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Tokyo Queues
Anyone who has spent time in central Tokyo on a weekend will pretty soon come across a long queue of people waiting for a store to open. It's not that queues are necessarily rare elsewhere in the world, after all scarcity or creating the perception of scarcity is, um, scarcely novel. But here queues stretching 100 meters or more are not uncommon, with especially hired security to ensure its all done in an orderly manner and without annoying the neighbours.
Observing queues also provides insights into how people relate to and interact with one another, highlighting things like the acceptable social space between people and it is after all a chance to see what people do when they wait. Everyone lined up with with shared yet conflicting goals.
I often pass the weekend Daikanyama Supreme store queue on my way to the Daikanyama pool. The queue starts three hours before the store opens, and can reach a couple of hundred meters long. Everyone politely waiting, everyone decked out in very similar gear, everyone looking up with the same level of expectation. Everyone queueing politely for a store that prides itself on being associated with street and skate? What's that about?
And from the perspective of a researcher if you're trying to find people who meet a particular profile, let's face it, they've already formed an orderly queue.
Photos taken from two original panormas of 30+ photos available here and here [1MB download].
And the queue above? A worthy object from a far flung corner of this earth sent to the first person who can say what these people are queueing for.
Writing from Daikanyama, back of | June 7, 2006 | Permalink
Comments
BAPE Heads?
Posted by: R at June 8, 2006 9:36 AM
..are also Supreme head ?
Posted by: R at June 8, 2006 9:38 AM
Shoes?
Posted by: Kristen Johansen at June 8, 2006 9:56 AM
Parking?
Posted by: jason michael at June 8, 2006 9:59 AM
Not quite there.
R - right part of town though.
And if you specify shoes I want to know which branded shop.
Ho hum, this is too easy.
Posted by: Jan at June 8, 2006 2:01 PM
Nike, I would guess, by the few visible Nike symbols on the shoes?
Posted by: Bryan McKay at June 8, 2006 2:09 PM
Not Nike.
I would think a shoe shop would be too obvious.
Posted by: Ja n at June 8, 2006 2:25 PM
Drive Netz or the iPod + Nike peripheral?
Posted by: jason michael at June 9, 2006 5:40 AM
Or the iPodCOLLECTION BY BEAMS.
I am thinking something Apple & something fashion related.
Posted by: jason michael at June 9, 2006 5:42 AM
Someone's using their imagination (Michael).
The object of the queue is popular in Japan but less so in say the UK or the US, where it is still relatively underground.
Posted by: Jan at June 9, 2006 9:22 AM
they wait to skate on a special skatepark inside the store that has been comissioned to trendy architects. Otherwise, why the line would be there only on saturdays?
either this, or it has to be another kind of service, not a product.
Posted by: enric at June 9, 2006 9:39 AM
A product not a service (but a good guess).
> they wait to skate on a special skatepark inside the store that has been comissioned to trendy architects
Now we're getting somewhere.
Totally wrong of course, but just the kind of thinking I like to see on a friday.
Posted by: Jan at June 9, 2006 12:06 PM
'shrooms from a street vendor.
Posted by: Kim Pierro at June 9, 2006 10:39 PM
a bws exclusive t-shirt
Posted by: kudu at June 9, 2006 11:33 PM
Onitsuka Tigers or Puma from pistacio?
Posted by: kudu at June 9, 2006 11:48 PM
Nike SB's?
Posted by: G at June 10, 2006 12:49 AM
a special limited edition of a skateboard signed by a local japanese avant-rap band with special graphics by tomato(UK)?
Posted by: enric at June 10, 2006 2:26 AM
Tomato?
How very 90's
This queue is modern.
Keep guessing.
Posted by: Jan at June 10, 2006 9:43 AM
this could be too crazy but hey, why not...
Custom hulgers?
http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2005/06/custom_hulgers.php
Posted by: enric at June 11, 2006 1:53 AM
Yup, too crazy.
Posted by: Jan at June 11, 2006 1:03 PM
DS Lite?
Posted by: jason michael at June 11, 2006 8:31 PM
customized mobile phone cases for their cell phones (that match skateboards artwork) coming with an iTunes song and a mobile phone wallpaper from "kid robot" for free?
Posted by: enric at June 13, 2006 6:20 AM
they might be queuing to get their phones done (like in nails or pimp my ride).
Posted by: vt at June 13, 2006 9:23 PM
Brain Training?
Posted by: Bryan McKay at June 13, 2006 11:01 PM
hey, what was it? what were they waiting for??
Posted by: enric at June 24, 2006 2:10 AM