Shibuya

Hi everyone,

Our final dinner in Hiroshima last night was great. We had seen a nice looking outdoor cafe/restaurant along the river and decided to give it a go. It turned out it was Italian. I enjoyed a pizza, Dad pasta, Mum risotto, and then I had a delicious strawberry ice cream for dessert. Most ice creams here in Japan are soft serve, and I'm not allowed to have that due to pregnancy. So it was great to be able to enjoy a delicious ice cream myself!

This morning we caught a busy tram to Hiroshima Station and boarded the first of two Shinkansens. In total, we covered a distance of 816km (nearly the distance of Melbourne to Sydney) by high speed train today, with a total travel time of 4 hours 20 minutes. Amazing!! We changed trains in Osaka with an 18 minute layover. The trains here run so much like clockwork that Mum and Dad were able to go and grab some food while I made us iced coffees at the vending machine on the platform, and we still boarded with two minutes to spare. Closer to Tokyo, we had some distant and cloudy views of Mt Fuji before it disappeared as we got closer.

We arrived in Tokyo around 2pm and got the JR line to Shibuya, where we walked a couple of minutes around the corner to our hotel. Immediate impressions of Shibuya - loud, busy, crowded, exhausting. And to be honest, not really what I am in the mood for at the end of a trip in the hot weather while pregnant! It was made worse when we got to our hotel and checked in. The staff were lovely and brought us icy poles which was nice, but when we got to the room it's the smallest place we have stayed by far, you can faintly smell cigarette smoke, and the air con is crap. I am so glad that we have only stayed in apartments and ryokans up until this point, as we have had our own space including kitchens, washing machines, and meals included at ryokans. I'm glad we are only staying three nights here, and I am very glad we instead stayed in peaceful Asakusa at the start of the trip in Tokyo. We will enjoy this area for what it is for the next few days, but it's not really our cup of tea after some of the more peaceful places we have enjoyed.

Once we checked in, we went and had a look at Shibuya Crossing, and went up to the 2nd floor of Starbucks to enjoy a view. It's mental - people everywhere! We then caught the JR line again, this time to Shibuya. Here we walked 5-10 minutes to the Metropolitan Government Building. My uncle and aunt Andrew and Mandy had told us to come here as it's a free observation building. Ironically, we had great views of Mt Fuji in the distance from up here with a golden sky which was a nice surprise, better views than when we were closeby earlier on the train! We really enjoyed the view up here and gaining a perspective of how far away different areas and landmarks were. Back downstairs in the foyer, there was a small exhibition about the Tokyo 2020* (*2021) Olympics including the mascots and some medals, which we learned were 100% made from recycled mobile phones and small appliances for all winners at the games. Those Olympics were a real highlight for me during yet another lockdown in Melbourne. It feels so long ago now but simultaneously not very long ago either.

We headed back at this point and had a rest. I've started to get pretty uncomfortable pregnancy wise today. It's been getting progressively harder to sleep comfortably over here, and today I've started to get some back pain and a few other bits and pieces causing discomfort. I've held up fairly well overall throughout the trip and am grateful we've used a lot of public transport instead of walking further, but I think my body is definitely ready to go home on Friday. I may even be looking forward to the cold weather.....!

After our rest, we had a quick dinner of some katsu pork in a shopping centre before joining a night walking tour of Shibuya. It was the three of us and a Spanish couple, and our guide was Paulina from the Ukraine. She had lived in many different countries studying a lot of different languages. She told us that the company we have used for numerous walking tours whilst here, Localized, was started seven years ago by a Japanese man that enjoyed free walking tours when travelling Europe. I think we've now done six throughout Japan and they've all been worthwhile.

We started at Shibuya station, which is the second busiest station in Japan and has 3 million people travel through it each day (the busiest being Shinjuku which has 3.6 million people per day and 200 exits). Paulina explained that Tokyo is like a "city of cities", and I believe that, as Asakusa that we stayed in right at the start was totally different to how it is here.

We viewed Shibuya Crossing from above, and then went down to street level and walked across it again as we had ourselves earlier. Every minute when the lights change 1500-2500 people cross at this crazy scramble crossing. I said to Mum that the dodging people, loud noises, constant movement and overstimulation is kind of how teaching feels...!

Paulina explained that Shibuya Crossing is the busiest traffic lights crossing in the world. This area wasn't always this busy, but became more busy from 1927 when the Toyoko train line from the ports of Yokohama was built and more people started to come. In 1979 the first department store was built here ('109' which in Japanese sounds like 'Tokyu', the company that own the department store and also own our hotel amongst others). Over time more and more shops and billboards were built and it's become the crazy busy place it is today.

Next we headed to the 'yokocho'/laneway behind our hotel which is an old street full of old style izakaya bars (drinking and small foods). It's one of only three original lanes such as this left in Tokyo, with more modern establishments replacing places like this when fires or earthquakes destroy the old buildings. Above the more modern area like this nearby was a cool park on top of a four level building which we can see from our hotel room. It had rock climbing, beach volleyball and lots of space for recreation. It also had a statue of 'Hachiko', a famous dog born in 1923, who lived with his owner Hidesaburo Ueno in Shibuya and would walk to the station with him each day to head to work, then walk home, then walk back to meet his owner at the station later that day. He did this for two years, until in May 1925 Ueno died of a haemorrhage whilst at work. However, Hachiko continued for the remaining nine years of his life to wait at the station each day for his owner after work. His story became famous and he's known as a symbol of loyalty. For this reason, you can see statues of him, toys, and even buses themed as Hachiko.

Paulina talked a fair bit about the drinking culture in the area, and how many Japanese people will say they don't speak English during the day if you ask as they're shy and self conscious about their English. However, if you go to a bar and they have a few drinks they will become a lot more animated and talkative, especially around foreigners. Apparently the Japanese passport is one of the most powerful in the world, but only 20% of Japanese people hold passports, and many don't leave Asia even if they travel overseas anyway, so foreigners are still considered quite exotic.

We continued through the streets of Shibuya taking in different shops, shopping centres, lights, smells and sounds. We saw the capsule machines that distribute random toys after you put coins in. And we learned that bins are few and far between in Tokyo due to a terrorist attack in 1995. I'm really looking forward to being able to dispose of rubbish easily at home!!

The final area of our tour was where 'love hotels' are, which people use for set amounts of time after they go out clubbing, either to sleep if they've missed the last train home at midnight, or do other things. Many of them are themed apparently. Paulina said the other alternatives for sleeping if you miss the last train home are private rooms in karaoke bars or internet cafes (those still exist?!). We also saw the street karts in this area that we were supposed to ride in 2020 during our visit. Glad we gave it a miss - you drive right on the actual roads!

We finished up back at Shibuya Crossing and stumbled home to our hotel room with sore legs. We are having a lazy morning tomorrow which I am looking forward to!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox

PS: It's going to be hot and cloudy here the next few days. Apparently the rain here on Saturday was so bad it pooled up to your ankles in the streets. And we've just seen on the news that the south is copping heaps of rain in coming days now. We've avoided it at both ends of the trip except one bad day!