An evening in the bustling district of Shibuya, home of the world-famous pedestrian crossing and a huge number of other exciting tourist-y things to do. But first, let me hijack this post to give some miscellaneous updates, which wouldn’t really be a post on their own.
There are some curious things about Japan which, although they may seem insignificant, were quite interesting to me. One thing I never imagined I’d do is think “Oh hey look, it’s 21:00, time to go to the supermarket!”. But that’s what you do here, because there are 50 % discounts on pre-made meals from that time until closing at 22:00. Wonderful!
Women here walk around with umbrellas in the sun. Never saw that in Europe. On the other hand, most people don’t take out their umbrellas when there is only a weak shower. Riding a bike here is, compared to other stereotypical Japanese traits, very unconventional. Cyclists are everywhere and ride quite dangerously by my standards. There are also very few bike lanes so people just make do with streets or sidewalks.
A thing I looked up about the district I’m living in now is the basic population and area statistics. Compared to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, it has about the same number of residents. On a 10 times smaller area. Keep in mind that this is only a district, not a city. Amazing, don’t you think?
There was a (weak) earthquake last week, which was the first one I actually felt since coming here. It was nothing special and quite weak, but I did get a sudden urge to finally look up my disaster evacuation spots. Better late than never! Oh, a small but interesting thing that also happened, which might surprise some, is that my phone is now constantly making shutter sounds when taking pictures. Doesn’t sound strange? Well, the thing is that it happens even when the phone is in silent mode. Apparently, the phone adapted to the Japanese regulations and automatically started making shutter sounds. Interesting.
When you’re looking at the photo album for this post—you are going to do that, aren’t you?—try to look for a common name in many of the pictures. There’s a huuuuuuge corporation that probably owns all of Shibuya. Well, not all of it, but just about everything, if you get what I mean. They’re seriously huge and really live up to the meaning of the word “corporation”.
The pictures speak louder than words, but I’ll still give some highlights of what me and Youri did that evening. We didn’t check out all of Shibuya, not by a long shot as there are just too many things to do, but we did look like proper tourists and wandered around interesting places.
Shibuya itself is very colourful and loud. There are screens everywhere, with loud advertisements for things I never heard of. The famous crossing is really big and there are a lot of people there, but it’s not all it’s hyped up to be. However, in alleys just beside the main street, the usual bustle dies down and you get way more side streets, like a halloween-themed one, which had about different 15 tiny bars, each one able to accommodate a whopping 5 people at a time.
There is a store in Shibuya called Shibuya109 (pronounced shibuya ichi maru kyuu, also a wordplay on the name of the corporation I was talking about) which is a famous fashion department store. It’s aimed at women, so we went to Shibuya109Men’s, which is just across the street. It’s just a fashion store with 7 floors, but it has at least as many distinct fashion styles available. As someone who isn’t really interested in fashion per se, it was still nice to look at the displays.
We also went to a SEGA arcade, which was quite a bit more pleasant then a Taito Arcade I was in a week before. Some seriously hardcore players were there, begging the question of what they were doing with their lives. We also made a stop at a fun sushi place, where you order through a computer, and the order comes to you on a conveyor belt, stopping at your seat for you to take it.
Shibuya has a big nightlife scene, judging by the street filled with clubs. And love hotels, where you can apparently “““rest””” or “““stay”””. Last week, a group of us together with some Japanese friends went to an izakaya, which is, to put it simply, a place where you eat and drink. It was a fun experience and the first time I had hot alcohol (in the form of hot sake, which is apparently a thing).
To sign off, I’d like to leave you with a picture of a ticket gate, through which you have to pass when in train stations. Beeping your card at these things is quite fun, especially in the morning rush hour, when there is a flood of people making their way to the station to be sardined, each emitting a beep when they walk through the gates. As a side note, being sardined into a train is really not as bad as it sounds, as everyone is really kind and looks out for the fellow passenger.
The next post will be about Akihabara. Soon, because that’s where I went on Saturday!
See the full album linked to this post here (click)!