Shibuya is well-known for a few reasons: having a ton of people, Hachiko the dog statue, endless shopping, and having a ton of people (it's worth mentioning twice. There were a ton of people!). The famous Shibuya crossing is the world's busiest intersection, with upwards of 2,500 people crossing each time the walk light illuminates. I don't know why they don't just find another intersection!
After crossing the road, we made our way over to Shibuya 109, a shopping building with around 10 floors of women's fashion stores.
I couldn't take pictures inside (boo), but I'll paint the mental picture for you: imagine 8-10 of the priciest, tiniest women's boutique stores that you can, all in a circle surrounding a single set of escalators. Now multiply that by 10 floors, and that's Shibuya 109.
A few blocks away from the insanity of Shibuya crossing was the peaceful Miyamasu Mitake Shrine, with its lovely wolf statues. Aside from our hotel rooms, this was the only place that Jeffrey and I went where we were completely alone. We felt a bit uncomfortable and wondered if we were even allowed to be there.
On the way back to the train station, we passed a pet store, eeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Kitties! Again, no photographs were allowed inside the store. Guess how much a cat costs in Tokyo? Over ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS (doing some quick yen to dollar math). Wow!!
Finally, we stopped at Shibuya station, home of the Hachiko dog statue. Hachiko was a dog who ran to the station every day to greet his owner at the end of the work day, even for years after his owner died! I'm pretty sure our animals think we're dead because we've been gone so long, but don't really care because somebody's giving them food still.
BONUS PICTURE! The Mario Bros. and friends are heading out for a friendly go-kart race!
Halloween Pub Crawl
"They celebrate Halloween in Japan?" Number one question we were asked when we mentioned that we were coming to Japan for Halloween. Yes, they celebrate Halloween, and they celebrate it better and harder than the rest of the world. I would liken the level of celebration to the level of Christmas spirit that shopping malls have. Seriously, just all-out crazy, party 'til you can't feel your face, scream until your lungs give out, drink until you pass out insanity. Here are just a few snaps I took of costumes as we walked around:
And then of course Jeffrey and I put on our costumes! An evil sorcerer and his elven hunter wife.
Decked out and ready to stay out all night, we headed to Roppongi, the party district of Tokyo. Note about Roppongi, we had heard that there a few not-so-great groups that have begun to take over bars and clubs in the city, luring tourists in with promises of a good time, then spiking their drinks and robbing them blind. I was absolutely terrified about this. So rather than go it alone for the night, we joined a traveling pub crawl hosted by a reputable company, where we would hop bar to bar with a large group of people to stick together with.
HAH! So for an event that was expecting 250 people, almost a thousand showed up. Yes, a thousand people crammed into a small basement bar. After waiting in line for a few hours, just to get to the registration desk, we pushed and shoved our way down into the bar. I don't know how people had drinks, or where they got them from. It was a madhouse. Once we made it to the bottom of the stairs and saw what we could expect for the next four hours, we took a few pictures, then headed quickly for the subway to go back to our hotel. We simply couldn't handle being up close and personal with a thousand other people all night.
HAH! So for an event that was expecting 250 people, almost a thousand showed up. Yes, a thousand people crammed into a small basement bar. After waiting in line for a few hours, just to get to the registration desk, we pushed and shoved our way down into the bar. I don't know how people had drinks, or where they got them from. It was a madhouse. Once we made it to the bottom of the stairs and saw what we could expect for the next four hours, we took a few pictures, then headed quickly for the subway to go back to our hotel. We simply couldn't handle being up close and personal with a thousand other people all night.
So, yes, we're lame for calling it a night at 8:00 pm, in the midst of the wildest party we've ever witnessed. But hey, at least we got our beauty rest!