tokyo new year

i am visiting tokyo from 1-5 jan..new year period

will the cos-kids be in harajuku?

Will there be shopping sales during this period?

Any recommendations for short trips to travel to outside tokyo?

Ming, I posted this question before as well. I don't think I got replies. When I checked information about the "youth/cos-play" hangout in Harajuku, it was clear that it is a Sunday afternoon thing(2pm). My stay period in Tokyo is similar to yours, so no Sundays for us. However, I am going to try to get there on the Jan 1st afternoon and hope to catch some action. Maybe some Tokyoites can tell us if that is a good plot? Or in fact, people in Tokyo just don't go and watch these "normal" scenes so they don't know. I will play my part as a tourist, particularly for my 14 yr old son, who is brought up in Canada. He will be interested to see what other teenagers do in Japan. Then again, I was once a teenager too, the last thing I would want to do is to be "watched" as a patch of tourist attraction! So don't expect too much, there may just be a few tourists like you and myself running into each others in the Yoyogi Park! Well, there's always the Meiji Shrine next door. Have fun, my mate!

I tried to get info by googling in Japanese but couldn't get anything about cos-play in New Year's days. But most shops on Takeshita street are open even on Jan 1st, anticipating for worshippers to Meiji Shrine. (On average, 3 million people visit Meiji Shrine for the first 3 days of New Year) So, some of them may venture themselves in their 1st cos-play performance in 2008...

Here's someone who showed us the light! Thanks Jlady, I will be there to jury the first Cos-Play 2008! I wish they show up.

Meiji Jingu is so crowded in the first few days of the year that I can't imagine the cos-play girls will be there on the bridge- they would get trampled by the hordes coming out of Harajuku station.

Also the girls seem to like being watched and having their photos taken. Any Sunday there are usually crowds of tourists taking photos and if it bothered the girls I guess they wouldn't be there.

As for sales, it depends what you want. There's always plenty going on in Shinjuku. There's also the fukubukuro "mystery bag" option, where you get a bag with mystery contents (though you will know if it's clothes, or camera's, etc, etc). Kamakura, Nikko or Yokahama are great day trips (there's plenty of information on these). Again it depends on what you're after. I'd probably go for Nikko for the snow, the monkeys, temples and Kegon taki waterfall. All good though.