Storytime: My experience at the Johnny's Shop in Harajuku

Despite the amount of homework I have to do, I thought it would be interesting to write about my experience at the Johnny's shop in Harajuku. For those who don't want to read all of this, basically, it is better to go to the ones in Osaka or Nagoya. The reason for this is because you WILL be in line for a while and when I mean for a while, I mean for about 2-3 hours. So basically, I believe if you go after it opens, a security guard will hand you a slip that says to come back to line up after a certain time. I went there around 12:18pm ish so I got a slip that said to come back around 12:30pm, so it wasn't that long of a wait. I debated whether or not I should line up and even looked up the reviews of the store. Keep in mind that I went on New Years Eve so Harajuku was even more crowded than usual due to Meiji Shrine being close by and it was just crowded. Anyways, the reviews on google said that you will be in line for a few hours which was right. Also, I read that the people who works there do not speak English and are not helpful. For those who don't speak Japanese, there is not a lot of communication needed other than when you're at the cash register but again, when you get handed a slip that says a certain time, just come back after that time. For some reason, I thought it would be different for me and wanted to find out on my own. Also, my mom encouraged to line up.

 So when you first line up, you line up outside. It does not take that long to get inside the building where you line up more. However, it takes a very long time to get into the actual store. I believe it took about a hour just to get inside the actual store. Because they only allow a certain amount of people to get into the store each time, it does take a very long time to get in. Most people like myself had the dedication to stay in line. However, I have seen some people leaving and it looked very hard to get out. They don't have a restroom inside, so don't drink an excessive amount of water when lining up. I believe a lot of people that actually goes there are not from Tokyo and are taking the opportunity to go there when they are on a trip to Tokyo like myself. This is something I find very interesting but I think it's just nice to listen to what fans talk about whether it's about their idols or just life in general. I always find it interesting to hear what other people think about their idols and basically just the life of a fan since I don't have any friends that are fans of Hey! Say! JUMP or Johnny's in general. Because of this, going to Japan and going to concerts are the few opportunities to just be around fans of the same things I like.

After a hour or so, I finally got in and was able to choose the pictures I wanted. This was a pretty quick process since I tend to choose them quite quickly. However, after that, I had to line up again in order to pay. The line to pay was quite confusing to find but I was able to find it. It was around where the KAT-TUN section was, I believe. This again, only a certain amount of people can go at a time so it a very long time to pay. When I was able to pay, I was able to pay fairly quickly and get my pictures. There were some people who took forever to get their pictures because they wrote down ones for multiple groups. There was a foreigner who was there for a very long time most likely because of this. Again, as for myself, it was very quick since I only bought pictures of Hey! Say! JUMP. I got out of the Johnny's shop around 3pm so I was there for over 2 and half hours. So how did I feel? Not too happy. Overall, it was an experience. But if you're planning to do other stuff that day or it's your last full day in Japan, I don't recommend going to the Johnny's store in Harajuku. If you're planning to go to Osaka or Nagoya, go to the stores there. There are a lot of people there but you will not have to line up in order to get in. Lastly, listen to the reviews on google.

January

It is officially a new decade! Well, it has been for almost 2 weeks. To be honest, it does not feel any different at all. So this month has been quite hectic. I went to Japan for 5 days in late December and came back on New Years Day. That was a very fun trip. I got to the Hey! Say! JUMP concert in Tokyo Dome and did a lot of shopping around Akihabara. I finally finished writing everything down on my journal so I will try to write about my trip as soon as I can. If not, then I will do it during spring break. Then, a few days after I got back, school started. It was a very exhausting week. I have been sick and it was not fun having to go to school with a cold.