Grand Opening Celebration at Tokyu Plaza Harajuku’s HARAKADO, Featuring Utaha in Short Film Premiere

Tokyu Plaza Harajuku “Harakado” will open on Wednesday, April 17 at Jingumae Crossing in Harajuku, Tokyo. Various events will be held in conjunction with the opening.

“Harakado” aims to be a “creative facility” rather than a “commercial facility” as a place where visitors can enjoy new experiential values in light of the history of the Harajuku/Jingumae area, which has produced a variety of culture, and in the current age where everyone transmits information and expresses themselves through SNS. The complex facility has 75 stores from the first basement floor to the rooftop terrace on the seventh floor. The neighboring complex, Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku, was renamed Tokyu Plaza Omotesando “Omokado” on the same day. The contents will be developed in conjunction with “Harakado”.

On the opening day, Wednesday the 17th, a 30-second short film starring Utaha from Wednesday Campanella will be shown on a monitor on the roof of “Harakado and on the newly installed Omokado Vision. The entire “Harakado” building prior to the opening was utilized for the film, which features artists and dancers active in various fields, students who will lead the next generation of culture, and about 100 tenant employees of “Harakado”.

Filming lasted about 40 hours, and a longer, full-length version is scheduled to be released in the future. Wednesday’s Campanella also provided the newly written song “Shitenno. Comments from the artists have also been released.

Comments from Utaha of Wednesday Campanella

Harakado is a commercial facility where creators gather to create a new culture. Inspired by this concept, we created the song “Shitenno”. A future where various talents gather at the four corners of Harajuku and new challenges begin to be taken on. The lyrics of “Do you know what Shitennou is? “I’ll be waiting for you in the skyscraper” were used as a refrain to express the sense of unity among the creators. The track has a unique sound, alternating between slow afro house and powerful bass house. We hope that the audience will get excited with the call and response at the live performance.

From Thursday the 18th to Sunday the 21st, the day after the opening, a premium event by the Dewar’s whiskey brand “Dewar’s” will be held on the rooftop terrace, “Harakado Opening Commemorative Rooftop Bar Event. When you read the QR code in the venue and point it to “Omokado” across the Jingumae intersection, the phantom “Dewar’s Bridge” will appear as AR contents.

In addition, drinks such as “Heart of Catalyst,” a cocktail commemorating the opening of “Harakado,” will be offered.

From Wednesday, the 17th to Tuesday, the 23rd, the day after the opening of Harakado, the magazine library “COVER” on the 2nd floor will hold “AERA presents: How Magazines are Created: A Complete Dissection”. In addition to the showcase displays and videos that show the flow of magazine production, 40 memorial issues of “AERA,” which will surpass 2,000 issues in 2023, will also be on display.

During the event, a collaboration event with the fashion magazine “Peche” will be held on Saturday the 20th and with the fashion and culture magazine “NYLON JAPAN” on Sunday the 21st, also at “COVER”. Talk shows with models and magazine editors will be held, and a photo booth and sales booth will be set up.

Harakado will also feature a variety of art exhibitions, including a solo exhibition by Fumika Tsuchitori, “Drawings (+),” at the gallery room in the members-only creative lounge “BABY The Coffee Brew Club” on the third floor from Wednesday, May 17 to Sunday, May 12. The exhibition will feature several drawings and paintings. Several drawings and paintings will be exhibited (at the same time as WAITINGROOM in Edogawabashi and NADiff a/p/a/r/t in Ebisu).

On the 4th floor, under the title of “NATURE CROSSING GARELLY,” “pedestrian crossings” will be installed on the asphalt. As the first phase, immersive experiential contents (interactive contents) based on the theme of Palau will be developed.

In addition, it was announced that Taro Okamoto’s painting “Dream” will be exhibited on the wall of the 6th floor. The work was created for and donated to the founding family of the long-established French confectionery “Colombin,” with whom he had been in contact for many years, and after being exhibited in the Colombin store, it was stored at the former Harajuku headquarters.

On the 7th floor, “Shibuya Font Lab,” a gallery and event space by the general incorporated association “Shibuya Font,” which has been connecting people with disabilities with students and companies through art and design, will open. The lab will work with the stores and creators that occupy the “Harakado” building to create a new kind of interaction that embodies diversity and inclusion.

The previously unannounced tenants have also been revealed, including THE STANDARD DRINKS, a bar-type drink stand on the 6th floor, the mode brand HARE on the 2nd floor, and Reservoir, which operates the fashion brand led.tokyo, etc., on the 1st floor. The first floor will feature “Zenith Boutique Omotesando,” a jewelry and bag brand “BILAN” and a luxury Swiss watch brand established more than 150 years ago by Reservoir Co. “ONE PIECE MUGIWARA STORE HARAJUKU”, the official store of “ONE PIECE” by Toei Animation, will open on the G-floor. The “ONE PIECE MUGIWARA STORE HARAJUKU” will open in the summer of 2024.