99/12/13

In the late afternoon I came to Tokyo Hands at Shibuya to buy a vinyl cover for my vacuum tube amplifier. When I got down at bus stop at the front of Shibuya JR station, it was just five o'clock but it was dark as midnight. The plaza on the west front of station surrounded by big illuminated sign boards was crowded with pedestrians.

Plaza at west front of ‚i‚q Shibuya station
A big Christmas tree at the entrance of Olympic park

Buildings at the cross of Meiji Street and Omotesando

This is the first time for me to see Shibuya after dark which is much more brilliant compared with Ginza. I come to the NHK hall for concert at least once a month, but I always take a back street and enter directly the underground parking lot of Shibuya Municipal Office. So I really saw a magnificent view of Shibuya. I walked up to Tokyo Hands and at the sales counter on first basement, I showed the measure of cover and asked whether I can get it from standard products, A customer consultant checked the catalog and said the proper size was not available from the standard. He would call a manufacturer on Monday and let me know price and delivery date. The article which I want is cheap so that they cannot make money by selling them to me. Still they treated me politely and kindly.

By riding a bus I came to a cross of Omotesando and Meiji street to see illuminated view of Omotesando. But I could not see such illumination. They might give up the plan for illuminating the street because of related traffic congestion.

The view of illuminated building here was not at all inferior to Shibuya. As I have never been at Takeshita street after dark, I strolled through the street up to JR Harajuku station. Comparing with the extravagant view along the main street, the street lost its energy and dynamism, I felt.

A big Christmas tree was standing at a small plaza on the front gate of Olympic Park on its back with a waning moon. But few people cared about it. When I went down toward Jingumae on Omotesando, I saw a few beautiful stores which moved into the old Dojunkai apartments and renovated them by installing big glass windows on the street side. Every apartment was illuminated so that pedestrians on the street can see wears exhibited in apartments.

The streets in Metropolitan Tokyo are changing every day.

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