As an exchange student in Japan, I was not really into fashion and in general, didn't want to spend too much money on clothes. In most cases, my spending on clothing was due to necessity — to survive the cold in winter because coming from tropical Singapore, I didn't have any thick clothing. Most of my money, which came from the JASSO scholarship, was spent on travelling — in my year in Japan, I visited all of Japan's main islands: Honshu (of course, since that's where Tokyo is), Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku (which most Japanese I know have never visited themselves). I don't think many other exchange students travelled so much within Japan as I did! My little badge of honour.
Anyway, I was thus naturally attracted to the budget clothing stores, and the biggest one in Japan was and still is Uniqlo. Now with a presence in the US, Europe and many countries in Asia, including Singapore, it is one of the most successful Japanese companies in recent years.
But besides the usual stores, Uniqlo had a special branch called Uniqlo UT. Located in Harajuku, it has a distinctive industrial design, with wall lines with LED displays and rows and rows of Uniqlo UT T-shirts in transparent cyclindrical containers. I believe it is the only one in the world. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and the bright lighting and futuristic design was always a refreshing change from other stores in the vincity. I'd bought a few T-shirts in UT Harajuku during my year in Japan, and admittedly not always out of necessity but purely because I like some designs and the shopping experience there so much.
Back in Tokyo again, this time for vacation with Joanne, we were in Omotesando this afternoon and I decided to check out the store again. And I was surprised to see a series based on the new Evangelion movies! For the uninitiated, Evangelion, which appeared first as a 26-episode anime series, is just about the biggest anime ever. And the picture on the stickers on the T-shirt containers was a silhouette of lead character Rei Ayanami against a full moon. I knew I had to buy one of the shirts.
Rei Ayanami, one of the most famous anime characters ever.
The current flavour of the month is Ghost in the Shell, another famous anime from the 1990s.
Joanne, who had visited Harajuku in her previous Japan trip two years ago but didn't know about the UT shop, quite liked the place too. She is not a fan of T-shirts however. Pity. She almost bought a jacket though!
Almost like a uniform!
Got to love the industrial design. I learned that there are now 4 floors, when there were only 3 a couple of years ago.
The mirrors on the 2nd storey are still there, as I remembered them.
In the end I bought an Evangelion shirt and one based on the Ricoh GR Digital camera. The latter is part of a series on famous Japanese companies. The GRD is apparently a cult favourite camera in Japan, and Ricoh is still a very well respected name in digital imaging here.
I'll be back again! (Maybe not during this trip though.)
More to come...
