Monday, November 17, 2008

Tokyo Districts and Fashion -東京-

For those of you who dont know, Tokyo is a city made up of districts. Each of these districts has something special about them and has a corresponding fashion. This and the following post will be about the 6 most popular districts in Tokyo. When you go shopping in Tokyo you will visit a specific district to buy a specific item on your list. If you forget your new Wonderbra while in Shinjuku, you wont find one in Akihabara, you will have to go all the way back. One more quality that makes Tokyo an amazing community.




Tokyo (東京) is the capital city of Japan and home to the Japanese Imperial family and the Japanese government. Many businesses call Tokyo home. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is also located here. Because of its business atmosphere, Tokyo is home to business fashion.














Ginza (銀座) is considered to be an expensive shopping area in Tokyo. Many designer stores such as Gucci, Dior and Shiseido can be found there. For this reason, Ginza is known as the home of formal fashion. Ginza is also home to many exclusive resturants, cafes, art galleries and night clubs.













Akihabara (秋葉原), also known as the Electric town, is a major shopping area for electronics, computers, and goods for Otaku. Otaku are people who love Manga (Japanese comics), Anime (Japanese cartoons), and video games. You can buy both new and used items or spare parts for electronic goods. You can even buy used electronic pieces in stores in back streets. Akihabara is also well known for its personal robots and robotics stores. Akihabara is also home to Cosplay cafes. Cosplay resturants are maid themed resturants which are very popular with the Japanese Otaku culture. Standardly in a Maid cafe, the staff is female and dressed like french maids. They treat customers as masters and mistresses to give the cafe a unique environment. A variety of sweets is the main staple at this type of cafe. Since the arrival of these Maid cafes, many girls in Akihabara can be seen wearing maid outfits making Akihabara home to maid fashion. This maid fashion is called Moekei.



The shopping district of Shinjuku (新宿) is home to casual fashion.
Many average department stores, cinemas, resturants, and
bars can be found here. Shinjuku is also home to the busiest train station (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo metropolitan Government building ( the administration center for the Tokyo government).












Shibuya (渋谷) is a very popular district in Tokyo for young people. I once asked a friend what he thought of Shibuya and he said that when he hears the word Shibuya
all that comes to mind is teenage girls. He calls Shibuya the city of teenage girls. Many clothing stores popular with young people set up shop in Shibuya hoping to draw the afterschool crowd. A rising trend in Shibuya is Ganguro. Popular among young girls, Ganguro is characterized by brightly colored clothing and lots of jewelry. They are usually very tan and dye their hair light colors such as blonde, yellow and sometimes orange. White makeup is used for eyeshadow and lipstick and many adorn their faces with jeweled stickers.




かこいい~

1 comment:

Julie P.Q. said...

Again, this is such a heavily detailed post, I really don't know where to start. I really like how you express your knowledge here. You not only tell us, you show us. But maybe an image or two less? That way, we'd not get lost between the images and text...It's like that Simpson's episode on epilepsy. Sensory overload?

(I don't know if I've ever had to tell a student...wow, this is too much good work!)