A Sunday in Tokyo
 

Most weekends I like to go to Tokyo to spend time with my girlfriend, or hand out with friends, but last Sunday I ended up having most of the day to myself, so I thought I'd share some of the details here.

I began my day by riding my bike to Tokyo Station where I caught the Chuo Line train to Shinjuku. I needed to go to Shinjuku because I had bought a camera lens the week before and found it to be defective. I wanted to return it, or exchange it for something similar.

The Chuo Train was quite busy for a Sunday, full of shoppers, housewives, old people visiting friends and relatives, businessmen stuck working on Sunday, and a few school students in uniform who were either stuck taking extra classes or attending club activities.

Shinjuku Station was no less crowded than Tokyo Station. Shinjuku is full of shops and stores (and the red-light district), the interior to the station was more or less wall-to-wall people. I headed toward the west exit, which is on the side of the station where the camera shop was.

I had no problem returning the lens, the shop owner gave me a full refund, which I used to buy another lens and a couple accessories. I also bought a few rolls of film and 2 packages of film developer. I had hoped to take a few pictures around Shinjuku, but there is little there that I haven't photographed before, so I decided to catch the Yamanote train to Shibuya.

Coming back to Shinjuku Station I listened to a speech being delivered by one of the Japanese Nationalist groups. These guys are radical nationalist types who believe that the Emperor is the Divine Ruler of Japan, and that Japan was right to bomb Pearl Harbor, etc. etc. The speech giver was a young man standing on top of a van yelling through a megaphone while other members of the organization stood in formation below, wearing blue jump-suit uniforms with the Japanese flag on the left arm, and the German swastika on the other. I paused to watch for a moment, and as I did, an older businessman walked up to the uniformed men and began screaming at them. He spit at them a few times, and called them stupid. The nearby police watched, but let him yell and spit, probably hoping that one of the nationalists would do something arrest-worthy. But nothing happened, the businessman walked away, yelling curses over his shoulder as he did.

My GF then called and said she could meet me in Shibuya later in the afternoon. She wanted to have yaki-niku at the Kyu-kaku restaurant located there. Since I had a couple hours to burn before we were to meet, I decided to stop in Harajuku. I left the demonstration, entered the station, and got on the train.

Harajuku was a mess of place, too many foreigners were there. Some were young foreigners dressed in costumes, looking as out-of-place as palm trees on the North Pole. The rest of the foreigners were all camera wielding uber-tourists. I felt rather uncomfortable and foolish to be around them, so I headed toward Yoyogi Park. Unfortunately, the park was crowded as well, and the bright sun made it unlikely that I would be able to get any good pictures there anyway.

I decided instead to walk the rest of the way to Shibuya, which was 15 minutes away by foot.

Shibuya was also super-crowded. I made it over the crossing to Shibuya Station, and headed to Hachiko. Unfortunately, Hachiko is located next to the designated smoking area, which is designed to hold about 20 people. Since there were more than 100 people smoking, most of them overflowed around the statue, there was more smoke there than one might find at a forest fire. Nevertheless, many people stopped to pose in front of the statue of Hachi to get their pictures taken on cameras and cell phones.

I left Hachiko, looking for a less smelly place. Nearby I came across a couple of street performers dressed up in yukatas and makeup. One sang and waved a flag while the other accompanied him on guitar. They were actually quite good, so I stopped to listen for awhile. Their act ended too soon, and they handed out fliers giving the time and place of their next performance.

There was a bus stop with an empty bench nearby, I got a drink from a vending machine, and sat down to relax my feet. As I sat, I watched the various people passing by. Most were young people who were out shopping or meeting friends, the rest were a mix of tourists, married people, and workers commuting to and from the station.

My GF called and said she was waiting at Hachiko, so I went back and found here. We walked to the restaurant and had a good meal of yaki-niku, rice, and a spicy soup. The cost of the meal was about $50, not too bad considering how good the food was, and how much we ate.

Afterward, we headed to the Seibu Department Store were my GF wanted to pick up some nylons and look at shoes. I stopped at the Prada store to look at men's shoes and see if they had anything new (I seem to collect them, I already have 12 or so pair of Prada shoes), but they didn't.

After shopping for a couple hours, we decided to head back home. We got the Yamanote train and took the long way around toward Tokyo Station, where I had to pick up my bike. By then it was dark, and the streets were starting to become more quiet. The only crowds were in front of the highway bus stops, carrying the weekend visitors back home to other parts of Japan.




Idiot Nationalist demonstration


Idiot camera-wielding foreign tourists


Hachiko


Designated smoking area overflows...


Street Performers


Shibuya Crossing

Why are the tourists idiots?

