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Birthday
1968-07-00
Gender
Male
Location
California
Member Since
2006-03-02
Occupation
Computer Geek
Real Name
Joe
Personal
Anime Fan Since
Early 80's
Favorite Anime
Battle Angel Alita, Sorcerer Hunters, S-Cry-Ed, Nausicaa, Full Metal Panic 2nd Raid
Goals
Lose 50 lbs (23kg) by the end of 2009 & learn a foreign language sometime before I die.
Hobbies
Watching anime, riding my motorcycle and learning to play the banjo.
Talents
Not playing the banjo...
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Monday, May 1, 2006
Yoyogi Park – Sundays
Yoyogi Park is a schizophrenic park. In the middle of the park is Tokyo’s largest shrine, Meiji-jingu. A symbol of Japan’s long history and traditions. That is not what today’s post is going to talk about. On Sundays, just outside of the park is where the Harajuku kids hang out. Harajuku is the name of the neighborhood and the JR train station nearby. If you are not familiar with the Harajuku kids – it’s like an anime convention without the convention. Original creation cosplay would be another way to describe it. The outfits vary from commonplace goth to full makeup, masks and some really amazing custom costume creations. They are definitely there to be seen. Here is a distant shot of the hangout area:
This gives you an idea of how many people are hanging out & hopefully how many different hair colors there are there. The most common outfits when I was there, were the bridal gowns and the bloody doctor/nurse costume. In the following picture, you can see one of the doctors on the left and seated is one of the brides as well as a jester I liked. The kids seemed to be very cooperative and posed for pictures when other tourists asked. For me, I’m not sure why, but I still prefer the candid shots over the posed shots.
Here is a link to a site with a lot of pics of Harajuku kids. I strongly suggest you check it out, you'll have a much better idea of how elaborate some of the outfits are:
Funky Kids at Yoyogi Park
On some Sundays, (not sure which ones) they also have music in the area. Well, they have bands playing, whether you call it music or not, I guess is a matter of opinion. I have no clue how they decide who gets to play, but they have bands about 50’-100’ apart on the sidewalk as well as a main stage. If you like a band, you pretty much have to be directly in front of them or you will be listening to more than one band at a time – not recommended.
Here is Psychoactive Butterfly (the comment I wrote on the back of the photo was “Different country, same metal $#!^.”):
And their neighbor:
The sidewalk bands usually didn’t have many people hanging out in front of them. The people that were there for the music tended to be closer to the main stage.
As you can tell, this is definitely a larger event than just playing at a local club. I did not know that there was going to be any music when I decided to go there, I just happened across it. I listened to 4 or 5 bands while I was there. There were no bands there that day that completely wowed me, but it was a lot of fun.
And I will leave you with a picture of a store in the Harajuku district that I cannot imagine seeing in the United States.
Until next time.
-bunraku
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