Rewinding back to January 2, 2008, Yaya and I went to 109 in Shibuya, Tokyo. For those of you not familiar with 109, it is 9 stories of female fashion boutiques. 109 primarily caters to various types of Shibuya “gyarus”. I think primarily ko-gyarus and b-gyarus. That’s Japlish for “girls” if you didn’t figure that one out. The term “b-gyaru” is derived from “b-boy” if you know your hip hop terminology. There is an entire subculture of hip hop influenced Japanese chicks and dudes (nip hop). I mean if you walk into a J hip hop club, you feel like you’re walking into a Japanese version of a P Diddy video. Seriously.
Anyhow, we went to 109 so I could buy some white boots for my girlfriend Saya. New Year’s is a big deal in Japan for shopping so it’s like after Thanksgiving sales in America. However, nothing could prepare me for what we experienced. First there was a line to get into the building with Police guiding the foot traffic. Then once inside, there were chicks that worked at the various boutiques standing on tables and chairs yelling through megaphones to get customers. There was no regard for safety. I don’t thing there are maximum capacities for buildings in Tokyo because it was all pushing and shoving once inside. Behold:
Yaya and I shuffled, pushed and shoved through 9 floors of madness in search of these white boots. I had to call Saya in the US and after fighting through 9 floors because we couldn’t find them. Then she told me that the store was on the basement 1 floor so we had to fight to get ALL THE WAY BACK DOWN. However, through the 9 floors of craziness, there were quite a few hot chicks which made the whole experience bearable. Yaya and I almost lost each other on numerous occasions, but she’s 5′ 6″ and I’m 5′ 10″ so we could see each other most of the time since J chicks are a bit shorter. The good thing about Tokyo is that chicks are very fashionable and wear plenty of make up. This makes them good to look at, but there’s no guarantee when the make up is off. Yaya and I found some cool clothes while searching. Japlish at it’s finest:
YEAH!!! “Smile like Rock mean it!”
“Try 1 “More Time” Because” and the other sleeve said, “it’s so worthwhile”.
“Who like you since 1986” and “Keep and funky”.
“Value of living in freedom and dignity dream chapter”
Front patch: “Blazing High”. Top patch: “Ask my number.” Bottom patch: “Got lost Mr. Player my smile cost.”
Here’s Yaya showing off some funky ass shoes.
Anyhow so we found the boots and I bought them. We got the fuck out of 109 as fast as we could. Never again will I go to 109 after New Year’s. I might find an excuse to go to 109 and check out the chicks though. Good times….