The Real Harajuku
The Real Harajuku:
Japanese Youth’s Unique Self-Expression
Years ago, a group of Japanese young people started hanging out at the Harajuku district. These trendsetting youth go there with their unexplainable fashion sense (Bartlett). The Harajuku fashion is just really so different because anything can be possible (Craft 26) and it is all about “creativity, theatricality, style, confidence, looking cute, and mixing and matching” (Knight). This was all made possible due to the fact that the youth still stayed at their parents’ home and their fathers provided them with the money they use up, meaning they can shop for whatever they wanted. Although it may seem that girls are the only ones fond of these kinds of things, young men in Japan also like shopping and dressing up at Harajuku (Mead). The trendsetting youth had changed a normal neighborhood into a fashion capital (Johnson 14) and it has been said to be in the same class as the 1920s of Paris. Loic Bizel said, “The French are very poor in terms of fashion, in terms of creativity, compared to Japan” (Craft 26). “Visitors come to Harajuku to see and be seen” (Joerger). A lot of people can get ideas and be influenced by the trends the youth set there (McCaughan 28). It has been well known that even though the district changed its name into Jingu-Mae, it is still known as Harajuku (Kubo 38). Harajuku has truly been recognized worldwide and outsiders tend to draw their own conclusions about it. Some people think badly of Harajuku, while others simply do not fully grasp the real concept of it. People who do not really understand the concept tend to make up their own explanations or tend to do things that they think are good but are actually not. Taking a deeper look into their culture can lead us to better decipher that it is all about the youth expressing themselves and somewhat escaping from reality. The youth go to Harajuku during the weekends wearing their own unique ensembles. They might seem like they
Japanese Youth’s Unique Self-Expression
Years ago, a group of Japanese young people started hanging out at the Harajuku district. These trendsetting youth go there with their unexplainable fashion sense (Bartlett). The Harajuku fashion is just really so different because anything can be possible (Craft 26) and it is all about “creativity, theatricality, style, confidence, looking cute, and mixing and matching” (Knight). This was all made possible due to the fact that the youth still stayed at their parents’ home and their fathers provided them with the money they use up, meaning they can shop for whatever they wanted. Although it may seem that girls are the only ones fond of these kinds of things, young men in Japan also like shopping and dressing up at Harajuku (Mead). The trendsetting youth had changed a normal neighborhood into a fashion capital (Johnson 14) and it has been said to be in the same class as the 1920s of Paris. Loic Bizel said, “The French are very poor in terms of fashion, in terms of creativity, compared to Japan” (Craft 26). “Visitors come to Harajuku to see and be seen” (Joerger). A lot of people can get ideas and be influenced by the trends the youth set there (McCaughan 28). It has been well known that even though the district changed its name into Jingu-Mae, it is still known as Harajuku (Kubo 38). Harajuku has truly been recognized worldwide and outsiders tend to draw their own conclusions about it. Some people think badly of Harajuku, while others simply do not fully grasp the real concept of it. People who do not really understand the concept tend to make up their own explanations or tend to do things that they think are good but are actually not. Taking a deeper look into their culture can lead us to better decipher that it is all about the youth expressing themselves and somewhat escaping from reality. The youth go to Harajuku during the weekends wearing their own unique ensembles. They might seem like they
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