Shibuya (渋谷)

Today's plan was pretty simple. Head down to Shibuya and see what we find along the way and presumably enjoy watching the bustle around the Shibuya crossing when we get there. Now, on any previous trip my first reaction would have been to jump on the Yamanote since that would have gotten me down there in no time, but I wanted to walk a bit more on this trip. And with Shibuya only being 3km south, that seemed like an easy alternative. At least, if you ignore the swealtering 'feels like 41 degrees' ...

Being back in Japan by myself, I'm finding myself surprisingly cautious about trying to make sure that I don't leave the "bloody tourist" vibe with the locals or getting security chasing after me, shouting in Japanese, because I failed to obey a sign, that was only in Japanese. This got the point that I used Google's picture translation a couple of times, just in case. The first sign I used it on was posted on a little barricade placed in front of a small bridge. It translated to something like "Auto Stop", and as such I decided that I could risk crossing on foot.

And it's certainly easy to spot such examples, especially in tourist hotspots like Shibuya. One example looked like he was an example from a comic book. Including the stereotypical tourist outfit with t-shirt, backpack, and camera strapped around his chest. He then somehow managed to wander into an area that was meant to be off-limits for event preparations, completely failed to notice one of the coordinators trying to guide him back out, almost walked into a police car that was trying to carefully roll past him, finally noticed the coordinator that got him to stand back as the police car moved, and then managed to guide him back to where he was meant to be. I then watched him step in the path of the same family three times as everytime they picked which direction they should pass by him, he changed directions and blocked them again, all while staring up at the buildings.

To be fair, the traffic wardens around Shibuya crossing had their work cut out for them with tourists and locals alike. I guess it's really difficult not to go "baah" when you have a few hundred people crossing in front of you, regardless of what colour the illuminated figure is. And Shibuya crossing is not small enough such that if you find yourself having started the crossing accidentally, that you can just take three big steps and quickly rush across. As such, the traffic wardens almost always had to chase someone back to the kerb they just came from.

And sometimes the buses wouldn't listen either and find themselves stuck in the middle of it all ...

Part of the reason that Shibuya's traffic was such a mess was due to one direction being closed to a Bonodori (Bon dance) event. Which seemed to revolve around a Japanese Taiko Drum and a Chanchiki. Neither of which appeared to actually be doing anything in time with the music, but they were very enthusiastic about it. To ensure that there was enough enthusiasm for the drumming, they were even rotating between three people, all of which also had greatly varying off-beat styles. But people were certainly enjoying themselves, including forming a ring of people around the stage trying to mimic the dance of the Kimono girls.

And then an hour later you had ... people dressed up for Gridiron? With cheerleaders? Riling up the crowd to start cheering? This really feels like one of those moments where I really could have used a Japanese speaker because I don't think there's any other way that I could ever figure out what on earth was happening.

For the way home, I was allowed to use the train system. But instead of going in the right direction which would put my destination only three stops away, I decided to board the wrong direction around the ring line which would require 27 stops instead, taking the better part of an hour. An amount of time that ensured that I had plenty of opportunity perform both of the approved activities on the Japanese commuter systems: read and sleep.