Shibuya
One of Tokyo’s major downtown areas, Shibuya is filled with restaurants, shops and cafés catering to all tastes and budgets. Packed with locals and tourists pouring from the city’s busiest train station, Shibuya is one of Tokyo’s most popular neighborhoods. Visit this spot, the perfect place to wander for a few hours.
Browse the shops in Shibuya 109, one of the leading fashion centers for young women. This landmark building houses more than 100 boutiques spread across 10 floors. Stroll through the diverse collection in Tokyu Hands, a massive store where you’ll find everything from craft supplies to stationery and household items. Then, wander down “Spain Slope,” or Supeinzaka, a narrow road lined with boutiques, that finishes at the department store Parco. This street is named for its resemblance to a typical Spanish street.
Take a peek at the hotels clustered on Love Hotel Hill, one of the largest concentrations of love hotels in Tokyo. These short-stay hotels offer a discrete location for couples to have some “alone time” together.
Check out Bunkamura, a “culture village,” home to numerous cinemas, a theater, a concert hall and a museum that hosts rotating exhibitions. Then pay your respects at the Konno Hachimangu Shrine, once the site of the Shibuya family’s residence, after whom this neighborhood is named.
In the evening, Shibuya is a great neighborhood to find a restaurant offering inexpensive food and a nomihodai, a common special in which you pay a flat fee to drink as much as you want for a set amount of time.
Don’t miss the Myth of Tomorrow, a dramatic mural hanging in Shibuya Station. Painted by renowned Japanese artist Taro Okamato, the painting was lost for many years before being rediscovered in Mexico. The station’s star attraction, however, is the bronze statue of Hachikō, a faithful Akita dog who, after his owner passed away, for many years continued to wait every afternoon for his beloved master.