Shibuya (Part 3)

Next, I visited Shibuya, a section of Tokyo known for its vibrant night life and popularity among young Japanese people. The tall, lit up buildings with their large projector screens were really impressive to watch, especially amidst the dense crowd of people in this area.

Shibuya 109 is a huge clothing department store in the heart of Shibuya, which is supposedly very popular amongst teenage girls. Outside of the store, they were holding a small scale fashion show, modeling the clothes you could buy inside the store. I find it funny how some of the even the ultra modern aspects of Japanese culture have a seemingly retro feel to them, like having a live fashion show. Something seems quaint and old fashioned about the idea of it, even though it’s done in a few modern and cool way, in the middle of an incredibly fast-paced, urban area.

The father of the Canadian family that I briefly traveled with commented on the fashion of the people in Tokyo. He said he loved how bold it was compared to the relatively conservative Western style. This is definitely true – just walking through the train stations you can see a huge variety of styles. I know the bold fashion choices don’t always translate well when Asian people move to America (fobby clothes?), but in the context of Tokyo it makes a lot of sense and looks great.

When I first came to Japan, I summed up Tokyo as “a whole lot of people crammed into a tiny space.” On my trip so far, I feel slightly differently. I think that it’s a whole lot of people crammed into a whole lot of space. Every area of the city that I visited was incredibly crowded, with swarms of people pouring out of the train and subway stations every few minutes. There truly is no comparison in the United States, not even New York or Los Angeles. It seems like it would be hard to live in such a crowded place, but I guess the people here get by just fine.

Ah! The Colonel! It was like meeting an old friend. Except he was trying to sell me “Krushers,” and although they appear to be a delightful blended smoothie, that name is just too creepy.

Shibuya seems like an odd place to be thanking nature.

I just had to visit the Shibuya Yamaha store. There was a Michael Jackson manikin in front store window, wearing a single, sequined glove. They really love Michael over here, it seems. Inside, it was mostly just pretty ordinary looking keyboards and sound equipment. Except for one thing…

A Japanese take on the electric guitar! Near the bridge, the strings are physical, so you can pluck or pick them normally. However, the fret board is made up of a series of buttons, which you push down instead of fretting the strings. It was a lot of fun to play with and the buttons were very easy to push down and felt very natural. One big problem though is that you can’t do string bending on this type of guitar. So much for the blues.

That didn’t stop me from trying though!

The picture doesn’t do it justice, but this was the most delicious katsudon I have ever eaten. I wanted to eat at the department store in Shibuya, but I couldn’t find it. I went to a smaller side street and found this small restaurant, and for only about 5 dollars had this incredible meal. It could be because I was tired from walking around all day and hadn’t eaten much, but I was so happy after I ate this that I almost felt like crying.

Shibuya, all lit up at dusk.

Shinjuku, my home for three nights, and my first stop in Japan. I will miss walking around shady Kabukicho.