Day 12 – Shibuya, Harajuku & Cirque du Soleil

When I woke up this morning I had no idea today would unfold the way it did. As I rubbed my eyes blearily and pondered what to have for breakfast, small decisions were being made that would unleash a chain of events that would change the course of the next 24 hours in an awesome way. But we’ll get to that later.

After nearly leaving my camera in my hotel room (I could have sworn I put it in its bag last night) I set off for Kanda station and decided to get off the train at Shibuya station in order to wander down to Harajuku, my intended destination. There is plenty to see in Shibuya, and I ended up returning this way in the afternoon as well, but I get ahead of myself. Here are the photos I took this morning.

Shibuya Station - Complete with ground-to-roof advertising.

What you see in the windows is actually a massive LED screen.

The other advertising screens were also going full-tilt.

Looking back towards the station from across the intersection.

This is the only crazily-painted car I've seen on my trip so far.

It looks like people have had a bit of fun on this intersection in the past.

Big imposing black building... ...with super-happy-fun-time Disney shop.

Tower records was undergoing a facelift. It was still open, though I didn't go in.

It appears that there was once a building here, but aliens swung by in the dead of night and abducted it without leaving a mark on any of the surrounding ones.

Another shrine/temple flanked by high-rises.

Arriving in the vicinity of Harajuku station, I noticed the police closing off a fairly major road. Had I not just missed the train at Kanda thanks to forgetting my camera, I may have been too early to see this and so the otherwise-unremarkable road would have gone unnoticed. Curiosity piqued, I took a detour to investigate. As I watched events unfold, a torrent of people started to pour into the wide footpaths that flanked the road, and the reason for the closure was made clear.

The street in question.

Those are some -big- loudspeakers.

A very fluffy bunny. Not entirely sure what the deal was with him, but as the wind picked up, I was a little afraid of his ears taking off prematurely.

A very encouraging float promoting rebuilding and rebirth.

Some were still putting the finishing touches on their floats.

The anti-nuclear brigade were out in force.

Finishing off the painting.

Following the line of colourful floats led me to a big tentlike construction, next to which a kind of a food market had set itself up.  There seemed to be two quite massive lines for the tent, and as I cast my eyes skyward, I noticed the sign that you see below.

Oooooh.

I’ve heard many things about Cirque du Soleil, all of them good.  With the wind picking up and the sky darkening somewhat, I decided that the show would provide a spectacular and incredibly entertaining way to get out of the worsening weather.  Were it not for the police closing off the road for the parade – and by tragic extension were it not for the earthquake – I would never have stumbled upon the show and I would have been none the wiser to its existence here.  It’s incredible how seemingly unrelated events can impact your life.

It turned out that the lines were for people who already had tickets for the next performance.  The doors opened just as I turned up at the gates and I made a mad dash for the ticket office (which thankfully had no lines) and I found that there were two tickets left for the next show.  By the time I had made my purchase, the doorway was clear and I walked straight in!  Talk about timing.  There were no photos allowed in the show obviously, so I don’t really have that much to share about it, however I will say that should the opportunity ever come up for you to see a show by them, take it.  It’s worth every cent.  My favourite part was the wheel of death.  I ended up buying the official programme, and if you know me offline, chances are you’ll see it at some stage in the next few months.

After watching Kooza, I took off for Shibuya station again, but I took a bit of a different route, going through some narrow streets in Shinjuku.  Here are some photos I snapped along the way.

Pedobear tearing the face off of Ronald McDonald. I can always get behind this kind of thing.

A very long, very crowded street I made my way through on the way back.

Whoops, I've been spotted!

They seem to have a thing for Australia over here.

This bus was blasting loud music and had plasma panels in each window showing music videos. Pretty interesting way of advertising if you ask me.

I got on the train and rode it back to Kanda.  I decided to get off at the closest station to the hotel because the clouds figured now was an appropriate time to start raining.  The rest of my afternoon was taken up by doing laundry.  Not the most exciting thing in the world, but necessary.

When I woke up this morning I had no idea today would unfold the way it did. As I rubbed my eyes blearily and pondered what to have for breakfast,...