Day 2: A walk to Shibuya

Cycleway just down the road from our place

After the most delicious sleep I awoke refreshed and was ready to explore this new and different place. A place where the language is almost foreign, the signs are mostly in an unreadable script and the place is clean, tidy and densely packed with houses and skyscrapers. A truly new experience. At one point I said to Bev that it seems to be largely a culture that has hewn its own place, that is modern without being western European. It has all the things we are familiar with - cars, iPhones, computers and so on, yet all done in a Japanese way.

Parking: If you have a bike you have to park it.

It was very warm and quite humid. Bev’s big idea was to go to the Shibuya crossing which is reputably the largest pedestrian crossing in the world.

We decided to walk there and to use Google maps as our guide. It took us on a rather circuitous route and ended up with us getting a little lost. So we decided that Apple Maps might be a better option and indeed it was. As is usual for me when I am in the Northern Hemisphere I get confused about north and south. It is about the sun being a different place. It was an interesting walk as the city was quiet when we took off due to it being Sunday. The streets seemed quite empty. Along the way we went past the very modern and grand Tokyo

City Government Buildings

metropolitan building then through a large wooded area which had the Meiji Shrine. It was an oasis of peace inside this large and noisy city. We entered through the northern entrance and there was hardly a soul there by Japanese standards. As we walked through the woods on a very wide, gravelled, perfectly groomed path, more and more people appeared, until it felt quite crowded. All were there to see the Meiji shrine which is recommended in Lonely Planet as one to see.

Entrance to park surrounding Meiji Shrine

The rest of the walk was alongside a relatively quiet road until suddenly the crowds appeared again as we approached the crossing. It was truly huge with about five roads converging. One moment the crossings were clear, but once the lights went green the pedestrians swarmed across it in a huge wave.

Life is about chance happenings. Sunday was the equinox so Monday was a public holiday for everyone in Japan. Whilst wandering the streets, as part of the celebration, we came across a procession carrying a heavy object with lots of bells etc on it. Progress was very slow with cars impeding its progress - there was lots of chanting with the participants looking either very happy or bored.

While there were lots of places to eat, a number of the places were quite expensive and typically had a wait time. We both wanted something lighter like a Bento Box so we went searching further afield and found a wonderful food place. It was both crowded but also had a

Wine barrels from Burgundy

variety of beautifully presented Japanese food. There was so much choice. The only downside was that It was a take out market with nowhere to sit like in the food halls we are familiar with.

After that it was another search for a cup of tea and a place to sit and have a rest.

Shibuya crossing

Our apartment had no wine glasses so we went search for a couple so we could have a glass of wine between activities. We went for a roam around a lot of very crowded narrow streets some of which had been pedestrianised. By this time it was dark, but we found an amazing place which was a DIY and housewares store. It was really interesting and Bev could have spent hours there.

Getting back to our apartment was a bit of a challenge. First, we had to find our way to the right train station. Then, once we got to our intermediate destination we had to find our way to the next station. What an effort. After a few wrong turns and battling a huge crowd we finally made it.

For dinner, we found a lovely little restaurant down the road from us and had a delicious meal with really interesting food. There was even an English menu.