I mentioned earlier that I would put up some pictures I took when I first came to Japan 20 years ago. Well, here are a few I took in Shibuya exactly 20 years ago today. The pictures on the left are the old ones which I scanned recently. The ones on the right I took yesterday morning. I would have gone today but it’s a working day and I wasn’t about to take the day off for a blog topic. The photos above are taken from the north side of Shibuya Station. Q-Front used to be the now defunct Tokai Bank and above that was a Disco. Did you notice the movie poster there? Rambo!!

This is Hachiko crossing of course. Check out that fashion, oh my god! Dasai or what?! No kogals to be seen anywhere. In the centre, you can see the original centre-gai gate which fell down in a typhoon a few years back and killed a person.

A shot of a clock sponsored by Yamaichi Securities which went bankrupt a few years ago and got acquired by Merrill Lynch. Now, it’s a sign for Takefuji. Those pink penguin characters were really trendy at the time. Notice the different Tokyu Department Store logos?

From across the street. The 109 part 2 building was still under construction. Can you see it at the right?

And this one from underneath the centre-gai gate. I wonder what happened to those high school boys? Have they gotten married, had kids and become oyaji? Maybe one of those girls is the daugther of one of those boys in the old photo. Wouldn’t that be a coincidence?

I realize that these aren’t the most interesting photos. Had I known 20 years ago that I would be doing this I would have made more effort to find something that would make an impact. Hmm..maybe in another 20 years..