Takeshita-dōri

Opening up in front of you is Takeshita-dōri, a street about 350 metres long that runs downhill from Harajuku Station to Meiji-dōri avenue. If Omotesandō is elegant Tokyo, this is its youthful face: noisy and deliberately over the top.

1From quiet neighbourhood to shop window

The name comes from Takeshita, the old name of this area, which disappeared from the maps in 1965 when addresses were reorganised. Until the 1970s it was a residential street. From 1977 the shopkeepers' association was formed, the first crêpe shops opened, and the street began to fill with teenagers.

2Urban tribes

In the late 1970s the Takenoko boutique sold brightly coloured outfits inspired by traditional dress; wearing them, groups of young people known as the takenoko-zoku danced on Sundays in the nearby pedestrian zone. Then came the shops selling pop-star souvenirs in the 1980s; the gothic and Lolita styles in the 1990s; and, in the 21st century, the international explosion of kawaii, all things ‘cute’. Many shops last only a few years; the street is constantly reinventing itself.

Harajuku crêpes, rolled into a cone and filled with cream and fruit, became popular on this very street from the late 1970s onwards.

3What to look for

• The entrance arch, opposite Harajuku Station.
• The crêpe shop windows, with their plastic versions on show.
• The street fashion: Harajuku is still a place to see and be seen.