It's not me, ok? Japan is obsessed with schoolgirls. I suppose even Japanese schoolgirls might be obsessed with schoolgirls. Anyway, Satoko and I sauntered through Yoyogi park last weekend, and to get there you have to run the gauntlet of J-goths, gosu-rori (goth Lolitas), b-boys (breakdancers), rock bands, boy bands, and as shown above, girl bands.
Most tourists get photos of the goths. These kids probably commute every weekend from their towns in the country. During the week they look like your average Jimmy or Suzy (Junichi or Suki), and then just to be different (like everyone else) they head to the big smoke wearing the most outlandish and elaborate costumes they can fashion. Last weekend I noticed a kind of head/nose-bandage/mask-thing was the latest mode.
These girls caught my eye, not because of their quite average performance (and average looks - although the one on the left is cute in a more adult way) but because of the attention they were receiving. Mostly none, that is, except for a few photography otaku (geeks) that had all the gears. Expensive cameras on tripods with huge zoom lenses (compensating for other inadequacies) were trained on these girls less than 3 metres away.
As we left later the show was over, and the otaku were squatting red-faced with excitement as they collected the girls' autographs. Everyone's got to have a hobby, I guess.
Footnote: I suppose I should fess up and thank Sean for sending five large (but not inadequacy-compensating) computer texts to feed my Apple 2 emulation hobby. I too am another happy otaku ...
2 comments:
All those different get-ups that you describe the girls to be wearing, really just play into the male (or female, perhaps) fantasy of either a subordinate (school girl - innocent) or dominant (goth [hardcore'ish])partner . It's interesting to examine the subconcious motives behind dressing up. Enough of my analytical babble..
Well, we all like to dess up, right? Especially in various stages of our youth. And in the male dominated society here (like the West, say 40 years ago) it seems the girls have to go a long way to meet men's expectations.
As for goths and other subtypes, the question is: What do they look like in their off-time? (Or society's on-time) ...
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