Day 3 - Travelogue - Back to Shibuya for New Parco, Nintendo Store, Pokemon Center, Miyashita Park

March 11, 2023

Day 3 - Travelogue - Back to Shibuya for New Parco, Nintendo Store, Pokemon Center, Miyashita Park

This morning was off to a fine start with a great buffet breakfast at the hotel again. I usually don't bundle breakfast with my room, but it was a good deal this time so I did it. Otherwise, I'd grab breakfast either from a konbini, a coffee shop, a bakery, or McDonalds. Having an easy breakfast without leaving the hotel was pretty nice. The breakfast dining area was quite pleasant too with views way down to the street and of the other buildings in the area. Across the street, on the roof top of an office building was a little Shinto shrine. This is pretty cool as there must have been a shrine at ground level that got moved up to the roof when the area was redeveloped.

Shibuya Crossing. There are more screens here now than the last time I was here!

Hachiko the loyal dog. Still a popular meeting and photo spot

My foot was doing pretty good after yesterdays exertions. I bound it up again and took the Ginza line back to Shibuya. I was there around 9:30 AM, well before the malls open up at 11 AM. I spent some time looking for Miyashita Park to see this snazzy new mall with a big park on the roof. It was redeveloped a few years ago and it seems to have breathed some new life into the area. I actually missed the shorted path there from the station and ended up circling the whole block / mall to come in on the west side. This meant I didn't see the escalators on the south side of the building that take you up to the roof and ended up doing a whole bunch of stairs in the middle of the building. The rooftop park has some nice lawn areas with a huge bronze statue of Doraemon, your blue time travelling robot cat. There are cafes, a community center, a climbing wall, and a skateboard park here. I did a raid here with Pokemon Go and there are piles of people still playing the game here in central areas. I didn't actually manage to explore the mall below either, but one of the reasons for going was gone, as the Kit Kat Chocolatory here had closed.

Doraemon Statue with Magic Door

Tunnel under the north-south train tracks. You cut under here on the south end of Miyashita Park to get to the escalators.

I then headed over to the New Parco building. The old Parco department store had been rebuilt into this fancy new building with a funky eatery floor in the basement, floors and floors of shopping, and a few restaurant floor up high. There was now a rooftop garden and bar with great views over Shibuya, and the neatest thing is that you can walk up or down along the outside of the building along a stairwell that has some garden-type landscaping. This building is well worth a visit to get something to eat and shop. For anime shoppers there is a One Piece store / Jump Store, a Capcom Store, a Nintendo Store, and a Pokemon store here too. There are plenty of trendy fashion stores here and I even noticed there is an outdoors gear / camping store on the lower floors too!

The new PARCO. I had to wait outside for it to open at 11 AM. Nintendo employee were handing out passes for the first 11AM timeslot to visit.

Empty mall at opening.

I poured in with the first wave of shoppers when PARCO opened. The building is still divided into two sections on the ground floor, but merges in the upper floors. People streamed in from multiple entrances. There was at least one event going on for something that had a big lineup. The Nintendo Store was where I went first and there was a decent number of customers there. The staff checked your entry ticket time and gave you a spritz of hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer is everywhere. Masking was not mandatory at this time, but pretty much everyone wears a mask out of civility, if nothing else. Outdoors masking is pretty common too, and probably overdone, but this is Japan.

The Ninendo Store occupies a prominent location in the middle of the building. It is pretty big and spacious with plenty of merchandise from all of their franchises. Splatoon, Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, etc., all have different kinds of goods. There are some nice life-size statues of Link and Mario and a few others here too. I like Nintendo games, but I can't say I am a huge fan. I've had Nintendo in my life since the first black and white Gameboy that took 4 AA batteries and I own a Switch now, but I didn't really see a lot o merchandise that appealed. I think I play more Pokemon than the regular Nintendo core games, so I ended up buying more goods at the Pokemeon stores!

Wrap around life-size decals surround the Nintendo Store with all your favourite characters.

Here's Luigi, Link and others.

T-Shirts and some other souvenirs.

Mario!

Link!

I then went to visit the Pokemon Center Shibuya which was basically right next door. These stores are pretty much on an anime / manga / game themed floor by themselves. This was a fixture in the old PARCO that has carried over, but the environment is much more roomy and nicer. Every Pokemon store has a giant statue or statues of a Pokemon. MewTwo is the mascot for the Shibuya store and he looks pretty amazing and intimidating in his lab tube as a life-size model. All they had to do was have his eyes open every so often to really give you a scare! The entrance to the store has a bit of Pokemon game history on one wall, while another looks like a laboratory display showing the stats for MewTwo. The interior of the store has a pile of different kinds of Pokemon plushies and other merchandise. If your like Pokemon, these places will drain your wallet.

Mewtwo in a tube as the centerpiece for the entrance.

The entrance to the Shibuya Pokemon Center.

Inside the Pokemon store. Very technological in design.

After visiting these stores, the Jump Store, and the Capcom store I was ready for some lunch. I went up one floor to the restaurant level. The places here were your more typical Japanese food, which was what I was in the mood for. I settled on a tempura restaurant that had a seasonal vegetable lunch special with counter seating. This was all for well less than 2000 yen and you had freshly fried tempura delivered to you when it was ready. Lunch was yummy. A sit down lunch is a great way to rest your feet.

Fresh tempura delivered to you as it is ready!

After lunch I wandered to the rooftop garden at PARCO, took in the views of the area around it, and walked down along the outside of the building which has a long set of stairs and mini-gardens/greenery for people to enjoy. The scenery and fresh air was better than being inside the mall with its crowds for a bit. The next place I went was the basement. It is setup like a series of streets with eateries along the whole length. All kinds of different types of food and dining from sausages and beer to grill places. Well worth a visit if you're hungry and the decor down here is kind of fun.