Harajuku

Claustrophobia.
If you have it don't come here.
The crowds will get you.

Today I went to Harajuku with some friends. It was the most crowded place I've seen in Tokyo so far. Besides shopping, Harajuku is famous for people dressing up in anime-esque costumes. There were lots of cool shops with really unique clothing. Some a little much for me, but some of the spots were actually pretty cool. I'll be going back for sure to pick up a few gifts. I got a few pics with people I found exceptionally weird, and most of them were pretty agreeable to having their pictures taken. Soon I'll be posting all of my pictures online at picasaweb.google.com/arthur.defelice. The crowd there was really amazing; absolutely packed with people. There was one point when we were walking through the Harajuku's central street and we actually came to a complete stop; we couldn't even move because of all the people. Plus there was plenty to see; absolutely crazy costumes. I saw lots of wild hair colors, caked on makeup, and insanely high platform shoes.

Past the main shopping areas for peoplewatching is the Meiji Jungu Shrine. It's located in a huge park, and it was cool to see all that green in the middle of Tokyo. The shrine was built in 1920 to honor the life of the Emperor Meiji. Meiji was the first emperor to open up Japan to foreign trade and culture and really set the tone for the modernization of Japan, and it's the biggest shrine I've seen so far.

As a side note, I still haven't done any reading yet. It's a bit to hard to motivate myself, considering that I'm in Tokyo and my grades don't transfer; all my credits are pass/fail. Anyway, I should probably get on that. I'll probably put up another post tonight to recap my weekend.