Akihabara “Costume Shop”

After wandering though the Circuit Citys And Best Buys of Tokyo, I turned my attention to finding a Halloween costume. We noticed some “characters” on the street who pointed us into what we thought was the right direction. Watch as Paul demonstrates is mastery of the Japanese language and culture:



Following their instructions, we came to a rather large building and, sure enough, in the 8th storey window there were costumes. Eager to see if they had anything to fit us Westerners, we headed into the building and up to the 8th floor. As the elevator doors opened, I realized we had definitely stumbled into something quite different than we anticipated. The costumes, French maid, cheerleader, nurse, school girl, all seemed to fit a certain, how shall I say…theme. Upon closer inspection, I realized either one of two things 1) the manufactures of these outfits are disgustingly cheap and scrimp on material or 2) these outfits are see-through! Yes, we had inadvertently stumbled into one of Tokyo’s many sex shops. Maybe this is where they were hiding all the technology! Embarrassed and disappointed (Take your minds out of the gutter—Disappointed that we still hadn’t found a costume), we left to continue our search. It does make you wonder about the “characters” in the video… After hours of fruitless shopping, I decided I would simply wear the Minnie Mouse ears, nose, tail, and gloves I had found in the apartment and Paul would be the ever popular “Big Western Guy in Jeans and a T-shirt”. I think the true art of a Halloween costume is not in how much money you spend, but in how people react to you. Case in point: The old knife-through-the-head-band. It’s surprising, funny, gruesome…in a word-classic. I had more fun with that one scary accessory than I did with the whole hunt. Here are a couple of videos of the fun we had with this prank:



Katie tries to get a laugh out of poor Phuc, but he seems intently concerned with her health.



Melody Stealing the spotlight from the Harajuku Cos Play Girls
It might not work, so you can watch it HERE.

The hunt itself was difficult. I think our group was a little too big and people had different ideas of how they wanted to attempt it. Honestly, I didn’t care about the hunt. I just wanted an excuse to go to Tokyo, have some guidance as to some good places to see, and hang out with my friends. I was happy with the day. I got to see some really cool areas of Tokyo.