Tokyo Photo Scavenger Hunt

I had a very fun day today. Pete organised a Photo Scavenger Hunt. Basically, you get a big list of items, and go off and try to take photos of as many items on the list as possible. The team with the most items at the end, wins. We were divided into three teams. I was with my co-worker Aya. ^_^

We spent most of our time running around Shibuya, Yoyogi and Harajuku. The race began and ended at Hachiko square. We were allowed to go anywhere, but due to time restraints, we stayed in the same area (we had five hours, which sounds like a lot, but we also had a lot of items to find).

Some example list items...

Someone waving with both hands. It's not all that uncommon to see this; particularly young girls at train stations. But we couldn't find anyone. So a few minutes before our 'deadline', we asked some random foreigner on the street if he wouldn't mind waving his hands for a photo. Hahaha...

A live cicada. Aya supposedly photographed one - I couldn't really see it in the picture she took - but I never saw one. I heard hundreds of them in Yoyogi Park, but they really are completely impossible to find...

Someone wearing leather pants. Even at Harajuku station, we couldn't find one. But happily, the Rockabilly club was out in Harajuku. These are the dudes who dress up like guys out of 'Grease' and dance to 50s rock 'n' roll in the park, complete with ducktail hairstyles and - black leather. Score! Actually, all three of our teams went to that park and got the same guy!

A kid laughing. And, a kid crying. So every time we saw any child go past, we looked at their faces. 'Oh, all the kids in Shibuya are not laughing,' said Aya.
Then in Yoyogi, there were a lot of happy kids, and we finally got one laughing. After that, we were scrutinising all the kids in Yoyogi to try to find a crying child. They were all too happy; we pondered how we could make one cry. Fortunately it didn't come to that, and we eventually found one outside a huge toystore. Hahaha.

A shirtless man. These are very easy to find in Yoyogi Park, and almost impossible to find in regular city streets in Tokyo. Today was pretty warm, but fortunately not as hot as the last few days have been (it was really humid and stifling). In fact, it was quite comfortable weather for our scavenger hunt. ^_^

Twins. I saw identical twin girls in identical dresses. My camera was permanently on, and in my hand, and in a second I had them. We had to keep a lot of different items in our mind at all times, looking around for people wearing crocs, and someone with a tattoo, and so on.

Disney ears. All of us, independently of one another, went to the Disney store in Shibuya. Actually we got quite a few of our list items in relevant stores.

A stuffed dolphin. We looked in a lot of stores for this one! Finally we were in Harajuku and I spied Kiddy Land nearby. Score!

A couple kissing. Anywhere but Yoyogi Park, this would have probably been quite tough. But I saw a foreign couple walking hand-in-hand, and they looked quite lovey-dovey, so I kept my camera trained on them, until - yes!! - they leaned in for a kiss.

Someone walking two or more dogs. If I were in Yokohama, down at the harbour, this would have been super easy. We had to actually go to the 'dog run' area of Yoyogi Park in order to find someone. A nice man was pulling a bulldog in a cart, and when Aya asked, he invited us to come with him to the area. (It was funny to walk with him; every single picnicker and couple and family sitting nearby turned to stare as we walked past, and most of them exclaimed 'kawaii!!' (Cute!))

A bald head, taken from above. We were in a large department store, going downstairs, when suddenly Aya did a u-turn and took off up the stairs, taking them two or three at a time. (This kind of behaviour was par for the course today, hahaha.) When I turned to see what she was doing, I immediately realised why - a guy with a fully shaved head was coming up the stairs past me. ^_^

A Louis Vuitton bag. This must be one of the easiest things in all of Tokyo to find. Hahaha! 'Let's look out for one as we walk,' I said, and within about thirty seconds we had a good shot.

A couple wearing masks and holding hands. Some people do wear face masks to protect against colds and flu; but this was a difficult item to achieve. So in a novelty store, we asked a random couple if they wouldn't mind wearing some children's face masks and having a picture taken. So we have a cute shot of Kamen Rider and Stitch holding hands. ^_^

87 different things to find. We got 59 of them (well, 62, but 3 were deemed 'invalid', for example instead of a picture of 'a shrine' we just had a picture of a shrine gate, etc). We got a few extra points for having 2 or more list items in the same picture, and overall our team came second, out of three. ^_^

Some of the items we *didn't* get: a cat, a couple both wearing crocs (and I looked SO constantly for this one!), a child using a vending machine, the 49th floor of a building, and the inside of a love hotel (the other teams got this!!!).

I'd love to do something like this again. Maybe I'll organise one myself some day. It really does seem better in Tokyo etc, than it would in Adelaide, mostly because people in Adelaide don't tend to run around with cameras, whereas in Tokyo you don't stand out much.