I got out of the taxi and could not tell where the sidewalk ended and the crowd began.
Shibuya Crossing is one of those places you have seen a hundred times before you ever stand in it. Standing in it is a different thing.
I thought it would be office workers
On television I had always assumed the crowd was people pouring out of the office buildings around it — a busy district doing what busy districts do.
It was mostly visitors. You can tell right away: people were photographing, laughing, crossing and then turning around to cross again.
Then the light changes
Everyone moves at once, from every direction. Nobody stops. Nobody bumps into anyone.
I crossed it four times
I would like to say I was above all this. I was not. I crossed, reached the other side, and went back.
High up on the buildings around the intersection there were more visitors, pointing cameras down at the people crossing. The whole thing is treated like a festival, and by the fourth time I was part of it.
The go-karts are a tour, not traffic
Small open karts kept coming through, drivers in costume. The one in front carried a flag and kept calling something back over his shoulder — a guide, clearly, not someone out for a drive.
What gave it away was seeing the same karts again a few minutes later, and again after that. They were not passing through. They were going around.
Looking it up afterwards, the company is Street Kart and it is exactly that — a guided tour. The costumes come from the shop, and to drive you need an International Driving Permit of the 1949 Geneva Convention type, which has to be arranged before you leave home.
Two or three blocks out, it goes dark
Several train lines meet under Shibuya, so you can come by train rather than by taxi the way I did.
What surprised me was walking away from it. Two or three blocks and the lights stop, and so do the people. Everything is pulled in tight around the station.
Korea does this too, but not this sharply. I have heard that keeping a car in Japan costs more and takes more effort than it does in Korea, so more people move by train — that may be part of it. A guess on my part, not a fact.
Go at night
Daytime would be interesting too. I went at night and I am glad I did. The lights are brighter, and after dark the cars — and even the costumes — have lights on them.
Music, neon, a full intersection, and everyone passing through everyone else. I was only there a short while, and it was fun.
Worth knowing before you go
- Getting there — Shibuya Station, Hachiko exit, and you come out at the edge of it. The JR Yamanote line, the Ginza, Hanzomon and Fukutoshin subway lines, and the Tokyu and Keio lines all meet here.
- Best light — dusk. The neon is on and the sky is still blue. That window is short.
- Watching from above — the Starbucks on the second floor of the Tsutaya building (free with a drink, but the window seats go early), Shibuya Sky at Shibuya Scramble Square (ticketed, book ahead), and the rooftop at Magnet by Shibuya109 (ticketed).
- The go-karts — you need an International Driving Permit to drive one. Some operators offer a passenger seat if you do not have one.
- Do not expect the neighbourhood to match — two or three blocks out it is quiet and dark.
The 60-second version
There is something funny about a place whose whole attraction is walking from one side of a street to the other. And yet — four times.
Is there a spot in your city that people travel to just to stand in? Tell me in the comments.
