Halloween in Harajuku

Hi again! I just thought I'd share with you all some photos from my day yesterday. I figured, it's Halloween, why not go to a place where the fashions make it Halloween every day anyway, and see how they do it? So, I ended up in Harajuku on Halloween! That's the high fashion district of Tokyo, for those of you unfamiliar with it. It happened to be on Sunday anyway, and that's generally Harajuku's big day. The place was pretty packed.

Entrance to the main street

Busy intersection

Store that sells the 'Momo' fashion that's kind of stereotypically big right now, pale pastels and floral prints reminiscent of late 1800s tea parties, I guess? I dunno, I saw a lot of shops selling this stuff, but admittedly not too many girls actually walking around wearing it.

Please, oh please. I have a great need for storage space for all my waterfowl.

But of course, the real show-stealer was the costumes!!

Okay, this wins. Your argument is invalid.

Other honorable mentions:

I guess a group of Husky lovers dressed them up and brought them to Harajuku for Halloween, they were very popular.

I went to the Meiji Jingu shrine right next to the big square in Harajuku afterwards, and stumbled on a festival! I love Tokyo. It was apparently for something associated with Aomori, the northernmost prefecture on the main island. I didn't quite catch what, though. Anyway, it was fun to watch!

People doing a Mikoshi procession, that was kind of cool. From Wikipedia:

"A Mikoshi is a portable Shinto shrine. Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle of a divine spirit in Japan at the time of a parade of deities. Often, the Mikoshi resembles a miniature building, with pillars, walls, a roof, a veranda and a railing. Typical shapes are rectangles, hexagons, and octagons. The body, which stands on two or four poles (for carrying), is usually lavishly decorated, and the roof might hold a carving of a phoenix.

During a Matsuri, or Japanese festival, people bear a Mikoshi on their shoulders by means of the two or four poles. They bring the Mikoshi from the shrind, carry it around the neighborhoods that worship at the shrine, and in many cases leave it in a designated area, resting on blocks, for a time before returning it to the shrine. Some shrines have the custom of dipping the Mikoshin in the water of a nearby lake, river or ocean. At certain festivals, the people who bear the Mikoshi wave it wildly from side to side."

So it says. I find that article to be lacking a certain feel of the procession. The bearers are shouting and jumping in rhythm the whole time, the procession is basically an organized party slash cheer section. I could see it being absolutely exhausting to be carrying on (heh) like that for hours at a time. Looks like fun, though!

This did happen to be the kind of procession where they waved it wildly from side to side. Nice! This procession was all girls - there was one sturdy young woman who braced her back against the bottom of the shrine as they were swaying it. That looked like a workout.

The entrance to Meiji Jingu

This was something else associated with the festival - they had small performance groups demonstrating traditional music, and THIS monstrosity: It was a gigantic structure that looked like a Mardi Gras float, but stationary - Lavishly decorated, bits of it hydraulically actuated, and it blew smoke from several nozzles. Pretty fantastic.

They had this giant lit hollow statue, too - I guess it portrays a traditional hero from Aomori. That's a rabbbit he's stepping on, by the way.

So yeah, pretty amazing display!

More scenes from the square between Harajuku and the Meiji Jingu shrine

I thought it was kind of funny - the kids who were dressed up wild on the bridge in Harajuku had kind of an 'on' area and an 'off' area. When against the railing of the bridge proper, photos were apparently encouraged, but when they left the bridge on one side, I guess it was understood that they were just hanging out with their friends, because whenever someone tried to take a photo in that area, they would turn their back. Huh.

The lanterns represent sponsors of the shrine and the Aomori event. Each one has a company or group's name on it. Asahi and the Coca-cola bottling plant were big contributers.

Performance stage area

Well, a fun day all in all! I think that's my best one here in Japan so far. Hopefully, that is the start of many more. So far, I'm liking my decision to go enjoy myself a bit. There's a song from 'Avenue Q' that sums it up nicely, and I've had it in my head for the last few days:

There is life outside your apartment

I know it's hard to conceive

But there's life outside your apartment

And you're only gonna see it if you leave

There is cool sh*t to do

But it can't come to you

And who knows dude, you might even score

There is life outside your apartment

But you've got to open the door!


I'll leave you with this, I saw it on the interweb the other day and it cracked me up. Peace out, I'll post again soon!