Sunday today, extreme heat expected, so we are headed for Shibuya. We’re out and about early, so we arrive at the Shibuya Scramble Square skyscraper nice and early. We take the elevator up to the secret spot on the 11th floor, where we have amazing views down to the Shibuya scramble (the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing). It’s only 10.30am on a Sunday morning, and still it’s a busy spot. I have to say though, what we saw is NOTHING compared to what it was like 4 hours later!
After getting our fill of views (and visiting the facilities in this fancy schmancy building), we trudge on. We have a lunch reservation at 11am, and we still need to find our way! We’re not the only ones out and about, it is packed with people already, and suddenly they all stop. Hachiko is here. Long line up of people to get their shot of an up close and personal selfie with the famous dog, which we skip. We have lunch to get to! Also, apparently this particular statue is one of FIVE versions in Shibuya, but also the actual spot where the famous friend waited for his dead owner every evening for 9 years.
Our lunch plans today are at the adorable Kumachan Onsen, a bear themed restaurant. The entrance says it all, it’s bears bears everywhere!
It is actually a requirement to wear bear ears while dining here! The girls loved the experience already, and we haven’t even looked at the menu yet!
Ok, the food: The whole concept is that you get a gelatinous teddy bear that melts into the soup base of your hot pot meal. We picked a brown bear and a white/polar bear, and then you get to pick your flavour. Joe and Maylin had tonkatsu (roast pork), Téa and I had chicken. Theirs tasted so much better than ours! Oh well… Then you get to choose your meats, they again picked pork, whereas we picked a mixed meat plate.
You turn the in-table burner on, and your bear starts turning into soup. (Very sad, I know.) Once your soup starts boiling, you can add your hardest vegetables first, like napa cabbage and any root vegetables. Then add your softer veggies and noodles, before cooking your meat slices one by one when you are ready to eat them. There’s an entire sauce bar around the corner, where you mix to your own palate, for dipping your cooked meat into for extra flavour.
People of all ages get really into the character spirit in Japan, and there are cartoon themed eateries and stores everywhere you look. Even Joe got into the bear theme!
Once our bears were consumed and we said goodbye to all the decor, we headed out into the streets. There was a festival of some sort going on, and there were different uniformed teams chanting, ringing bells, drumming and carrying these heavy, ornate things. Each street had a team, it felt like, and at one point two teams crossed eachother right in front of us. One Japanese restaurant server was out taking pictures on her phone, and she also had no idea what was going on, said it was “not normal”.
Another reason we aimed for Shibuya today, was yet another Pokemon centre. By now, Maylin was hot and overwhelmed by people and noise and drum and crowds. We found the Pokemon centre inside a busy and cramped mall, the queue to pay snaked through the entire store, and made it very difficult to even look around.
On our way back towards the Scramble, we passed a 3 level Disney store, which Téa and I were able to browse in relative peace and quiet, while Joe and Maylin had a drink break at a cinema café in the same building. It was the quietest and most hidden little gem, where we were almost all alone, and the staff did not speak a lick of English. Of course, if your movie theatre only plays movies in Japanese, why would non-Japanese speaking people ever make their way into your café?
Our quick drink break was not enough, by the time we were heading for home and the subway station on the other side of the Shibuya Scramble, we were starving. There were SO many people, everywhere you looked, every direction, every street, all around. No wonder Maylin was overwhelmed! We ducked into a bright blue café underneath the train tracks, and snacked on some waffles before braving the crowds once again.
Because of our late snack, we weren’t in the mood to go out for dinner, so 7Eleven to the rescue, once again! They have great little noodle or pasta salads, I was craving sushi but that was all gone for the night, no more left. The girls wanted the staple egg salad sandwiches, and Joe and I both got a spicy fried chicken (each one comes as big as a thigh, with skin, battered and deep fried). We also split a pasta salad which was delicious.