Harajuku's best head shop, and it has some competition.
In addition to the usual hemp products, Guatemalan sportswear
and tie-dyes, the store was full of leather bikerware and Native
American jewelry, both aspects of the
Grateful
Dead look usually ignored by American hippies. Note the garlands
of plastic marijuana leaves around the skeletons' necks - I didn't
see any evidence of pot use anywhere in Japan, but they sure do
like the visual trappings. Down the street from here you could
get stash boxes shaped like the heads of Boba Fett, Darth Vader,
Cheech and Chong, etc.
Don't imagine, though, that the hippie thing is
in any way separate from any other aspect of American-derived
hipsterdom in Harajuku. I saw tie-dyes on top of form-fitting
Burberry plaid pants and Doc Martens, and I saw a classic Dead
T on the shoe saleswoman in the kind of store where Paris Hilton
shops for clubwear. Amidst much other groovy vintage wear in another
boutique down the block, I spotted a GD New Year's Eve tie-dye
that I wore every five days in high-school - for all I know, it
could have been the very same shirt.
