tokyo 2003 - 04
january 22, 2003
<one of many lovely crepe stands - unfortunately no crepe for me this time>
you haven't really been to harajuku if you haven't taken a walk down takeshita dori. it's usually packed during the after school hours and on the weekends. but at 11am, when we took our stroll, things were barely beginning to wake up. the narrow street is filled with shops, cafes, music stores, crepe stands and a ton of trendy clothing boutiques. i even got propositioned for some "hashish" there last time. =:o the best place to begin this walk would be near the harajuku station side, which will take you all the down to meiji dori.
<along meiji dori, near la foret harajuku and hmv>
meiji dori has changed since i was there two years ago. there are a lot of construction going on and generally speaking, a face lift is in the making. i recall where these weird faux-tree display cases were, there used to be some chairs alongside planters. but perhaps it's good that they are doing some new things to harajuku, it's expanding quite rapidly at this rate.
<edwin jeans>
whenever i'm in harajuku, i always hit the edwin jeans store because according to k, they are best fitting jeans for an asian male body. in essence, it means that guys with no ass and long thin legs will fit nicely in edwin and i have to agree. they take a non distinct ass and make it into a nicely formed one. their jeans don't come cheap but i guess that's the price you must pay as edwin jeans in other countries are completely different in cutting and style. what makes them even better is that their inhouse alteration crew will hem your jeans right there and then for you. saves you time and money. so how many pairs did we walk away with? 2 for the flat ass guy.
<7 wide for me please>
i was really really happy to find a brand new new balance store in harajuku this time around. i don't recall seeing it there last time - only in osaka i believe. i'm a huge huge new balance shoe fan and seeing this was like a goldmine as america usually carries the crappiest of styles and most horrid of colors. there are never any cool retro looking ones here in the states. so you can imagine my glee when i came upon this store. however, it would be my second visit back there a couple of days later that had me dropping the dough. i'll get to that later.
<omotesando, near kiddyland and chanel>
from meiji dori, you swing a hard left at the gap and you're on omotesando - one of the nicest sections of this hip area and maybe in all of tokyo. people say it's the japanese version of champs elysees (not that i've ever been to the one in paris so i wouldn't even know) where it's chocked full of high end retail stores and lots of art galleries and cafes. the trees that line both sides of the street must be really something to see during the other seasons of the year (again, not that i've seen it personally). but of course during the chilly winter months, it's quite barren as shown above.
the weather was really really nice when we were there albeit a bit chilly at times due to the windchill factor. but overall, it made for nice days to stroll by. the skies were blue and even the often times smoke-hazed areas seemed less polluted. of course that doesn't mean that my eyes weren't red like they were bleeding from the excess of smokers around me but oh well, you can't have it all. omotesando is always pleasant and i missed the weekend hawkers on the street selling their arts and crafts but perhaps next time i'll take a little bit longer time to stroll. i have yet to see all that it has to offer. at least i do know they have a shu uemura store there. *drools while whipping out the wallet*
<another one of my fave photos on this trip>
next stop....asakusa.
