If your impression of Tokyo is the hyper modern Bladerunneresque one with neon signs everywhere and chaotic crowds of well dressed and/or weird young people, Saturday night in Shibuya does not disappoint.

Screengrab of tweet by @HirokoTabuchi

This tweet and picture reminded me to write this post, and illustrates the area well. It is from the Hachiko Plaza, right next to the Shibuya subway station. The plaza is a popular spot to meet up before embarking on the night’s adventures, although like Ms. Tabuchi I wondered how that even works with so many people crowding the area. I arrived as early as 8 pm on a Saturday, and it looked exactly like this.

In fact, the name of the plaza itself shows that its status as a meeting place is a long-running one. The faithful dog Hachiko is well-known in Japanese culture. Every day until his owner’s death in May 1925, Hachiko met him at the train station after work. As the dog did not know his owner had died, he continued to return to the train station every day at the exact time the train was due – for nine years. A bronze statue of the golden brown Akita was erected in 1934, and a newer version of this statue is still there. I found that the Hachiko statue, wearing a Santa hat for the occasion, was the only place on the plaza you could be reasonably sure to find the people you had agreed to meet.

From the plaza, cross the five-way crossing, noting the bizarre feeling of being in a veritable sea of people, and explore the smaller streets with the many interesting restaurants, cafes, bars, and clubs of the area. It is a major hotspot of Tokyo nightlife and well worth a visit just to hang out and soak up the unique atmosphere. There were far more westerners here than any other place I went to in Tokyo, plus beautiful young men and women – all unfazed by the occasional strange ones. I was the only one who started at the sight of a figure that can only be described as a demonic robot Santa stalking the streets!

Since it was still fairly early when I arrived, the atmosphere was a mixture of shopping and partying, and if you are at all interested in manga, anime, and various collectibles associated with it, I can recommend Mandarake. I am not that interested, to be honest, but still found that huge store fascinating. I especially liked the wide array of old Japanese toys in equal parts wood, plastic and tin. Sure, there were Western items there, like Disney and some cool wind-up tin Stormtroopers from the original Star Wars, but for the most part it was like looking at an entirely alternate but compelling childhood universe where the only thing that was familiar was Astro Boy.

After the hush of the basement store and its nerdy clientele (let’s be honest here), it was back into the fray of the neon-bathed streets again, as Saturday night in Shibuya continued.