Shibooya.

We did an all day walking tour of the greater Shibuya area today. Must have visited 30-40 different stores. It's amazing how as many stores as we visited, there was hardly any brands that overlapped, save for Converse. It's also wild how some of these stores stay in business, because some of them are so off the beaten path that one would think they were trying to keep their existence a secret. By the end of the day I had learned a few key things about Japanese retail:
1. Nothing can or should fit an adult male. Make sure all your size runs are in Youth.
2. Skull and Crossbones improves anything, even a Godfather hat.
3. Layering, layering, layering. You should be a human croissant by the time you leave the house in the morning.
4. No price is too high. $75 is perfectly reasonable for a bandanna, just like $90 is fine for 3 people to have breakfast.


5. When in doubt, throw some rhinestones on that bitch.

While nothing from a product side of things really jumped out and grabbed me, the merchandising skills of retailers here is off the charts. Some of the gnarliest build-outs and window displays I have ever seen. This one store called UT runs t-shirts out of little plastic tubes, which they fill up 3 stories of retail space with.



Stopped by the Audi Forum, just because, and perved out over the cars there. White R8 anybody?


Here's a few more photos from the day, I'll post up everything on my web gallery pretty soon.