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May 25, 2003

shibuya reloaded

The marquee above the Hachiko entrance at Shibuya Station, home to some of the coolest adverts I've seen, like this one for Matrix Reloaded:

The scary thing is, for every Agent Smith you see there, there's probably about five Japanese people rushing through that area at any given time of the day. The crosswalk just outside the photo is the busiest in all of Japan, with over a million people passing through each day. That would probably explain why the Starbucks across the street is the busiest Starbucks in the entire world. I wonder if Agent Smith drinks coffee?

Posted by john tv at May 25, 2003 09:50 PM
Comments

"Me, me, me!!!!"
"Me too!!"

Is that the Starbucks at Tsutaya? Do you have stats on it? Now I'm interested. :)

Posted by: Alitak at May 27, 2003 01:53 AM

please tell me you got a pic of the bus too: that thing is just off the hook.

Posted by: Cormacaroni at May 27, 2003 07:39 PM

Alissa - It is indeed the Tsutaya Starbucks. Did you know they're open until 4am? Anyway, I looked around for some actual numbers before I posted that, but I couldn't find any. I'd be interested to see 'em too!

Corm - Sadly, I did not. I took a couple of other shots of the surrounding area, but none of them came out well because it was so dark. That was the only one that turned out. (sniff)

Posted by: john tv at May 27, 2003 08:29 PM

I'll bet the bus beats the stupid "Harry Potter Hummer" in Vancouver here..

Posted by: Alitak at May 28, 2003 06:43 AM

Did you know that many of the Starbucks in Shibuya and Shinjuku are actually losing money. The rent is too high and people paying $4 for a coffee and then taking up space for an hour or more is not bringing in enough money. I don't know if that applies to the Q-Front Starbucks (the one in front of Tsutaya) but there are like 8 or more Starbucks in Shibuya and all of that is prime retail realestate.

Posted by: GMan at June 14, 2003 01:53 AM

Yeah, I've heard that. Doesn't surprise me all that much -- they're all over the place. They need to cut back a bit. Believe it or not, there are three (yes, three) Starbucks all within walking distance from my apartment (none further than a 10 minute walk away). They're all within 10 minutes of each other, too (same general vicinity). Is that really necessary? Somehow I don't think so.

Mind you, I'm not complaining about it. Makes things easy for us coffee addicts... :)

Posted by: john tv at June 15, 2003 11:53 AM
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