Favourite Photos: The Shibuya Scramble Crossing (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition))

Japan: The Basics contains many photographs (all taken by me) to help with the discussions in the book. I have previously done individual posts on each of the photos that were in the first edition that are not in the second edition (a list of all the photographs in the first edition can be found here). I am now doing posts on all of the photos that appear in the second edition of Japan: The Basics using the tag Photo in Japan: The Basics 2 (all of the photographs can be found here). I’ve already done posts on all the photos that appear in both editions of the book. This is the next post in the next series – those where there was an equivalent picture in the first edition, but which has been updated for the second edition.

In addition to the picture of Hachiko and the Shibuya Scramble Crossing, in the second edition of Japan: The Basics there is the following picture of the Shibuya Scramble Crossing itself. It is Figure 2.1 in the second edition of Japan: The Basics, replacing the image you can see in the post Favourite Photos: Shibuya Scramble Crossing. This photograph also fits within my series of Favourite Photos.

There are a few things that I like about this picture and why I chose to replace the image of the crossing that was in the first edition. First, while the previous version was taken as the sun was going down, this one is a little later in the evening so the colours of the lights are much more pronounced. Second, which is helpful for some of the discussion in the book, there appears to be some variations in the ethnicities of people that can be seen in the image.

The picture also helps with the discussion about why images of the Shibuya Scramble Crossing are so popular in TV programmes and movies set in Tokyo – particularly foreign ones. As noted in the book, Japanese ones tend to prefer to show Tokyo Tower (see Favourite Photos: Modern and Traditional Side-by-Side (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition))) or Tokyo Sky Tree. Of course, the Shibuya Scramble Crossing does appear in some Japanese programmes – such as Alice in Borderland (mentioned in Netflix and Learning About Japan) and when I returned to Shibuya the day after the above photo was taken, I actually took some photos that fitted with scenes from that programme, thereby taking part in some Contents Tourism (see Favourite Photos: Ichinokurasawa and Mount Tanigawa (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition)) for more discussion on Contents Tourism, which is also one of the topics in Japan: The Basics).

You can see more about when I took the photo in a Highlight on Instagram.

In terms of the photo used in the second edition, I like it so much that I now have a copy of it on my wall in my office at work (replacing the photo of the crossing used in the first edition):

There are a couple of things that could have been better about the photo of the Shibuya Scramble Crossing in the second edition of Japan: The Basics. First, the place that I took the photo from and the lower angle compared to the one in the first edition means that although you can see that it is very busy (which is one of the key issues being discussed in the book), it’s not that easy to see the direction that the people are walking in or the crossing(s) themselves. Second, I hadn’t realised until after I had the picture up on my wall (and the book manuscript had been confirmed) that there is ad advert for Yakult, including a picture of a Yakult Swallows baseball player – which is not ideal since I support Hanshin Tigers. Oh well, never mind – Hanshin are still the reigning champions and there is a picture of their stadium in the second edition as I will post about in due course.