Today we set out to explore Harajuku and Yoyogi Park, hoping to see some cosplay. It didn't quite go to plan. We got to Harajuku and headed over to the cosplay bridge but didn't see any weird fashion, just some photographers sat down waiting. In the meanwhile, we headed to Meiji shrine which was next to the train station. It was an interesting place and we got to see some weddings taking place. However, I'm feeling a little templed-out. Compared to Koyasan and Kyotos temples, shrines like this get dwarfed. After strolling around the temple (filled with Americans and Australians saying things like "Can we go get a Coke now?", we headed back to the bridge. More photographers had gathered but nothing to photograph yet. So we decided to head to Yoyogi park for a walk. Yoyogi park was amazing. It was full of food stores and crammed with various music bands. The first act we came across was a solo painter-club-music-dancer club-music-dj performer. He attracted a lot of attention with his soulful hiphop dancing as he painted some pretty-ok paintings. Then we started to head towards the music. We saw a great band called the Loovees who seemed to do 50s style music mixed with para-para dancing. It was good fun, they were really enjoying myself. Then we strolled back along to the bridge, passing piano ballad artists sandwiched meters apart from rock bands and heavy metal bands. We got back to the bridge and still saw nothing, we figured they appeared after lunch. We went to get something to eat and went back into the park to eat it. Afterwards we got drawn to some 40-65 year olds dancing around to 1950's Grease/Elvis type music. It seemed that they were part of various tribes that form and gather in the area on Sundays.
About 3pm, we headed back to the bridge. Some cosplayers had arrived but it was such a letdown. It was just a load of lolita/goth types that were more interested in taking photos of each other and turned their backs to the many photographers that had come to see them. In fairness, it was a lot of fat white men with cameras dangled around their necks and old couples come to see the freak show. But I thought they could have been a little less antisocial.