Sounds like a fun day! Thanks for sharing!
I love your pictures. I especially like the way you focus each shot. Shibuya crossing usually uses an aperture such that the whole scene is in focus, but you've just got these two guys up front looking like they're standing still and everything else is moving; that's pretty cool. :3

I know what you mean about idiot foreign tourists.
For some reason I always feel like they're gonna stop me and ask me for directions or something, hehe.

Because of all the beautiful things there are to photograph in Japan, they decide to go and take pictures in Harajuku. Harajuku is clothes and makeup, nothing more, nothing less. You can buy clothes and makeup in any place on earth, why come all the way to Japan to take pictures of people wearing such things?

It's obviously more than clothes and makeup - it's a manifestation of a particular subculture. You may not find it interesting but if other people do, what's the harm? I imagine many of those same 'idiots' also took pictures of temples, shrines, geisha, and fujisan. Don't be so hard on them.

I'm not being hard on those who enjoy dressing up on the weekends and hanging out with friends, I did that enough when I was in high school. Those whom I refer to as idiots are the gawkers and "sukebe" types who snap photographs of these people as though they were animals in a zoo. Rather than take pictures of the cosplayers, I took pictures of the idiots with the cameras to see how self-conscious I could make them feel. It was actually fun seeing them squirm or turn away as I took (or pretended to take) their pictures.

That bridge has just gotten a lot of press coverage in the last few years and every article tells visitors exactly where to go to take pictures of the freaks and weirdos. Then they can go home and prove to their friends just how edgy their vacation was.

Same thing used to happen to me and the hardcore punk & goth crowds I used to run around with in L.A. (in the 80s). At least we had the smarts to charge the gawkers money per photo. $10 for a group shot. :)

Sangetsu - Thanks for the story and photos. Other than the tourists and radical nationalists it looks like it was a lovely day!

hm it´s the same thing in my hometown heidelberg
we have many japanese tourists here and the take photos from every shop and every little thing like a oridnary bird oô
but i think thats what tourists make

I didn't say you were. Your judgementalism is misplaced. Those kids go there specifically to be seen.

Said the lad who knows because he lives there and talks to those people and knows their innermost thoughts and desires. :cool:

Yes I have lived there and I have spoken to hundreds of people who participated in that 'show.' Not that one would need to go so far to figure out that people dressing and behaving in such a manner are not trying to bled in and go about their business without being noticed.

Sangetsu sounds like a very fun day. There is always something interesting to photograph in Shibuya i think thats one of the reasons why i love it so much. Thanks for sharing.

Not so much, most of them go there to be seen by each other. Many were wearing folded scarves across their faces, while others were actually pushing the tourists back and telling them to stop taking pictures.

It gets worse each year. 3 years ago there were not so many tourists, but now there are more tourists taking pictures of people than there are people to take pictures of. 25 cosplayers being photographed by up to 100 foreign tourists... do you get the idea now? Harajuku used to be a place were people dressed up and would hang out with each other. Now it's become a freakshow for tourists.

Thanks for posting this. It's getting me even more excited for my upcoming trip over there.

As for Harajuku, I have zero interest in fashion, yet all the people I tell I'm going to Tokyo want something from there. I guess thousands of years of history and culture isn't cool enough.

I have heard that to really appreciate Japan, one needs to actually get away from the larger cities and get into the country side. I couldn't say if that's true or not, since technically I would be one of those idiot American tourists, who inadvertantly breaks half a dozen taboo's just cause it seems to be something Americans are good at. :o

However, I know "New York" isn't America anymore than Tokyo is Japan. I live in Iowa for instance, so country bumpkin is prolly more apt.


I supect tourists in general have a type of hearding instinct and cluster in areas where they feel comfortable. kinda like how folks of similer tastes cluster together in the school cafateria.

it's True.

Oh brother...

And the people who go there know exactly what it is and how and by whom they will be 'observed.' Tourists have been going to Harajuku for a loooong time now.

Yeah but on the other hand, when you think about it... they're just trying to live their lives. Tourists are just ephemeral, fleeting. Of course they're going to BE there, but I'm sure the residents don't want to be interacted with by them. I think they go to Harajuku and do cosplay because that's the only really culturally accepted place for them to do it. Hm...

Edit: After looking through the "Harajuku pics" photo gallery I gotta say some of them are asking for it XD

But Sangetsu, as you said before, we all know how overbearing (and embaraing for u foreign reident) foreign tourists can be ;)

I could understand that. I would feel uncomfortable if tourist from another country were trying to befriend me as well, simply because you won't likely see them ever again. Most people probably don't want to expend too much emotional energy on fleeting encounters.

Heh, true, I don't see many tourists in Iowa either. None actually....Come on, Iowa isn't that boreing, really.

Konnichiwa,

Hontone I've enjoyed reading that and of course seeing the pictures,Japan is my favourit place I hope that one day I can go and see it.you've picked up some nice pictures like those singers and the crowds ,I live in a quiet place where no tourists visit.

Aregatou gozaimasu hope to read more of those diaries.