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Holding a Mirror up to the Outsider

Tokyo: skate park
 

Kinda sweet when the Shibuya skatepark bans the dinky skateboards that are for sale by all-and-sundry shops in Harajuku these days.

What elements of (now mainstream) subcultures are co-opted and by whom? And how it forces the subculture to reexamine its own values and identity? For a subculture built on urban-outsider status, what does it mean to ban fashion-trend driven derivatives of itself?

Tokyo: skate park