SHIBUYA

Shibuya, Tokyo is known for being a hangout of the Japanese youth, and, consequently, also a shopping mecca. It so happened that this is where out capsule hotel was located, so on the morning before heading back to Ichihasama, we decided to cruise around a bit and check things out. Al and I are both adamant people watchers, and with cameras in hand, we snapped some pics of some of the crazy styles you see in Japan these days:

Top: Here is a good street shot of Shibuya madness. This place is both visual and auditory overload, with bright lights, beeps, music, jingles, colors, neon, shopping bag, and vendors screaming from their store front about what they have to offer today. For someone like me who isn't used to this you can only handle it for so long. Al and I had a great bowl of soba noodles for breakfast and then shopped for a new pair of shoes. I didn't find anything, but Al got a great deal on just the pair of shoes he was looking for.

Here are some girls waiting to cross the street, shopping bags happily in hand. There is very little obesity in Japan and the people, in general, are very fit. They use public transportation more, so they walk a lot, and also just eat much more healthy than we do in America.

Name brand is huge in Japan, and when you buy something name brand here, often it is flaunted largely and boldly. Many parallels to American youth.

Oh, the in style right now is knee-high stiletto boots. How women walk in these things is beyond me, but they somehow manage. I went iking and saw a few women hiking in shoes like this, too. Crazy.

These girls are your average high school shoppers. Check out all the bags... cracks me up. This was a common sight on this day since it was the SUPER AFTER NEW YEARS SALE DAYS!!

The peace sign here is in almost EVERY SINGLE PICTURE! It gets very annoying, yet I've looked at pictues taken of me only to suprisingly discover that I was throwing the peace sign, too! We're all being braiwashed!