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We are in Shibuya.
Shibuya, together with Shinjuku, are the two most popular neighborhoods in Tokyo.
If you know anything about Tokyo, you must have heard the name
The area is so big, that next to the '100 things to see in Tokyo'-type travel guides
you'd often have '100 things to do in Shibuya only' as well.
We're walking towards a very well-known spot
the little dog staue that's located over there
this is the faithful dog Hachiko
who's been waiting for his deceased master in this exact spot
for a number of years, after he passed away.
There's a similar one in Kraków actually, not far from the castle
a statue commemorating a faithful little dog.
Today the Hachiko's spot is a popular meeting point in Tokyo
as you can see there's plenty of people here, waiting for somebody
In Kraków we used to meet up in front of the Empik store on the market square
before they went out of business.
A lot is happening around here
every once in a while you'd see a person
holding a board that says 'Free Hugs!'
and they really want to give you a hug - an adorable place indeed.
And in front of us you can see the Shibuya crossing
Tokyo's most recognized pedestrian crossing and road junction.
It's super busy, always
It's the view that pops up in your head whenever you think of Tokyo
it's featured in all the books, picture books, I don't know, postcards and stuff
it's a very distinctive spot, with all those ads
and it's uh, well - when you come here for the first time
your brain actually explodes from all this sensory overload.
Just over there you can see the highest grossing Starbucks store in the world
and it's self-explanatory, really.
One of the busiest junctions in the world, with the highest foot traffic
Starbucks is bound to be there, and it's bound to make *some* money at least.
Ahead of us there's the main street
the default shopping / hangout / fun times destination in Shibuya
so that's where we're headed. Let those neon lights guide us!
Shibuya is a neighborhood catering primarily to the young crowd
I guess you can see that already.
It's all about fashion here, mostly female fashion
teenage female fashion to be specific
The teenage female fashions for the young ones.
Quite often they're really bizarre styles,
for example Kyary Pamyu Pamyu emerged from this scene and is absolutely huge in Shibuya.
But it's also a popular clubbing destination, along with Roppongi
this is the more Japanese one of the two.
There are some really fantastic music clubs around here
And of course plenty of game parlours,
karaoke bars, regular bars, things like that
Basically there's something for everyone here.
This part of Shibuya we've just entered is the one dedicated primarily to entertainment
and the young crowd.
But after you leave it the vibe changes completely, you'll see
this is quite common, actually, in Tokyo
those neighborhoods have more dimensions to them than you'd think.
What surely is missing here is the nerdy shops
shops selling the figurines, manga, anime, all that sort of thing.
I mean, I'm sure there's something
the place is so intense they probably sell everything here
but it definitely isn't nerd-themed.
One thing that was just bound to end up here:
a shop belonging to the popular 'Don Quijote' franchise
commonly known as 'Don Qui'
they sell all kinds of rubbish, those shops
and there's a lot of imported stuff as well - Polish *** included
There you go - Polish Żubrówka
1,000 yen
This is uh, the thing
that Krzysztof wears to bed.
It's like - the novelty items are just thrown together with the sex accessories
These ones for example...
...are the cross dressing supplies.
Dude, those are actually for fancy dressing.
Identity change has never been easier.
YASS! TOTORO!
Here you have the sex toys,
and to keep children from sneaking in they've got this thing.
We walked around the corner and all of a sudden
we're in the Love Hotel central.
Rooms you can rent by the hour, popular among couples in Japan
If you want some, alone time I guess
It's very often the case here that you either share your flat
for example with your parents,
or you've got a flat so tiny, with the walls so thin
that it's difficult to get it going, with the neighbours listening in.
And this is why places like that were created
pay-by-the-hour, depending on your price range
and those places, along with the fun stuff
very often cater to your karaoke needs as well,
or you can watch a movie, or whatever.
Another curious thing about those hotels is the ultra tacky interior design
so if you see a Japanese hotel
that looks like a tiny little palace, or the pyramids
well, it's probably not a regular hotel.
Here's the price list: 'rest' covers about 2-3 hours
and with 'stay' you can stay the night.
There are also many game parlours around here
but they're of a different kind, usually
than those in Akihabara
targeting the nerdy, hardcore-gamer kids.
It's way different here - this for example
is a cutesy, romantic gaming parlour,
girls come there to take funny pictures, play girly games...
At least that's what's happening on the ground floor.
On the upper floors there are real shady things happening, we'll show you some other time.
By the way, it's not like all the people in Tokyo are crazy about this place either
among our Japanese friends for example
a lot of them don't even like those busy, loud areas of Tokyo
it's too much of everything: the noise, the blinking lights and so on
and I get it, in a way
while it's fun to come here once or twice
the vibe gets just too intense after a while
it's too much to handle on a regular basis.
We're walking toward Shibuya 109
[this is what it's called in Japanese]
it's THE place to go for the girls, fashion-wise
We're not gonna go there, because we're manly men
and we wouldn't, like, feel comfortable.
If you're a girl though, make sure to check it out.
It might not be your kind of thing, because the styles are ultra young and quite distinctive
but it's definitely worth seeing.
People in Japan don't really go 'clubbing' that much, in our sense of the word
Shibuya is one of the two places in the entire Tokyo
that are a proper clubbing destination.
For a city with a population of 30 million people, it's quite a modest number.
Here, if you go out for a full night of drinking,
it's usually a sit-down type of binge, or karaoke
rather than a club.
Of course - talking about Shibuya
we merely scratched the surface of all those things happening here
as you can see, everything around me is blinking and glistening
so many surprises, hidden away somewhere here in those buildings...
Hopefully we gave you at least some idea of what Shibuya is like.
watch more on youtube.com/wybuchajacebeczki