Shibuya, Tokyo - My fave spot in Tokyo (part 1)

Shibuya, Tokyo... well well.. I think this will be a long long post.. So i decided to break it down into 2 or 3 parts. Recently a friend asked me to suggest places for shopping in Tokyo. She was there for business and only had 1 day for shopping. She wanted to buy Burberry Blue Label clothings as well. So I suggested for her to consider making Shibuya the main target for her shopping day on the following 2 main reasons:
1) My friend is a sophisticated working lady in late twenties and the type of fashion that Shibuya can offer is suitable (of cos you must be willing to pay)

2) There is a Burberry Blue Label  between Omotesando and Shibuya. Omotesando has all the designer stores which meant potential shopping opportunities!

Other than shopping, there are actually a lot of nice food in Shibuya (including my all time fave - Krispy Kreme!!  But I still think that the best Krispy doughnut I have ever eaten is in Sydney).

Lets start by the most obvious landmark in Shibuya which is the Shibuya Crossing just outside Hachiko exit (There is a story behind Hachiko.. I'm sure most pple will know so I shall not spend too much time on this.. basically it is about this faithful dog who had been waiting for the return of his master - Prof Ueno who had passed away for many years. A statue of a dog has been set up to honour this wonderful dog for his faithfulness). A unique feature of this Shibuya Crossing is that when the traffic stops, the pedestrians can cross in any directions at the intersection.

A photo of the Shibuya Crossing taken from the second floor of the famous Starbuck

A lot of travel guidebooks will recommend tourists to do people watching from the second level of Starbuck at the Shibuya Crossing. I tried and I like it. I have done it a few times by now. But it is kinda hard to get a window seat as you can imagine the high demand after this activity has been made famous in travel guides.

I took a video of the Shibuya Crossing when traffic stopped and crossing took place.

Behind the Starbuck is HMV, music lovers can chill there for a long time. You can buy some good Japanese music there which you cannot find back at home. If you explore further behind HMV, you will discover a lot of fashion stores as well as nice eating places.

A photo of the shopping street at night.

Lot of stores at the alley behind HMV

My current fave ramen stall at Shibuya

Yummy ramen.. *slurp

K.. i shall stop now.. Shall continue again...

Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower appeared in many Japanese dramas like Overtime (my fave!). Hence it is a popular tourist spot and you can actually see Tokyo Tower in many locations within Tokyo like Roppongi, Odaiba, Megoru and etc. Just some background on Tokyo Tower, it was initially meant to use for tv broadcasting so they installed radio antennas like around 50 yrs ago. Japan wants to change to digital broadcasting and Tokyo Tower is not tall enough for this purpose so another tower  - Tokyo Sky Tree is built.


It is a rather tourist place so some of my friends chose to give it a miss but as a Japan fan, I made it a point to try all tourist places within my mean. So I ventured to a trip to visit this famous tower by myself one fine late afternoon. I set off at around 3pm from Meguro and took a train to Daimon Station. This was not the closest station to Tokyo Tower cos I wanted to visit Zojoji Temple first. The closest station to Tokyo Tower should be Onarimon Station on the Mita Subway Line and Akabanebashi Station on the Oedo Subway Line. Zojoji Temple is just beside Tokyo Tower and it is one of the biggest temples in Tokyo. You will realise that the Japanese take their temples seriously and most temples usually come with a nice garden so it is quite worthwhile to visit their temples (barring religion reasons though). For instance, Zojoji Temple was constructed based on contemporary Chinese Tang Dynasty style. 


See some photo of my journey below:

This is not at the temple yet. It is just a gate that I saw on my way to the temple

There are signs to guide people to Zojo-ji Temple and Tokyo Tower

You can see Tokyo Tower clearly from the temple

Zojo-ji Temple with Tokyo Tower

It is really a big temple

Saw a lot of students there. Praying for good results?

Look at the greenery in the temple

Pretty flowers!

After spending some time in the temple, I remembered walking through Prince Hotel to get to Tokyo Tower. It was a flowery journey. Suitable for a nice little evening walk. See photo below:

Look at how pretty are the flowers!

Look at how colorful these flowers are.

And finally... the foot of Tokyo Tower.....

So exciting! 

It was around 6pm when I reached Tokyo Tower (that was in May).  The tower was not being lighted up yet. So I went to explore the shops at the base of Tokyo Tower and settled my dinner as well. There were quite a number of souvenir stores and most of these items are relating to the tower. I bought two crystal Tokyo Tower for memory keeping as well :) You can also visit the Aquarium Gallery as well. There are a number of cafes and restaurants too. For more info, you can go to the official Tokyo Tower website. 

Such a mechanical photo of Tokyo Tower 

Tokyo Tower before sunset

A lovely model of the area around Tokyo Tower

You can see Hello Kitty everywhere in Japan :)

I had a simple meal at the ramen station at Tokyo Tower. It was quite nice but i didnt take any photo cos my mind was totally focused on the lighting of the Tower.


Soon, darkness prevailed and tada... the Tower was being lighted up. Wow. I took a few photo in various degrees of darkness. I'm no professional but I thought I did a good job in taking the photo without the help of a tripod and my camera isn't even a SLR (too heavy to carry a SLR for travel).

Upon nightfall, I went to purchase tickets to go up to the main observatory which is 150m tall for the view as well as the ticket for the special observatory (250 m). The view was great at both levels and there is a club (Club 333) at the first floor of the main observatory where there will be music and drinks. As there is glass flooring on the main observatory (not the whole area) so you can peek from the glass flooring to the club. 


I know that some people are not willing to pay to go up to the main observatory as there are a lot of other observatories in Tokyo where you can admire the nightview and some are free. I would still say that it is quite an experience to go to Tokyo Tower especially with its structure, you will feel a sense of danger and excitement. I like the fact that you can have a 360 degree view area the city which is something that not all observatories in Tokyo can provide. See some of my moments in time from the Tower:

I like this starfish here!

You can even see Rainbow bridge from here. Pardon the unclear photo

Zojo-ji Temple is just below but rather hard to see from this photo

From the special observatory, the view is great but I think it does not necessarily add a lot to the experience and the floor area is actually very small due to the shape of the tower. Personally I think making a visit to the main observatory is good enough. Of course this is just my personal view. 


Tokyo Tower is actually very near to Roppongi so night owls might want to continue the night at Roppongi. There are a lot of pubs and clubs there and not to mention the shopping malls (but of course the shopping malls close relatively early inline with rest of Tokyo). So my next entry shall be on Roppongi... stay tuned....