12/12/2005

Last week on the 3Yen I wrote about “Echika” the new underground shopping mall of Harajuku in What’s Echika? . Yesterday, I finally got around to taking s some pictures of it (since on its opening day there were not any photos available online).

The photo below shows how Christmas solves the homeless problem in Tokyo.
The new underground shopping mall of Harajuku’s Omotesando attracted homeless to its warm mable-lined corridors, so they put out poinsettia flowers, tiny live Christmas trees and signs every three meters reading, “Enjoy the beauty of Christmas—No stopping.”

Since Harajuku’s Omotesando is Tokyo’s version of the Champs-Elysees of Paris in its the atmosphere, I could almost understand their clean Christmas Spirit (but after helping my family run a homeless center in Chicago for decades, I can’t say this is the best solution).