Our Last Day - Shibuya

 It is hard to believe how different the weather is today. Bright blue skies, no clouds, a perfect day for a trip to Mt Fuji. Sadly, we have tried that, so today we are going to kook around Shibuya.

As previously mentioned, Shibuya is where the young, trendy people hang out, but it also has a couple of other highlights.

One is the famous "Scramble Crossing",  the World's busiest pedestrian crossing with as many as 3,000 people crossing at a time. It is just outside Shibuya  Station and a stones throw from our hotel.

Light traffic across the scramble crossing mid morning (it is not possible to fit the whole crossing in one photo frame)

Shibuya is also the site of a famous Dog Statue. Hachiko, a famously loyal Akita dog. The dog reportedly came to this spot every day for 10 years after the death of its owner, waiting for him to return. The dog stands as a symbol of loyalty, and the story of Hachchiko , was used for propaganda during WW11 to reinforce the virtues of loyalty.

The story of Hachiko came to the attention of Hollywood and resulted in a movie starring Richard Gere, "Hachi: A Dogs Tale:

Just near the railway station, the statue of Hachi is a popular meeting place

There was along queue of tourists lined up, as yu do in Japan, patiently waiting for there turn to take a selfie with Hachi.

Whilst we have been staying in this area, we haven't really had a chance to venture too far from the hotel, as we have left early on a tour and arrived back late afternoon. Today we have have a chance to look a bit further afield.

An unexpected sight at the scramble crossing, was a convoy of go karts crossing the intersection when the lights changed. Obviously a new way for tourists to see the area.

Moving away from the crossing and into the backstreets, we marvel at what is popular in Japan. This bank of vending machines sell "capsule toys", it looks like a bit of a lucky dip as the toys are hidden inside a plastic round capsule. Now you might think this is for young children, but we saw plenty of young adults feeding these machines. We think they must be some sort of collectables. There were a number of these "stores" scattered around.

You can buy cameras that use film, and there was quite a big store selling the disposable (and some reusable) cameras as well as offering processing prints.

Vinyl records shops were also popular and you could buy a portable turntable, in a little suitcase to play them.

We ended up in a more residential area and couldn't help but admire the architecture.

Maybe someone had a trip to Spain and became a fan of Gaudi

A small park in the middle of suburbia offered a bit of tranquility, with a playground for kids and a pond with a few turtles in it.

Heading back through some small streets lined with shops we came across a touch of Australia.

When we met up with the main road we were confronted by a huge shopping mall that looked reasonably new, Miyashita Park. It used to be a public park and is now a massive three story up market shopping centre and home of many restaurants. It is close to Shibuya Station .

The very top level is still a park, where you can take a break from the turmoil in the streets below.

Had we known about this place earlier, it probably would have been our preferred place to dine, as the range of restaurants is amazing.

There is an upper level that is mostly restaurants

The boxes with the beer branding are to store your handbag in whilst you are dining/drinking

There are a few interesting shops in amongst the designer label and expensive clothing outlets.

The Nose Shop sells perfumes and scents

Not sure what the significance of the red nose is

You can smell the different scents by lifting the glass conical funnels on the silver trays and smelling the trapped essence.

My favourite was the Kit Kat Shop, where you can craft your own Kit Kat flavour if one of comprehensive standard flavours doesn't meet you needs.

There are restaurants everywhere in this area from fine dining, to the more street side  format below.

Another newish looking shopping area new the station is Tokyu Plaza. We wandered in to have a look around and on one of the upper floors we found a restaurant full of robots. Some entertaining guests and others working delivering food from the kitchen, one was greeting guests at reception and taking them to their table. Overall it was pretty entertaining to watch.

Reception robot waiting for new guests

Once again, we have covered a lot of km this morning and are well and truly ready for lunch and a sit down. We picked out a restaurant that claimed to be owned by Tokyo's first craft brewery and had a menu that looked appetising, so in we went.

It was very busy and nothing was written in English, but we managed to communicate we wanted Tempura and I ordered a Hazy IPA by pointing at a picture on the menu.

The beer was good, and we were quickly served what looked like two fried croquettes with a cheesy filling, and then nothing more for a while. Just as I thought I had stuffed up the ordering, the tempura main course arrived.

It was very tasty and filling

We have a few hours to fill in before we need to leave for the airport, so spent another hour or so looking around before retiring back to the hotel where our luggage is stored. We lounged in the hotel foyer area until it was time to get our bags and catch the airport limousine bus to Haneda. The bus leaves from a stop right next to our hotel.

We had a good flight home and left on time. We have been very impressed with the ANA Boeing Dreamliners which have very generous leg room. The plane was only about two thirds full, and arrive in Sydney on time.