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Jun 13, 2021

Returning to Shibuya

Returning to Shibuya photo


I have recently started going back to dance practices, and one of the places I go to is located in Shibuya. It has been roughly a year and a half since I last visited, and I can say that the place has changed a lot in that time.


The first difference I encountered was the updated station itself. Exits are a lot more confusing now that they have expanded and shifted the pathways underground. It still seems like there is construction going on, so I wonder what the final labyrinth will look like. The exit I usually go out of, the Hachiko exit, took me a bit of finding, even though it was just at the end of the platform. Seeing the gates rearranged and expanded also confused me for a bit.


Getting out of the station and wandering around a bit, I was in awe at how many people still came out to Shibuya. It seemed that there were even more people than before coming out. In thinking about it, though, it could be that everyone simply decided to go home at the same time, seeing as I made it out of the station just after 8 pm. This was the time when Tokyo's dining and izakayas were slated to close due to the coronavirus, for those who don't know at the time of reading this.


The biggest change I encountered on my first time returning to the area was the new shopping building curiously called Miyashita Park (pictured.) Of course, the shops inside were closed when I visited, but there were still many people hanging around the area. This building was a big change for me because it stood in the same spot where a drunk guy tried to fight me years ago. Interestingly, the graffiti-decorated tunnel of bike parking remained, so I had some confirmation that this was where my memory took place.


I'm not sure who is going to be out in Shibuya after not visiting for a length of time, but if you do go, prepare yourself for some large updates!

PDecs

PDecs

I am a former engineer that moved to Japan in order to learn dance. Now I have been living in Japan for a few years while teaching English at a conversation school.


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