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Watching this video you can get an impression of how packed Tokyo is and how exciting it is to walk around in this mega city.

Walking out of Hachiko exit at the Shibuya Station at dusk, you’ll see the Hachiko Crossing which is featured in both, Lost in Translation and Tokyo Drift. It’s very, very busy like hardly any intersection or square elsewhere in the world. Going there the first time is just an overwhelming experience. The sidewalks and the area in front of the station is getting extremely crowded before all the traffic stops at once and people are crossing the intersection in every direction at the same time.  And all around there are really large neon screens which are flashing out sounds and pictures.

A great opportunity to watch this insane spectacle is to have an Iced Caffè Mocha at the busiest Starbucks in the world which is overlooking the intersection. Though it might take you some time to find a free seat at the window, it’s definitely worth to wait!

And the Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo has much more to offer than just Hachiko Crossing. The area in front of the station is a popular meeting spot for young people.  Walking down the Sentagai pedestrian street is another great experience. Shibuya and nearby Harajuku (esp. Takeshita Shopping Street) are the most trendy areas of Tokyo and the centers of young fashion and nightlife.

Large department stores and shopping centers such as Shibuya 109 and Omotesando Hills are all in the vicinity of Shibuya station.

Another good place to spend some time in Shibuya is Yoyogi Park. Especially at night there are many young people gathering there.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 3:36 PM and is filed under Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.