Viewed from above, the famous pedestrian crossing outside Tokyo’s Shibuya Station resembles the world’s largest and best-organised wall of death. Stand at its centre point as thousands of Tokyo residents and wide-eyed tourists hurtle across the intersection from every conceivable angle, and you will experience true sensory overload.
The blur of human traffic is accompanied by a dizzying, truly deafening collage of sounds. The relentless metallic clinking from the district’s Pachinko arcades clashes against the effervescent beats of the latest J-pop and K-pop hits bleeding across from the SHIBUYA109 mall, the world’s wildest, loudest department store. Advertising jingles blare out from the giant neon screens overhead, and loudhailer-wielding street vendors yell enthusiastic exhortations to embrace the joys of consumerism.