Page 59 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Tokyo

Pop Culture Venues ❮❮ 57

Ghibli Museum
7 TOP 10 CULTURAL PHENOMENA
Make sure you book ahead
to visit this popular and charming
museum, which brings to life the
characters and fantasy environments
of the animated movies created by
Hayao Miyazaki and his colleagues
at Studio Ghibli (see p116).
Sunday in the Park
8
Tokyo’s theater of dress spills
over from busy Harajuku into Yoyogi
Park every Sunday, where you may
chance upon costumes reflecting Hello Kitty attraction
every trend since the 1950s. Live 1 Hello Kitty
bands set up during the afternoon Launched in 1974, this helplessly naive
along the sidewalk between the park but adorable creature has a button
and Olympic pavilions (see p49). nose and, inexplicably, no mouth.
Center Gai
9 2 Cosplay
Cosu-pure, or costume play, refers to
MAP B6 • Shibuya, Shibuya-ku
A bustling pedestrian street cross-dressing in outfits worn mainly
by manga or anime characters.
crammed with inexpensive bars, 3 Capsule Hotels
cafés, and restaurants as well as Architect Kisho Kurokawa’s 1972
stores selling music records, cell Nakagin Capsule Building inspired
phones, clothes, and jewelry. Center the idea of the capsule hotel.
Gai is the epicenter of Japanese 4 Maid Cafés
youth culture – full of teens and Young women in white tights, pink
early twentysomethings. hair, lace caps, and aprons respectfully
serve tea and cakes.
5 Purikura
These photo booths provide instant
digital photos that can be enhanced
with all manner of designs to create
manga-style selfies.
6 Manga Kissa
For a cup of coffee at a kissa, short for
kissaten (café), manga fans can access
hundreds of comic books.
7 Hip Fashion Minorities
Harajuku and Shibuya are full of
cyber-punks and “Gothic Lolita” – girls
Shoppers thronging Center Gai in black makeup and Victorian frills.
Nakano Broadway
0 8 Otaku
Otaku – geeks or nerds – are passionate
about anime, manga, video games, and
MAP C1 • 5-52-15 Nakano,
Nakano-ku • 3388-7004 • Open cute female star merchandise.
noon–8pm, some shops may vary 9 Love Hotels
A smaller and less frantic version of There are over 20,000 short-stay love
Tokyo’s otaku mecca, Akihabara, hotels in Tokyo alone, which feature
Nakano Broadway is anime and various fantasy themes.
manga heaven. The complex is a 10 Pachinko
short walk from Nakano Station, Pachinko, or Japanese pinball, is
packed with shops selling everything considered lowbrow, but there are
from comics to game consoles to parlors on most shopping streets.
collectible figurines.

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