harajuku.

i finally got one of those transparent plastic-umbrellas, put on something nice and went to harajuku with ana today. although it was sunday, there weren't as many dressed-up people at the famous bridge of the harajuku station as i'd expected. there were mainly crazy gothics and a few gothic lolitas as well as some crazy guy singing to his cd-player and a very cute boy who was giving out free hugs (more pictures of harajuku fashion here). but if you wanna see people like in the very famous FRUITS magazines, you just gotta walk along the omotesando avenue, i never saw that many trendy people at one place ever! unfortunately it was so crowded, that i couldn't take any pictures except that whacky ojisan you can see on the next picture.

his earrings were actually fish bowls with living goldfish in it! before i went to omotesando, ana and me went to the meiji shrine first because it was near the harajuku station. it was very worth the long walk through the yoyogi park: not only was it beautiful but we also saw a few shintô wedding parties! it must've been very annoying for the bride to be photographed by dozens of tourists at her wedding day but she looked so beautiful in her wedding kimono!

after our visit to the meji shrine, ana left because she wanted to met her friend at the youth hostel so i got myself a chûhai at lawson (convini) and strolled along omotesando avenue. there was a man selling old kimono, obi and other kimono accessories on the street where i bought sashes for a few yen. as i was walking down the avenue, i called my mum and stopped at a corner. while i was talking to her on the phone i noticed that there was a man taking pictures of me. i smiled at him and he continued taking pictures with his big camera and then he was gone. i still don't know what that was about, maybe he thought i was some kind of celebrity or maybe he was just a pervert.

suddenly i spotted a kebab restaurant and as i was already tipsy i went to the guy and asked him if he speaks turkish. he was like "of course, sister!" and gave me turkish cherry juice and we talked in turkish/english/japanese about our lives. as i'm not good at memorizing names, i forgot his but he told me that he's been living in tokyo for 12 years now and that he's planning on opening another restaurant in osaka. i asked him about night life in tokyo and he recommended me roppongi if i don't wanna spent too much money. but then another turkish guy showed up, onur (yeah i remembered his name), and he told me that roppongi sucks and that there's a night club in shibuya i should go to. as he was on his way to shibuya he offered me to show me a around the streets here and as i had no actual plans for the afternoon, i agreed happily. he got us chûhai and told me about why he came to japan, that he's working at a yakiniku restaurant and that he's planning on returning to istanbul and opening a yakiniku restaurant there (damn, what a great idea!). he couldn't speak any english at all so we mainly talked in turkish (as i was drunk it was probably the best turkish i've ever spoken!) and japanese.

we had a great time in shibuya, i was amazed by the large intersection at the shibuya station. onur told me that at around the rush hours, over 5000 people are crossing the streets there at once! we ate a snack at mcdonalds, then went up the love hotel hills and he showed me the club (called "womb") he mentioned. before i went home we exchanged phone numbers because we eventually wanted to meet there in the evening but as the admission was a bit too expensive for julian, him and me decided to visit roppongi in the evening instead. now roppongi really wasn't that spectacular and there were too many gaijins and other strange folks so we walked around for a while, took purikura at a game center and left around midnight. unfortunately the train stopped a few stations before the one we had to get out so we strayed for 1-2 hours along the sumida river till we finally found our youth hostel, ate instant yakisoba at 3am and went to bed.

tokyo, fashion & people