It's Tokyo time!: March 2007

Akihabara　秋葉原

Marunouchi
"Who did you say, Acky Habbema?"
"No, Akihabara. "
"What th h... is Akihabara?"
Akihabara is a part of Tokyo also known as Electric City. Today for a shorty.
We want to buy the ‘you know’ super sonic toilet seat for our home in Amsterdam.

Marunouchi
On the way we come through Hibiya. Many ministries sit here, right in front of the Imperial Palace. In the park the ginko trees are in fall colours finally. Half December... The temperature in Tokyo is some six degrees (!) higher than in the surrounding countryside. This is the so called heat island effect. Wind is blocked by the many high rise buildings keeping the heat in the city. In summer it is a considerable problem. Autumn colours are far behind the rest of Japan.
The beauty of ginko is in fall is it’s golden colour. The leaves turn yellow and then fall. No brown therefore.

Marunouchi

Marunouchi
The lanterns gave Frank a very good idea:
come again later today after sunset.

Akihabara
Akihabara. It is packed with electronics stores.
In fact there are no other products than those using electricity.

Akihabara
And in the weekend it is incredibily crowded.

Photo shoot. This model drew (already before publishing) much spectators.
And look very moody of course, that’s the way to do it.

Akihabara
The heart of Akihabara is a railway station where two lines cross, one of them the Yamanote line. The Yamanote line is the ring line in Tokyo. The tracks run on a considerable height though the neighbourhood. Under the railways bridges you will find shops. Trains seemingly run over the roofs of the shops.

Akihabara
And of course also the low end shops are there.
Here you buy USB sticks, memory cards, key boards et cetera for a song.

Akihabara
And we are not talking a few shops here.

Akihabara
Streets packed with them. The whole façade is used for advertising.

Akihabara
As Akihabara, or electronics to be more precise, are loved by tourists, duty-free shops are here too.

Akihabara
Also stores that sell equipment for use in Europe are found here. In Japan the wall sockets only give 100 volt... and dvd-players also can not be used indiscriminately in every corner of the globe. "And video... do you live in a PAL-country or a NTSC-country?" Be alert then. And a product with indications in English might be a bit more handy as well.

Akihabara
For the real cracks only. On the right a thoroughfare to a maze of small shops. Looks mostly like a souk or bazaar in an Arabic country. The corridors are some three feet wide with shops of only twenty square feet big on each side. Nerds paradise!

Akihabara
As is the case with most places in Tokyo, it gets better without the daylight. Twilight can be seen here in winter around three thirty already. It is an advantage in Akihabara as electronics often deal with things with little lights. When you pass such a store you can easily feel the radiation.

Akihabara

Crepes in Japan
Time for a snack. Crepes!
Models of food are shown in the shop window. An excellent way of attracting customers. Many restaurants in Japan have models of their dishes outside. The models are made of wax or plastics.

Akihabara
Between all those stores with dvd and videos a shop with the more racy stuff may not be lacking. “Also for export” it says on the signs. You bet. Japanese moral law is very strict and does not allow private parts to be depicted. What remains you can safely export. Nobody in the world could be offended by it. At the entrance it says “over 18 only” though.

Marunouchi
On the way home Frank’s idea proves to be a very good one.

Marunouchi

Thanks to Maarten for the opening phrase. :-)

Harajuku　原宿

We hope we have nuanced the image of the Japanese man in his stiff black suit a bit by now. In case we failed sit back now please. And fasten seat belts…

When you want to freak out you can go to Harajuku. Nothing is too crazy there. At Harajuku station you will find lockers of course and the story goes that people keep their hobby there. They come to the station, change cloths and go out.

On the bridge to Yoyogi park you find Young ladies in all sorts of outfit. This way you can wear your wedding dress more times than that only one day.

(More pictures in the posting on Yoyogi.)

What we learned in our study on what makes a public space attractive: Provide something toe at. Food attracts people and people attract more people.

Imagine you would love to be a real rocker...

Come with your friends to Harajuku.

Bring music, amplifier and generator. And swing!

And many young pop bands. Very many young pop bands. And well equipped. With amplifiers and generators.

And now under the digital looking glass: no messing with carbon pencils to enhance the eyebrows anymore. The odd black tape is miraculous.

You could run slalom trough the bands.

Balls of wool on knitting needles. Music to it and continuous moving. It looked like a dance.

Bleaching is even found here. The natural black is a very strong colour and bleaching normally doesn’t bring you further than rust brown. This boy has a very skilled hairdresser.

Isn’t it fun? Mouth piano with a whopper amplifier to it.

It all happens along the rim of Yoyogi park. In the past it was found all over the park but that is history now. In the heart of Yoyogi park sits the Meiji shrine and that shrine is a bit to important not to be kept in a serene silence. Crazy things can still be found in Yoyogi park but they never make noise.

Yoyogi　代々木公園

A Sunday afternoon in the park. Yoyogi is very popular. Long shadows cast by the low winter sun.
On the left is Carla. She made some of the pictures in this posting.

Activities of Harajuku stretch into the park. A group hobbying Kiss style.

A true ‘Kissy’ can not wear glasses of course.

It really is enjoyable to be able to walk between trees again.
Oh and then the dithering with those doggies. Most pictures in the posting It’s a dog’s life were taken here.