Adventures in Shibuya

Well, the nicest thing about being back in the States is that I can meander down the sidewalks without a worry of being mauled by a salaryman hopped up on Boss coffee either on a bicycle or armed with a suitcase and a pair of short (but fast) legs. (See Tokyo annoyance #1). I realized I never wrote much about Shibuya, with its famous intersection, Shibuya Crossing. There it is to the left. To be honest, I never could stay more than a couple of hours on the streets of Shibuya before the claustrophobia set in. Most of the time, Shibuya meant window shopping (Oh, how I wish I could have bought those cheaply-made but unique shoes in Shibuya! Curse my size 9.5 feet!) and heading off to Shibuya Kaikan for Dance Dance Revolution, though I did partake in the izakaya and club scene there as well.

DDR is not as huge in Japan as it once was, (other Bemani games like Taiko no Tatsujin, Pop 'n Music, and Beatmania are more popular) while it continues to be a huge hit in the U.S. It was recently announced that DDR is going to be the subject of a Saturday morning cartoon show on CBS next fall and a new version of DDR was released first in Europe and North America before making its way to Japan. Kind of sad.


While Harajuku is home to the Gothiloli girls, Shibuya is home to the kogals, or kyogaru, who in my opinion, are much much scarier than any goth could ever be. Kogals are known for wearing ludicrous amounts of bronzer, crazy-ass eye makeup and short, short, SHORT skirts and fishnet stockings. They basically just hang out and shop and text message at Mos Burger and do purikura and flaunt their disposable income (which comes from living with their parents, thus only having to pay for transportation and keitai denwa bills). Apparently Gothiloli was a counterculture reaction to the kogals, which now makes perfect sense.

I mean, c'mon! How scary is that? And how does she dial the numbers on her phone! I guess hers is probably voice activated or something. Anyways, I find this infinitely freakier than any of the multiple piercings of the Harajuku goths, don't you? It creeps me out something fierce. OK, now you've seen it. You can scroll down now. Thanks for humoring my taste for the absurd. Yowza.

In any case, Shibuya is a pretty great time, and there's more to do in that one precinct of Tokyo than in most big cities alone. Here are some photos from one of my last nights in Tokyo when we went to an izakaya in Shibuya. Hopefully we're easier on the eyes than the kogal, but I won't take that for granted.



The scariest photo in the world can be found here. Rachel took the second photo of Shibuya Crossing.