Cheap and chill: Japanese People Watching

If there's one thing I absolutely love doing in Tokyo it's people watching. It's a great way to soak in the culture for sure, just watching people pass by.

I *loved* this outfit!

Young Japanese women, imho, have the best taste in fashion and also the best bodies for them. Sure they're short (which goes against western standards) but it just makes their short skirts look even cuter with their big hair and dramatically done eyes. Most westerners are critical of how skimpy they dress. However when I look at them, I simply see stylish, sexy beautiful women.

Anyway, I actually went into that big Starbucks (which for the record is way too expensive there but the special drinks are still less than 400 yen) that I had photographed and posted on one of my entries from last year and sat there drinking a jelly frappucino, just in a daze from watching all the different types of people and styles at the crazy Shibuya crossing.

Here are some photos:





It's a lot more interesting in real life! I didn't want to take too many pictures and have people think I'm some sort of weirdo. I wasn't about to play the dumb tourist card either.

But fun fact: The big window where I was sitting on the second floor of that Shibuya Starbucks was where one of the cameramen for Lost in Translation was sitting to get that shot of the Shibuya street crossing in the movie!

Lost in Translation happens to be my favorite film ever.

How awesome is that? :-) I was at a filming location...for freeeeeee!

Free entertainment and CHEAP TRENDY SHOPPING: Harajuku Station and Takeshita Dori

I remember a few years back being at the bookstore and seeing a photography book on Harajuku kids. If you look them up, they have these outrageous, creative (many people would probably say "weird") outfits. Some are cute, but they're all just so extreme! Anyway, they hang out at Harajuku Station on the weekends and love to show off their creativity. Unfortunately for me, I didn't see too many of them because it was also the weekend of the Nagisa Music Festival (which I went to on Sunday). So most of them were probably at the festival. OR we got there late in the day.

Anyway, normally the Harajuku kids DO hang out by the Harajuku Station. It's a cluster of them so it doesn't really take that much time to check them out. This is where you would see them:

OH and apparently....these kids right here with the "FREE HUGS" sign are supposedly part of a sex cult that was started in France (or somewhere else in Europe) and so when you go up to them to hug you, they start telling you about the cult. HAHAHA is this true? Crap....it all starts with a free hug...

But since we didn't get to see Harajuku kids, we checked out Takeshita Dori, which is a shopping street right by the station which has mostly cheap and trendy stuff. Here are some pics of Harajuku shopping (sorry I couldn't get the kids!):