Tokyo Neighborhood - Shibuya
When thinking about how to describe this area I had no idea where to start from! Shibuya is one of the most well-known areas of Tokyo, as it’s extremely fashionable and young.
The first time I visited the area was to visit the Meiji Jingu Shinto Shrine, the shrine is surrounded by a massive forest, and you completely forget you are actually in the middle of one of the liveliest cities in the world. The sanctuary was destroyed in WWII and rebuilt to its original splendor.
From here you can walk to Harajuku, the street is famous as on Sundays it is filled with people in cosplay costumes! Walk down Takeshita Street to find some cute Japanese stores, some also sell costumes (I wanted to buy a Sailor Moon outfit, but couldn’t find my size). Stop for the world famous Harajuku crepes, it’ll take a while to choose which to order as there are so many!
Continue your way through Harajuku, and visit all the lovely stores, some are also extremely expensive but this is where all the young fashionable Japanese people come to shop!
Walk to Omotesando-Dori, the street is famous for the incredible architectures that it host. All along you can find the most amazing high end stores in incredible modern buildings (for example the Prada store is entirely built with diamond shaped, convex, windows. Here you can also find the Oriental Bazaar store, that sells all the Japanese presents you might want to take home to your family and friends!
You can then choose to follow either Meiji-Dori or Aoyama-Dori down to Shibuya and the Shibuya Crossing. When I came here the first time I was so excited, as it is one of the city’s most well-known landmarks! I thought that Times Square was crowded, but Shibuya Crossing is whole other story. If you want to take a picture of the people crossing try not to stop in the middle of street, or you’ll be run over by hundreds of people! A good spot to look at the crossing is the Starbucks coffee, that overlooks right over the center of the square.
Shibuya is a shopping area, and the most famous malls in the area are the 109 building, Seibu mall and Parco (who describe themselves as the birthplace of Japanese high-end fashion).
Visit the area at night to see it light up with all of its colorful ads and shop lights and don’t miss out on the Hachiko statue in front of Shibuya station (if you’ve never heard of Hachiko’s story you should look it up, it really shows how much a dog can be faithful), and the murales in front of it.
