12/2/2005

Tokyo’s Omotesando (表参道) in the Harajuku district is about as damn nice as gray concrete Tokyo can be—It’s Tokyo’s version of the Champs-Elysees of Paris in its the atmosphere. The Tokyo Metro station has its own “Echika” underground shopping area which opened today.

It seems that Echika has no photos of it in the news or online yet and there’s only the artist’s rendering below available at the official flash-infested website of Echika.

Since Omtesando is on my train line, I will be passing through the station sometime this weekend and I’ll take a few pictures to post here. For the meantime, check out the real “chika” (Spanish for girl) of the Tokyo Metro, Yamada-san and her twisted Echika rabbit mascot in her weird photo spread on MSN-Mainichi.

Oh and “What’s Echika?”
Echika (エチカ) a made-up word combining “E” （いい）which is Japanese for ‘good” and “chika”（地下）meaning underground. According to the official website, the name is also supposed to evoke the idea of “Excellent”, “Exciting” and “Etc”.