6m 19s: Lenght

Here are our favorite crazy cool things to do in Shibuya. Starting out at the famous Shibuya Crossing the lights from Christmas stay up around Tokyo well into the new year. We headed to the nearby Aldgate Pub. Unfortunately due to the crazy activities during the 2015 New Years Eve countdown at Shibuya Crossing the police arrived early in the day to section off the crossing to make sure crowds could not gather. Fortunately the crowds were able to gather in nearby streets. The police were unable to move the crowd so they allowed the party to go on. The next stop in Shibuya is Maidreamin (Maid Cafe). The funky Mario Brothers inspired cafe was an interesting experience. At first with the decor, the "cute" milkshakes, and the hefty $10 USD cover charge you'd think that it was a tourist spot. We only noticed a few tourists, but the local men of Shibuya were quite interesting... more interesting than the maids! There was a young man in his 20's dressed with a cape covered in Pokémon cards, another man dressed for some reason in a baseball uniform playing with a baseball, and another man showing one of the maids a book of photos he had taken with other maids (the cafe charges $5 per photos so quite an expensive book!). You will have to sneak your videos and photos as they charge for this experience. Overall it is a bit of a ripoff if you are on a tight budget, but we had fun. The next stop is the cat cafe. This is another place that has a cover charge and depending on the day/time of the week can be filled with many tourists. This two level cat cafe allows you to feed the cats. They have books with a short biography of each cat. Plenty of cat toys laying around. This is a great place to spend an hour and take some photos. Next to the Shibuya Crossing you will find the Hachiko Statue. Hachiko is the famous dog that they made a movie about. The statue is typically surrounded by tourists. You may have to wait a few minutes to get your turn for a photo. Nearby there is a mural on the wall of the station with Hachiko as well. One of our favorite sushi experiences (and affordable) was UOBEI Sushi. The sushi here is ordered via a tablet and comes out by train. There can be a wait up to 30 minutes, but it is worth the wait. The sushi was great, but not the best in the area. We liked that each seat had its own hot water spout to make your own green tea. We recently found out that there is a similar setup in our city in the USA. After catching a light show and having more sushi we headed of to the famous "Piss Alley" otherwise known as Memory Lane. This side street has micro restaurants that hold 6-8 people. I believe this was featured on one of Anthony Bourdain's shows. The Albatross bar was really cool! Many do not know that you can actually sit up stairs if there are no seats available. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/astrophy/ Camera Equipment: Sony RX100 IV: https://goo.gl/5nmMg6 Sony 4K Action Wide-Angle Camera: https://goo.gl/glH5x3