Cosmode Magazine

COStume MODE Magazine (COSMODE) is a Japanese-language magazine about cosplay. Each issue contains color images of cosplayers from conventions and various events.

It also includes information and hints on costume construction, hair styling, makeup and other cosplay-related tips. In 2008, COSMODE Online, a digitalized English version of COSMODE
magazine, was created in response to the growing cosplay culture.

Meiji Shrine

Meiji Shrine, located in Shibuya-Tokyo, is the Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. When Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and Empress Shōken in 1914, the Japanese people wished to pay their respects to the two influential Japanese figures. It was for this reason that Meiji Shrine was constructed and their souls enshrined on November 1, 1920.

After the emperor's death in 1912, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution to commemorate his role in the Meiji Restoration. An iris garden in an area of Tokyo where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken had been known to visit was chosen as the building's location. Construction began in 1915, and the shrine was built in the traditional Nagarezukuri style and is made up primarily of Japanese cypress and copper. It was formally dedicated in 1920, completed in 1921, and its grounds officially finished by 1926.

The original building was destroyed during the Tokyo air raids of World War II. The present iteration of the shrine was funded through a public fund raising effort and completed in October, 1958.

Meiji Shrine is located in a forest that covers an area of 700,000 square-meters (about 175 acres). This area is covered by an evergreen forest that consists of 120,000 trees of 365 different species, which were donated by people from all parts of Japan when the shrine was established.

This 700,000 square-meter forest (about 175 acres) is visited by many people both as a spiritual home of the people and as a recreation and relaxation area in the center of Tokyo.The shrine itself is comprised of two major areas.

The Naien is the inner precinct, which is centered on the shrine buildings and includes a treasure museum that houses articles of the Emperor and Empress. The treasure museum is built in the Azekurazukuri style.

The Gaien is the outer precinct, which includes the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery that houses a collection of 80 large murals illustrative of the events in the lives of the Emperor and his consort. It also includes a variety of sports facilities, including the National Stadium, and is seen as the center of Japanese sports. It also includes the Meiji Memorial Hall, which was originally used for governmental meetings, including discussions surrounding the drafting of the Meiji Constitution in the late 19th century. Today it is used for Shinto weddings.

Omotesando

Omotesando is an avenue, subway station and neighbourhood in Tokyo stretching from Harajuku station, the foot of the famous Takeshita Street, to Aoyama-dori where Omotesando station can be found.

Zelkova trees line both sides of the avenue. Around 100,000 cars drive down the main street daily which serves as the main approach to Meiji Shrine.

It is known as an upscale shopping area featuring several international brand outlets, ranging from Louis Vuitton and Gucci to the more affordable Gap (clothing retailer), The Body Shop, Zara, and others.

Omotesando is also home to the famous Japanese toy store Kiddyland, a well known and extremely trendy shopping center geared primarily toward young women Laforet, Oriental Bazaar, and Gold's Gym.

It is sometimes referred to as "Tokyo's Champs-Élysées." Its latest development, Omotesando Hills, opened in 2006.
Omotesando's side streets feature a range of trendy cafes, bars, and restaurants, as well as boutique stores specialising in everything from handbags to postcards to vintage glass bottles.

Takeshita Street

Takeshita Street is a pedestrian-only street lined with fashion boutiques, cafes and restaurants in Harajuku in Tokyo, Japan. Stores on Takeshita Street include major chains such as The Body Shop, but most of the businesses are small independent shops that carry an array of styles.

The shops on this street are often a bellwether for broader fads, and some are known as "antenna shops," which manufacturers seed with prototypes for test-marketing. Takeshita Street was a reliable place to go and purchase fake Japanese and American street brand goods from the early 1990s to 2004.

Since 2004, a stronger metropolitan government stance on counterfeit merchandise has led to a decrease of such items being available to the public. Located directly across from the exit of JR Harajuku Station, Takeshita Street is very popular with young teenagers, particularly those visiting Tokyo on school trips, or local young people shopping for small "cute" goods at weekends.

Takeshita Dori Street is Harajuku's main attraction is the Takeshita Dori Street, a narrow and busy pedestrian street featuring various small stores. Here you can find some of Japan and mainly Tokyo's up and coming Gothic type of Teen Fashion.

The street (alley is a better word, as no cars are allowed down this long narrow road) for the younger generation, used to be a quiet humble place about 20 years ago. Nowadays this street is crowded with many young people, especially students.

Takeshita Dori is made up of a wide variety of interesting and cute (targeting teenage girls) stores. This area is a window shopper's paradise.

Yoyogi Park

Yoyogi Park is one of the largest parks in Tokyo, located adjacent to Harajuku Station and Meiji Shrine in Shibuya. What is now Yoyogi Park was the site of the first successful powered aircraft flight in Japan, on December 19, 1910, by Captain Yoshitoshi Tokugawa, following which it became an army parade ground.

