We were to meet as a group close to the famous dog monument at Shibuya – most have heard the story of Hachiko. Hachiko was a dog that belonged to a professor at the university of Tokyo. Every day, he would wait to meet his owner at the Shibuya station. One day the professor died of a brain hemorrhage. For the next 10 years, Hachiko faithfully went to wait for his owner every day at the same location – awaiting his return. The statue was erected in his honor and as a reminder to all of the lengths one will go to in order to stay devoted to a friend.

From here we were to cross what has been described as one of the world’s busiest crossroads. I must have missed a class as a child called “Crossing roads.”

This is me in general crossing any road when there are moving cars.

Shibuya is known as the mecca of Japanese high school girls. We explored the area including depa chika of Shibuya Station, i.e., foodie’s paradise. The area had cool bars and manga cafes that have libraries, comfortable chairs and hot showers. We spent the afternoon at a shopping mall called Nakano broadway that had everything under the sun. The mall has 3 floors and has all sorts of manga & anime stuff, rare toys and electronics together with a load of other Japanese pop culture goodies. At some point my feet started killing me and Mouna was my savior – she picked me up a pair of sandals from the 100 Yen shop..i.e. the Japanese version of a dollar store.

In the evening we went to the parliament building to get the best views of Tokyo. It was raining cats and dogs and I was navigating everywhere in my new sandals.

In the evening we went to a very interesting small pub and chilled out till 2am.