Harajuku Day!

Saw lots of things today! Quick blog because time constraint!

Thiiiiis is a video of some dancers we saw! The first ten seconds isn't so good because we had to get adjusted, but the last 10 seconds are pretty good. It was like a festival/competition, hard to say.

This is Harajuku!! I didn't get a chance to picture any of the crazy outfits - also people are kinda anal about pictures being taken of them, even though they dress up in like outfits you don't see everyday, but whatevs! There were a ton of stores in here, lots being clothing and the like, but another popular type of store was a store filled with pictures of celebrities. In Japan, the industry has a tight hold on who does what, and they try really hard to not let a lot of pictures of singers and bands get online so that they can sell them to teenagers. And the store was CROWDED so their plan is actually working.

Just an interesting ad I saw.

Wisconsin (Madison specifically) said "HEY!" in t-shirt form today. I'm not sure how this ended up in a Japanese store, but it was really weird how of all the places in the world that could end up on a t-shirt, this one was displayed when we walked past. 

A street in Japan where there were lots of big stores like Gucci and Forever 21 and even a Claire's. It was kind of the higher-end part of Tokyo.

Giant stuffed animals in a store called, "Kiddy Land", each one running for about 1,000 bucks.

Staircase in Kiddy Land.

Matt and I went to a shrine today and there was like a festival going on (video above), here are some of the dancers!

Pretty shrine thangs~

A place where people hang up their wishes at the shrine.

By chance we got to see a wedding procession at the shrine! Really lucky.

Here's a wider shot, lots of people trailed after them (the wedding party).

HOOOGE gates that led us to the shrine. Inside there were really wide, long paths that led to the shrines (above...not sure why I disordered all of these. Obviously to confuse the hell outta you.)

I forgot to flip this...it's upside-down. But basically it's a little good-luck bag (specifically for school) that you carry around with you for...good luck in school. Haha.

This is what I ate for lunch! Yum~. It was a salad on top of beef on top of cold soba noodles in a delicious broth. So good.

Okay, this is funny. On the right is Matt and on the left is a Japanese guy who stopped us and asked if he could take pictures of us (while at the shrine). So we got to play models! He took pictures of us together, and then separately. He even directed me like he was serious about it, super random. This is probably not going to be the last time this happens.

From right to left: Me, Hiroko's sister and Hiroko's sister's daughter, Matt, Hiroko, and Hiroko's brother-in-law in front of Hiroko and Matt's house. We got lunch today with all of them plus Hiroko's father. They're very nice! Also the little girl is adorable, it was hard not to watch her during lunch because she'd just take a forkful of noodles and they'd kinda hang outta her mouth and she was SO CUTE.

Now we're going to go to a park where a man actually acts out a manga-story with pictures and everything (I'll get a video for tonight), and then we're headed to Matt's friends house for some movie and (!!!) pizza (but it's Japanese so I'm interested in how that'll turn out).

Anyway~~See you soon! <3