Shibuya

From Karajuku, it took about another twenty or thirty minutes to Shibuya. Each neighborhood is separated by at least a thirty minute or longer walk, which by this time of day was wearing on us very much. This time, walking from Harajuku to Shibuya, we decided to venture off the main road, and just take any side street we could that went south. It seemed to me to be like Europe in that the side streets were like alleys between the homes or other buildings where people walked, or, very carefully, cars drove. It was much more quiet, and it was interesting to see the different homes and apartment complexes.

When we got close to Shibuya, we could feel the energy rising; there were many more flashing billboards and pachinko parlors, more people, and stores that sold eccentric things.

As we were walking towards the main station, we came upon a Shinto procession. There were several men dressed in their uniform gi that were carrying a portable shrine. They were chanting some song, and others in the group were around them to make way through the crowd. I felt very lucky that we got a chance to experience this by chance on our first day in Tokyo.

We then walked to the station. It is said that the intersection at the station is the busiest in the world, and that at every light, more than a thousand people cross. Like Shinjuku, there were tall buildings covered with flashing billboards and televisions. It was a bit of sensory overload. At one corner, there is a famous statue of a dog, and the station exit is named after it. The story goes that everyday the dog would wait for its master at the station, and when the man died, the dog stayed there forever, waiting (until, presumably, it too died).

Shibuya seemed to me to be the most cosmopolitan part that we visited today. I saw more people here that were not Japanese while we sat in the Starbucks than we had seen the rest of the day (which isn’t to say that there were a lot of non-Japanese in the Starbucks, either). Throughout the neighborhoods that we walked through today, there were always a lot of stores for shopping, mostly clothes. However, in Shibuya I saw some music schools, smaller cafes, and video game arcades (I saw one other arcade in Shinjuku, I think).

We also found an internet café so that we could email our families to tell them that we were alive and well. I also searched for the location of the local Apple store so that we could get free internet access. We were only there for a short while, before we left. The man at the counter was nice, and spoke fractured English, so we communicated well, or so I though. We paid, and all was well. When we first walked into the place, and order the computer to use, he told us that we could get free drinks. So, when we left, I helped myself to some tea in the refrigerator. Apparently this was not the free drink that he was talking about, and he ran up and stopped me. I told him sorry in Japanese, and we left; perhaps because it was after we paid, or perhaps it was only coffee that we could get for free. In any case, I was too tired to be embarrassed, and in fact I was a little angry; after all, he did tell us there were free drinks. After thinking about it for a bit, though, I knew that I shouldn’t have been angry because of a lack of communication between us. In any case, we won’t go to that internet café again.