Shibuya Sepia..

Messing about with my iPhone, Shibuya looks great in sepia..

Kyuu Yamate and 246: The trap..

This intersection is a bit of a trap for motorists heading into (or through) Shibuya as bike cops often sit there waiting for motorists to go through a stop sign before pouncing, and on this sleepy Sunday afternoon it also became somewhat of a hazard to one cyclists health. While walking to Daikainyama we chanced upon the aftermath of an accident between a bike and a car, all were fine, but for a bent up bike seat and an obviously rattled salaryman's composure..

Hanging out..

..the washing, Maruyamacho style!

The infamous Hotel Lumiere..

The Hotel Lumiere, located in the middle of a Maruyamacho street full of love hotels was the unfortunate location of a woman's death at the beginning of last month. She had checked in with a man in the early morning hours of Jan 8, and her body was found in the bath at around 4 pm. I was walking through the area when her body was found, and while I didn't know what was going down, the amount of police, detectives, and emergency vehicles that filled the surrounding streets made it obvious that it was something pretty horrific. As a completely unrelated piece of useless information, the hotel is situated around 100 metres from where the Shiespa pump room exploded in the summer of 2007..

Hotwheels..

This near perfect example of complete radness is often parked just up the road, and is, in my completely unbiased opinion, right up there with the Durcus One. Can't be too comfortable to ride though..

People of the night.. 03

Another return to the night time fun that is The Treasure Chest..

Street Walking..

Shibuya supposedly doesn't have street walkers, but there are enough girls walking to and from the small fuzokuten to the nearby hotels to safely assume that the cover of night doesn't always betray the the purpose of the ladies within it. Recently I've seen a couple of attempted pick ups, from guys that would usually get the old 'I'm calling my boyfriend on my keitai' brush off, and they seemed to be able to open up a dialogue pretty well on the backstreets of Dogenzaka...

Random night shot.. 11

Maruyamacho 10 chome. These lights reminded me of the super high watt ones that street food vendors use, hard to look at but great for shooting..

Festival Lanterns in Maruyamacho..

My last summer festival post, I promise..

Took me a while to work it out, but the lanterns which adorn the streets of each locale at festival time are actually sponsored by the shops and vendors that live in each area. This particular Maruyamacho matsuri base, which was in a tiny little park in the middle of the love hotel district, had lanterns with the names of many love hotels and small restaurants which populate the area. Most noteable of which was the lantern from "2 Sweet Ass", which despite the fact that it could easily be well suited as the name of a love hotel, is actually a restaurant!!

Maruyamacho Matsuri '08

Well into the late evening through both Saturday and Sunday night, groups of jubilant locals carried different Omikoshi through the streets of my neighbourhood. Chanting and whistling and ocassionally even shouting made it impossible to focus on anything other than this wonderful celebration. I am told that up until the Meiji period, the rooster that adorns the top of the mobile Shinto shrine was actually a phallic symbol, which actually does make sense as the matsuri is meant to be some kind of fertility festival. Western influence put paid to the phallas and now we have a different kind of cock! Maruyamacho is also meant to be the last shitamachi (old town) areas on Shibuya, and if the energy of these locals is anything to go by, things won't be changing too much around here real soon..

Parking..

Parking in Shibuya is generally a nightmare, especially if you aren't lucky enough to have a designated space. Parking spaces can range in cost, anything from 2000 to (up to) 60,000 yen per month, and if you don't have a space the dreaded parking inspectors will most likely find you soon enough. Unfortunately some buildings have absolutely NO spaces, and so tenants (or employees) are forced to find something on the street. This creative Shibuya bike owner solved his parking problem with a set of carpentry tools and a positive attitude towards problem solving!

A return to the Treasure Chest..

It was time for another little outing to the Treasure Chest, time to find a spot on that big wedge shaped bar and protect the drinks (and head) from flying heels. Mr Ono was in fine form, as was my favorite Rockin Jellybean painting, and er.. the hallway to the toilet!

Random night shot.. 09

Shopping in Maruyamacho, sex and vegetables..

Inside love hotels.. 04

So many hotels, such little time.. Seriously though, cheap Romanesque statues aside, this mid-range of the hill's finest has a definite Western classical twinge to it, not unlike something you may find (the gaudier hotels of) in northern Europe..



More and more hotels provide the lone hunter with every opportunity to find company that modern technology is able to provide..



And when in Rome..

Inside the.. Supermarket?

Continuing the tradition of bringing to you the most cutting edge images from inside this exceptionally interesting mega-city:

Maruyamacho Poraroca, aisle 3..

Inside Love Hotels.. 03

Who designs these places??

Cosplay Hotels

Cosplay is well documented as being a Japanese institution, it permeates into the decor of society so naturally that you eventually start to not even notice it. At the more famous end of the scale of course is the manga or gothic orientated style, which is usually well represented in places like Harajuku or Akihabara, but it goes further than that. Certain love hotels offer cosplay rental as a way to spice up the experience, of course the schoolgirl uniform is used as the advertising default, closely followed by the nurse, race queen and maid outfits, and I'm pretty sure it gets a lot spicier than that..

Random night shot.. 06

Shitamachi house, Maruyamacho..

Inside Love Hotels.. 02

Hotel Fifteen Love, situated somewhere down near the lower end of the scale..

Gas leak in Maruyamacho

This morning a Tokyo Gas Emergency crew and a handful of police showed up downstairs, cordoned off our section of the street and investigated a gas leak in the building next door. No-one was evacuated and it was over relatively quickly but it did bring back scary memories of the Shiespa gas explosion that killed three people just down the road at pretty much this time last year.

When the yellow police tape comes out and your apartment is sectioned off, you know it's not gonna be good..