Shibuya & Takeshita Doori!

• Shibuya (渋谷 ) is one of the twenty-three city wards of Tokyo, but often refers to just the popular shopping and entertainment area found around Shibuya Station. In this regard, Shibuya is one of Tokyo's most colorful and busy districts, packed with shopping, dining and nightclubs serving swarms of visitors that come to the district everyday.

• Shibuya is a center for youth fashion and culture, and its streets are the birthplace to many of Japan's fashion and entertainment trends. Over a dozen major department store branches can be found around the area catering to all types of shoppers. Most of the area's large department and fashion stores belong to either Tokyu or Seibu, two competing corporations.

Shibuya Crossing

• A prominent landmark of Shibuya is the large intersection in front of the station's Hachiko Exit. The intersection is heavily decorated by neon advertisements and giant video screens and gets flooded by pedestrians each time the crossing light turns green, making it a popular photo and movie filming spot.

Shopping!• Center Gai The birthplace of many Japanese fashion trends, Center Gai is a busy pedestrian

zone in the heart of Shibuya lined by stores, boutiques and game centers. In the evenings the street is crowded with young people heading to night clubs, restaurants and bars, or just loitering around

• Shibuya 109Shibuya 109 is a trend setting fashion complex for young women and an icon of

the Shibuya district with more than one hundred boutiques on ten floors. Usually pronounced "Shibuya ichi maru kyu", the complex's name can also be read as "Shibuya to kyu", identifying the complex as part of the Tokyu Group.

Shibuya Mark City Shibuya Mark City is a small city within the city, located just next to and connected

with JR Shibuya Station. It consists of a wide range of stores and restaurants, the Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyu, office space, a bus terminal and the terminal station of the Keio Inokashira Line.

Hachiko Statue• In the 1920s, a professor who lived

near Shibuya Station kept Hachikō, a small akita dog, who came to the station every day to await the return of his master, Professor Ueno of Tokyo University. The good professor died while at work in 1925, but the dog continued to show up and wait at the station until his own death 10 years later. Hachikō’s faithfulness was not lost on the Japanese, who built a statue to honour his memory. The story is more interesting than the statue itself, but Hachikō is perhaps Tokyo’s most famous meeting spot.

Takeshita Doori

• The focal point of Harajuku's teenage culture is Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street) and its side streets, which are lined by many trendy shops, fashion boutiques, used clothes stores, crepe stands and fast food outlets geared towards the fashion and trend conscious teens.

• In order to experience the teenage culture at its most extreme, visit Harajuku on a Sunday, when many young people gather around Harajuku Station and engage in cosplay ("costume play"), dressed up in eccentric costumes to resemble anime characters, punk musicians, etc.