About This Journey
In February 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic wasn't as serious as it is today, I went to Tokyo, Japan with my school mates. It was a for a cultural experience, for us to research on cultures in Japan that are distinctively theirs. Japan is a country of discipline and politeness to me. People there were very nice to us, and overall I felt that people were mostly rule-oriented. They had strict time management, they kept quite during train rides to respect others who wanted to rest, and so on. Due to my research topic however, I learnt about a subculture called "Harajuku Culture". It's a movement where people go against the strict societal rules. At the beginning, I was shocked as I've never heard such culture in Japan. It was so surreal for me to experience it personally in Japan too! But that's the beauty in it. Having to learn about new cultures and understanding how diverse cultures can be even in ones country.
Top 3 Spots
#01 Teamlab Borderless Tokyo
teamLab Borderless is a world of artworks without boundaries, a museum without a map created by art collective teamLab. teamLab Borderless is a group of artworks that form one borderless world. Artworks move out of rooms, communicate with other works, influence, and sometimes intermingle with each other with no boundaries. It was exciting and out of the world to be able to wander around the setting. The three-dimensional space created an entire new world and space.
#02 Line Friend Shop
Line Friends are featured characters, invented by Kang Byeong Mok, based on the stickers from diverse applications of Naver Corporation and the messaging app Line. The line friends shop basically sells merchandise of the Line Friend characters. It can be found in a few locations in Japan, but the one I visited was at Harajuku. There were 3 floors to it and a larger variety of goods were sold. I would recommend this place if you're looking for cute souvenirs for you and your friends.
#03 Meiji Jingu
Meiji Shrine is a shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken. Located just beside the JR Yamanote Line's busy Harajuku Station, Meiji Shrine and the adjacent Yoyogi Park make up a large forested area within the densely built-up city. The spacious shrine grounds offer walking paths that are great for a relaxing stroll. It was a very peaceful space and it felt like I had walked into a different dimension as the Harajuku streets were very busy in contrast to the atmosphere in Meiji Jingu.
