Harajuku / Aoyama: Tokyo

Does your mental picture of Tokyo include gothic lolitas and cosplay kids? Then Harajuku on a Sunday is probably the place for you. It's the mecca for Tokyo's vibrant youth culture. The Jingu Bashi bridge connecting Harajuku with adjacent Yoyogi Park (Tokyo's largest) is the main gathering point for all those alternative kids with a mainstream cause. Yoyogi Park is also a wonderful patch of green in a notoriously brown and grey city, and is a kind of magnet for congregations of every alternative subculture known to man, from visual kei to rockabilly.

More reserved than, and completely in contrast to Harajuku is the area of Ura-Hara, tucked into the back streets of its much more famous neighbor. Ura-Hara is a scene mostly for guys interested in hip-hop, graffiti, and skater fashion and culture.

Aoyama, right next door to Harajuku, offers more of the same fashion houses and entertainment to tickle the fancy of any trend-hungry hipster. Take a walk from Yoyogi Park, through Harajuku and Aoyama, and feast your eyes on the street fashion that's gone on to influence styles and brands around the world. You'll have a better idea of what makes Tokyo's – and indeed the world's – youth culture tick.
© NileGuide