Word: shibuya
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...Rika squat on a Shibuya street corner crawling with drunks and hustlers. Dressed almost identically in tight tees and pants, the girls?who say they're 18 but look 14?touch up their lipstick as they draw leers from the men stumbling by. Mai pulls out her bleating cell phone and checks the number on the screen. "My mom," she tells Rika, tucking the phone back in a Starbucks tote bag without answering. Rika nods. Mai tosses her long hair and declares: "Tonight's an all-nighter...
...Shibuya district of Tokyo is a teen mecca by day, by night a neon-signed playground of drinking holes and sex clubs for adult men looking for a good time. Mai and Rika hang here round the clock, part of a new fad sweeping up very young Japanese girls. It's called puchi iede, or "petite runaway." Home is what they're running from. Shibuya, with its 24-7 excitements and black-lit havens, is freedom central. "Petite" refers not to the size of the runaway, though many are mere wisps on the cusp of puberty, but to the short...
...parents. Teens rightly see that hard work doesn't spell success anymore?their dutiful parents are facing the gloomiest economic times since World War II?so what's the point? Why not go out and play?for several days and nights at a time? But running away to Shibuya or other metropolitan party hubs can be anything but a harmless lark. Some young runaways have been murdered. The lure of prostitution, to earn spending money or just to find a warm place to sleep, is hard to avoid considering the vast network of predators trained to sweep young girls...
...Runaways are apprehended only if they commit, or seem likely to commit, a crime. The police department's own data state that runaways aged 14 and under have swelled to 33% of the total, and girls have become the majority. Yet in Shibuya, uniformed officers manning a centrally located police box rarely glance at the obviously underage, mostly female children streaming past long after midnight. "I don't have any reason to come into contact with them," says an officer, who declines to give his name. Michiko says when she's in a strange city she often asks policemen...
...kawaii. The look Moussy is flogging can best be described as otona (adult) type?sophisticated, chic, the look a girl wears when she wants some respect. It's a toned-down reaction to the big platforms, streaked blond hair and rebellious styles of the past few years. The Shibuya girls are all saying it's kawaii. And if you blink, you'll probably miss...