More photos from the morning in Harajuku. I didn’t spend that long on the bridge, but I got quite a lot of photos that I like of the kids in their costumes. I will probably post more later in the week too.

All the girls in these photos were later arrivals, and on the road side of the area. There seemed to be two large groups of girls, and then a number of pairs. Most of them were dragging small suitcases and set themselves up in one area where they stayed. Unlike descriptions I’ve read in the past about the girls dress styles being gothic in nature (i.e. mostly black), there were quite a few in bright coloured costumes today as well as the black goth-style outfits.

When I arrived at the Jingu-bashi bridge just outside Harajuku JR station there was nobody there. So I walked through the Harajuku shopping district up to the Omote-sando subway station and back. On my return, the area was transformed. There were several groups of the now world famous Harajuku girls and at least as many, if not more, tourists and photographers with cameras at the ready. Point a camera at them and they pose. Ask to be photographed with them and they oblige, and always with a smile.

According to my Lonely Planet guide book, many of them are ijime-ko, or victims of bullying at school. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me as kids can be pretty cruel, but in Japan I’d never have guessed that bullying was a problem. Letalone one sufficient to prompt this kind of reaction. Bullied or not, they were all incredibly polite and friendly, both to each other and the hundreds of tourists asking for photos with them.

At the Daibutsu site, sitting on a stone column ignoring the many people milling around him, was this dragonfly. The only sign of life in him at all was when I got very close with the camera his eyes spun around to check out what was approaching. Interestingly though, that was all he did. Perhaps he is used to cameras as a resident of a large tourist destination 🙂

Along the walk from Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu to Kaizoji Temple we passed this flower; one of many on the tree overhead. I just thought that there was something very Japanese about it, though I cannot place what it is exactly.

The Great Buddha in Kamakura, finished in 1252, was once housed in a giant hall, but that washed away in a tsunami in 1495. Now he is outdoors, and we arrived at just the right time, having hiked the Daibutsu Hiking Trail to get to him (once we found out how to get on it from our last stop at the Kaizoji temple), to catch him bathed in the soft light just before sunset. For those interested, he is 11.4 metres (or just over 37 feet) tall.

In Kamakura, while walking from the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu to Kaizoji Temple we had to wait for a train to pass. A little down the tracks somebody was having a bonfire and the train dragged the smoke from that up the tracks to the crossing. The smoke seems to give the track a somewhat ghostly appearance; if you look closely, you can also see rays of sunlight penetrating it.

At the entrance to the area that houses the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu and the Kamakura National Treasure Museum are a couple of ponds. The one on the left as you walk in had these trees in full autumn colours as its backdrop and a line of people with cameras (and cellular phones being used as cameras) taking pictures of them.

Another hotel, another view. This one completely different from the Yokohama view! I am now in the Imperial Hotel in the heart of Tokyo (the centre of the Ginza district is just a few minutes walk from here). Earlier this week Japan’s Princess Sayako was married here at this very hotel and started her new life as a regular person (losing her royal status by marrying a commoner).

The view from my room at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel, Yokohama. I am here for the ET 2005 trade show, where I presented a seminar today.