Day 3 - Travelogue - Shibuya Sky, Shopping at Tokyu Hands and Don Quijote

March 11, 2023

Day 3 - Travelogue - Shibuya Sky, Shopping at Tokyu Hands and Don Quijote

After leaving PARCO I headed SE in a slightly downhill direction. I walked past the Mandarake (used anime goods) and many interesting store fronts and nightclubs. The first place I went to visit was Tokyu Hands. Tokyu Hands is a wonderful DIY department store that has lifestyle goods, tools, stationary, and all the parts / materials you need to build things. They sell luggage, Japanese hand tools (there are some very interesting wood working tools that only exist in Japan), some anime goods, and plenty of pens, paper, wallets, purses, and even bicycles. I was here to take a look at their tools and their disaster prevention goods / emergency supplies. I wrote an earlier article about Japanese emergency rations here.

Cute ceramics at Shibuya Sky.

The items I wanted to buy at Tokyu Hands included some emergency food and to see what they had on hand for other preparedness supplies. I keep a 72 hour kit and emergency survival kit around my home and there are no major earthquakes or tsunamis in Alberta, unlike in Japan.

I found the regular freeze dried rice dishes that last 5 years, canned bread, some of the MRE curries and stews amongst the many foods they carried. Best of all, I found the canned Yoshinoya beef bowl ration. I was pretty happy I managed to find one of these which I will review later.

Emergency foods.

More emergency foods and water.

Emergency gear like helmets, portable toilets, etc. More falling objects in the big city.

My next destination was the Mega Don Quijote, which is a discount department store that has pretty much everything a regular department store has. They are pretty famous for their garish displays and very funky/colourful signage along with narrow aisles packed with goods. It is a fun place to shop. I was here to check out their food floor (2nd floor) which sells bulk bags of Kit Kats, candy, and food in general. If you are looking for food type souvenirs that as commercially packaged, this is a good place to check for the more common things. I bought some chocolates, Kit Kats, and other candy here. They used to have bulk bags of freeze-dried Amano miso soups (which are really tasty), but not any more. I would have to find these at supermarkets (it is most common to find them in single packages) as the bulk packs are cheaper. They were shooting some kind of promotional event when I was there on the main floor that slowed people coming and going into the store too.

Mega Donki aka Don Quijote.

Some of their candy aisles.

Shibuya is a place for partying in the evening or hanging out with friends over food and drink. During the day, it is a business hub, and full of shoppers. The big crowds come in the evening rush hour and later. That is when you can see Shibuya Crossing at its busiest. All of the signage and electronic billboards bring the crossing area to life at dusk to illuminate the evening, even though they run throughout the day too. I was here in the afternoon, so it wasn't quite so exciting. It had rained a fair bit yesterday, but it was mainly cloudy and windy today. My original plan was to ascend up to the Shibuya Sky yesterday, but rain prevented that so I would do it today. I walked over to Scramble Square. There are many new above ground pedways and bridges here now. At Scramble Square, I took the elevators up to Shibuya Sky. You aren't allowed to take packs up on to the viewing deck, so they provide keyed lockers for you.

Looking across Shibuya Cross back towards Shibuya Station. You can see there is plenty of construction going on over there. It'll look different in a few years again. The building on the left is the Hikarie, the centre is Scramble Square (Shibuya Sky is on the roof), and Shibuya Stream is behind it.

Looking back towards Shibuya Crossing above the construction at the station.

The viewing deck up on Shibuya Sky is pretty new and very nicely kept up. There are big glass walls all around and there are stunning views in all directions over the city during the day. At night it would be a sea of city lights all around you. I've been up in the Skytree and City View at dusk and can attest to this. During the day, you can see details that you can't see at night and the views of Shibuya crossing are pretty good from Sky. It would be nice to see it at dusk / evening when the billboards are at full strength and crowds cross the street too. There are many couches to sit on and there is even a big helipad covered in artificial turf that you can walk on.

Shinjuku Gyoen Park.

Shibuya Crossing on the left bottom, the n/s tracks (Yamanote Line), and Miyashita Park on the right. New PARCO is the big blue building in the centre top.

Closeup of Shinjuku Gyoen and the Shinjuku Skyline

Closeup of Scramble Crossing.

Cool escalator to get down from the top floor of Sky.

The Sky mascot!

After visiting Shibuya Sky, I wandered a little around Scramble Square, which is a nice mall, but boy, one mall tends to look like all the other malls. There is a lot of shopping in Tokyo. I then went back to the hotel to rest my foot and do some planning.

That night I went out for dinner at CoCo Ichibanya, a famous curry house chain of restaurants. This restaurant was right across the street from the hotel in the basement level that connects to the subway too. This was the first time I've been to CoCo and it was a delicious and filling experience. Many restaurant chains now use tablets to order and this was the first of a few experiences like this.

Nice entrance to CoCo Ichibanya. This store had world curries.

The menu with all of the different curries. I just wanted some tasty Japanese curry though.

Curry with katsu cutlet and rice in an egg omelette. I've never had one like this before, but it was good!

SPAM onigiri like in Hawaii / Okinawa. Apparently it is a good seller at FamilyMart konbinis. I tried one of these later and quite liked it, but I like SPAM.

After dinner, I went around the lower level I was on and saw there was a tourist information centre, and a small, but amazing little collection of science fiction memorabilia on display there. I love these old classic artifacts that are like tin toys and there was heavy focus on Star Wars props and items. The items on display were from the Kitahara private collection that must have been a work of love for the owner. Going through the collection was a pleasant and easy way to wrap up my evening. I've only shown a few pics from the exhibit.