Harajuku Guide - Harajuku Tokyo is a major fashion and shopping region, famous for its Harajuku Girls. We have Harajuku Pictures and map.
For the young and fashionable teenager, spending time in Harajuku (原宿) on the weekends is practically a necessity. Even older folks will want to visit the area, though, to see Meiji Jingu shrine, Yoyogi Park or go shopping in Omotesando or Takeshita-dori. Harajuku is within the special ward of Shibuya .
Harajuku Map - Highlights the key points of interest within Harajuku. Alternatively you can see Harajuku within the context of Tokyo on our Tokyo Map.
Harajuku Bridge to Yoyogi Park
If it's Harajuku's youth culture you want to see, don't even bother unless it's the weekend and preferably a Sunday. The bridge across the train tracks from Harajuku station to Yoyogi Park is full of Gothic Lolita or GothLoli. The costumes are very outstanding and you can't miss them. It is funny to see the surprise of the western tourists heading to Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu who clearly had not read their guide books fully on Harajuku. You can hear their comments that make it very clear they just don't understand what is going on. Essentially the youth who have dressed up are just hanging out with friends, many of them come with the hope of being snapped by one of the many magazine photographers who mingle in the crowd. Failing that there are lots of western tourist happy to take their pictures. See nearly 50 exclusive pictures of GothLoli in Harajuku. See also Harajuku Fashion and Harajuku Pictures
Gothic Lolita on Harajuku bridge
Takeshita-dori
Opposite Harajuku Station, Takeshita-dori is a narrow street packed with young fashionable people and lined with fashion boutiques and cafes. This is definitely the place to be seen if you are young Tokyoite, but well worth visiting as a tourist. Takeshita-dori represents the cutting edge of fashion in Tokyo where you can see all the latest in Japanese street fashion and then buy in the boutiques.
Omotesando
Omotesando is broad, tree-lined avenue leading downhill from the southern end of the JR Harajuku station. This is the other side to Harajuku Fashion and its challenge to Shibuya and Ginza. Not only is the street full of cafes and international brand clothing boutiques, but now features the very up market Omotesando Hills. If Paris or Milan is the center of the world of fashion design, then Omotesando is the center of world fashion consumption.
MORE SIGHTSEEING IN HARAJUKU
Meiji Jingu (明治神宮), built in commemoration of Emperor Meiji in 1920, is Tokyo's grandest shrine. Like all of Japan's major shrines, it's large in scale but simple in structure, entered via a winding path and through a giant torii gate. On summer weekends you have a very good chance of catching a traditional Japanese wedding in progress here. See our detailed article.
Yoyogi Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo. In the springtime, it is full of cherry blossoms and people partying under the trees.
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