find commentary for the photos as well. I've also put up some pictures of my visit to Akihabara, will write on that later ^^