Shibuya Crossing

Shibuya Crossing is a road junction that people travel across Tokyo to look at, and once you have stood in it you understand why. It is the scramble crossing right outside Shibuya Station: traffic stops in every direction at once and the whole intersection fills with people walking diagonally through each other. It is described as the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world, and a 2016 figure put it at up to 3,000 people on a single green light, which comes round every two minutes. It stays busy even at midnight.

Do two things, in this order. Cross it, at least twice, because the crossing only makes sense from inside the wave. Then get above it: several of the buildings around the junction have upper floors and terraces looking straight down on it, which is where the photograph you have in your head was taken from. The Hachikō statue stands just beside the station exit, and it is the meeting point everyone in Tokyo uses, so expect a small crowd around it at any hour. After dark, with every screen on the surrounding buildings lit, is when the whole thing looks like itself.

Japan has low crime, but Tokyo's entertainment districts are the exception the police name, and Shibuya is on that list along with Kabukicho, Roppongi and Ikebukuro. The risks are drink spiking and card fraud: victims wake with no memory of the evening and large sums billed to their card. The UK's foreign office notes that most British victims were approached by English-speaking street touts. So do not follow anyone who offers to take you to a bar, and see a menu with prices before you sit down. Disputes over inflated bar bills have ended in arrests.

Shibuya is a stop on the JR Yamanote loop, the line that threads Tokyo's main hubs together, and the crossing is at the station exit, so there is nothing to find. A Suica or Pasmo IC card is all you need to get in and out, and the same card pays at the convenience stores around the junction. One local rule: smoking on the street is illegal in Tokyo, so use the designated areas rather than lighting up while you wait for the lights. Goodbars sells a Japan eSIM you install at home and switch on when you land; it runs on NTT docomo, Japan's largest mobile network by mobile contracts, and our Japan coverage page shows where it reaches and what independent speed tests measure.