Fashionable skate kids are as plentiful as parking meters on the sidewalk outside the popular street-wear stores Supreme, 274 Lafayette Street (Prince Street), left, and its neighbors 555 Soul and X-Large. But the clientele is increasingly Japanese, said Supreme's owner, James Jebbia. ''Believe it or not, we've become more popular in Japan than over here,'' he said. Together, these stores ''represent the hard-edged hip-hop urban skater kid that people have come to associate with New York,'' Mr. Jebbia added.

His store now rations Japanese tourists on the number of skateboards, shoes and loose-fitting T-shirts and jackets they can buy, to stop them from reselling it all back home on the gray market.

To supply the market in Japan, Supreme has opened three stores there in the last year and a half; 555 Soul has opened two in the last eight months, and X-Large, whose co-founder is Mike D of the Beastie Boys, has five shops in Japan.

In spite of that, Japanese shoppers like Cornelius still prefer Lafayette Street. ''There's more variety, it's cheaper and there are no long lines,'' he explained.