Lack of cosplayers at Harajuku

This morning we had breakfast and worked out how to get to Harajuku, then went there. I wanted to go there as Harajuku station was meant to be where you can go to see cosplayers on a Sunday morning. However, we could only see one cosplayer, so we followed everyone else into the nearby park (Meiji Shrine) to come back later in case we were too early (it was probably about 10.00am).

We went to the Meji shrine, unfortunately I couldn't do a pano as a security person said I couldn't use my tripod, but we did see a wedding procession. You couldn't take photos looking into the temple area where the wedding took place either.

We went back to Harajuku station, but there was still only the one cosplayer there, he would pose for people so they could get their photo taken with him. So we followed everyone else again, but this time down a large street with lots of shops on. After going down there for a bit we went back up to Harajuku station, where there was still just the single cosplayer. He was dancing around, and must have been quite hot since it was hot anyway, and his costime would have made him even hotter.

Next we went to Yoyogi park. On the way into the park we saw a lad who had a stereo playing music and he was doing keepie-ups (rubbishly). There were groups of young people doing something (don't know what, but it reminded me of the Hitler Youth), and also quite a few painters, and photographers taking photos of female models in the park. The park was very busy with lots of people sitting on the benches and on the grass. When we were coming back out of the park we also saw a band who looked like they were just getting ready to perform.

Outside Harajuku station, there was a bloke selling 'magic' dancing clowns. They appeared to be made from card with string or something for legs and arms and thick card or something for feet. He had put signs up saying 'no photos', so I didn't take any photos of it. You could tell the clown to jump, do a somersault, lie down, kneel down, or get up, both in English and Japanese it seemed, and it would obey you. According to the info the bloke had laid out, there wasn't any electronics or strings involved, I could certainly believe no strings were involved.

He was selling them for 1000 yen each, but had a notice saying not to open/use your clown nearby, and not to reveal the secret of how it works. Someone wanted to buy the one he had on display (since it was obvious that that one worked), but the bloke would only sell the ones he had in packets. So whether the ones he had in packets or not worked, I don't know. I didn't want to spend 1000 yen finding out, though it was entertaining watching his example one. I don't know how it did work, but it worked when people watching it shouted commands, even when the seller bloke was busy with a customer.

We went and had a look at the Gymnasium (though we didn't go inside), then went back to Harajuka station. Weirdly, the band that we had seen at the end of Yoyogi park weren't there any more, and I thought we would have been able to hear them if they'd played any sounds, so it seems they didn't play any songs and had just packed up again.

We got the JR line from Harajuku station to Tokyo station, then walked from there to the Imperial Palace. The only part of the Imperial Palace open to the public is the East Gardens, so we looked round there. Weirdly, you needed a ticket, which was plastic, and you had to hand back in when you left, but entry was free. The gardens were nice, though there weren't any plants flowering at the moment except for a few water lillies that had quite small flowers (and the pond was a bit scummy).

After that we walked round the outside of the Imperial Palace, which took ages. There was also a sponsored run going on round the outside of the palace.

Eventually we got back to where we had first reached the Palace, and went down to Otemachi subway station, and got the train from there to Onarimon, which was only a few stops (with no changes). By the time we got back to the hotel it was about 5pm. I had a bad headache, so I took one of my Korean headache tablets and went to bed. Moccle went to bed as well.

By about 6.30pm I was feeling better, so we went out to get some food. We walked from the hotel towards the waterfront. On the way there, we saw two women dressed up in weird anime style clothes just walking down the street. When we got to the Waterfront, I found it would be a good place to take some photos of the buildings on the other side of the water, but I hadn't brought my ball head, which I would need to use my 70-300mm lens for some shots of them.

Moccle wanted to walk to the Rainbow bridge, but when we got there we found the lift or whatever it is you use to get up to the bridge, closed at 8.30pm, and we had got there at 8.45pm.

So we walked back in the same direction we had come, except along a different road. Eventually we got back to the same road that went from near the hotel to the waterfront, so we walked back up there trying to find a reasonably priced place to get something to eat. We saw 2 shops next to each other who were selling bowls of rice and beef for about 500 yen, but you had to eat at a bar thing (so not really any space to put my tripod, camera and coat down), and also the dishes looked like they were just plain rice and beef with no sauce or options (though we didn't go in, so maybe they did have a menu with more options than what was displayed in the window).

We also had a look at 'Mos burger', which does 'Japanese burgers', which was about 400-500 yen for a burger, but when you added on a drink and chips the price was more like 700-800 yen. We went back down the road towards the waterfront a bit and looked at the Wendy's. Again, the burgers weren't too expensive, but when you added on chips and a drink it came to about 700 yen. They advertised a 'jr burger' for 99 yen though, so we decided to get a couple of those each.

When we went in to order, they showed us the menu, and we saw that they actually had jr. cheese burgers and jr. Teriyaki burgers (and jr. something else burgers) for 120 yen each. So we bought 2 jr. cheese burgers and 2 Teriyaki burgers, so we could have one each. Moccle thought they would be dead small, being called 'jr'.

We had to wait a few minutes while they made up our order, and then we went in to a Family Mart, which was just down the road. There we bought some cakes, sake, and coffee. The coffee was quite expensive - 500 yen for a jar, and then another 2-300 yen for some little tubs of milk. Still, you get a lot more cups for your money than buying the instant all-in-one coffees.

After that we went back to the hotel and ate our burgers, which were actually about the same size as McDonalds basic burgers (and about the same price). We thought the cheeseburgers were nicer than the Teriyaki burgers as the cheeseburgers had cheese and some gherkin or onion or something in them, while the Teriyaki burger was just a plain burger with Teriyaki sauce and some white sauce (mayonnaise I guess). We finished off our big bottle of coke that we had bought the other day and had been keeping in the fridge, and also had a Japanese thing from a packet we had bought, which turned out to be marshmallow with chocolate stuff inside it.

Food
Breakfast: Pack of Croissant style bread; water.
Dinner: Wendy's Cheeseburger; Wendy's Teriyaki burger; 2 glasses of coca cola; Japanese marshmallow thing; 2x Winter Pocky sticks; Chocolate bourbon biscuit thing (not like the normal English bourbon biscuits).