During the postwar occupation, it was the site of the Washington Heights residence for U.S. officers. It later was selected as the site for the 1964 Summer Olympics, and the distinctive Olympic buildings designed by Kenzo Tange are still nearby. In 1967, it was made into a city park.

Today, the park is a popular hangout, especially on Sundays, when it is used as a gathering place for people to play music, practice martial arts, etc. The park has a bike path, and bicycle rentals are available.

As a consequence of Japan's long recession, there are several large, but quiet and orderly, homeless camps around the park's periphery. Recently, Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara announced plans to build a stadium -- with room for 100,000 -- in Yoyogi Park in order to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Yoyogi Park has a fenced dog run, one of the few areas in Tokyo where dogs are allowed to be off leash. The dog run is located towards the western side of the park, inside the bicycle path, east of the parking lot at the western edge of the park. The dog run's ground is covered in wood chips, and the run is divided into two sections and contains a few benches.

Ganguro Style

Ganguro - face-black is an alternative fashion trend among young Japanese women which peaked in popularity around the year 2000, but remains evident today. The Shibuya and Ikebukuro districts of Tokyo are the center of ganguro fashion.

Ganguro appeared as a new fashion style in Japan in the early 1990s and is prevalent mostly among teenage girls and girls in their early 20's to this date. In ganguro fashion, a deep tan is combined with hair dyed in shades of orange to blonde, or a silver gray known as "high bleached".

Black ink is used as eyeliner and white concealer is used as lipstick and eyeshadow. False eyelashes, plastic facial gems, and pearl powder are often added to this. Platform shoes and brightly-colored outfits complete the ganguro look. Also typical of ganguro fashion are tie-dyed sarongs, miniskirts, stickers on the face, and lots of bracelets, rings, and necklaces.

Ganguro falls into the larger subculture of gyaru (from English "gal"), a slang term used for various groups of young women, usually referring to overly childish or rebellious girls. Researchers in the field of Japanese studies believe that ganguro is a form of revenge against traditional Japanese society due to resentment of neglect, isolation, and constraint of Japanese society.

This is their attempt at individuality, self-expression, and freedom, in open defiance of school standards and regulations.The deep ganguro tan is in direct conflict with traditional Japanese ideas of feminine beauty. Due to this, as well as their use of slang, unconventional fashion sense, and perceived lack of hygiene, ganguro gals are almost always portrayed negatively by the Japanese media.

Fashion magazines like Egg and Cawaii magazine have had a direct influence on the ganguro. Other popular ganguro magazines include Popteen and Ego System. The ganguro culture has evolved its own synchronized dances, called Para Para. Participants do predetermined moves at the same time, usually as accompaniment to J-pop music.

Para Para events are held by ganguro circles, and involve either going to clubs to perform Para Para or gathering to learn new dances. One of the most famous early ganguro girls was known as Buriteri, nicknamed after the black soy sauce used to flavor yellowtail fish in teriyaki cooking.

Egg made her a star by frequently featuring her in its pages during the height of the ganguro craze. After modeling and advertising for the Shibuya tanning salon "Blacky", social pressure and negative press convinced Buriteri to retire from the ganguro lifestyle. (wikipedia)

Kogal Style

Kogals (kogyaru, lit. “small/child girl”) are a subculture of girls and young women in urban Japan, one of several types of so-called gals. In general, the kogal “look” roughly approximates a sun-tanned California Valley girl, and indeed, the similarities between the two extend to the linguistic, for both subcultures have derived entire sets of slang terms (“ko-gyaru-go”).

Kogals are not to be confused with the Ganguro subculture, although they are similar. Kogals fashion are perhaps the closest thing to the word “normal” in Japanese fashion sense - the spoilt brat fashion sense that you see all over American and all americanized countries… it screams one word with this sense of fashion: MATERIALISM.

Another interesting fact, since the Kogal standards of living is so high (branded clothes and accessories), often times the supplement their living style by being in questionable activities to earn the extra income.

Critics of the Kogal subculture decry its materialism as reflecting a larger psychological or spiritual emptiness in modern Japanese life. Some kogals support their lifestyle with allowances from wealthy parents, living a “freeter” or “parasite single” existence that grates against traditional principles of duty and industry.

A small minority appear in pornography to finance their habits. More may engage in the practice of “compensated dating”, or enjo kōsai, which may at times border on quasi-legal prostitution.
Internet-based usage of this term has led some Western observers to the mistake of believing that “kogal” means “prostitute”.

Well, don’t let it deter you. You don’t have to do all these things - dressing up as a Kogal is just for fun and can be part of your dress up planner on different weeks.. Although, those tan can be horribly out of place…. (Thitinun Blog)