Shibuya photos from my month in Japan March 2011

The skyscrapers' show cast on one of the Tokyu buildings in Shibuya.

Hachiko crossing from the Starbucks and Tsutaya building. This was March 13th so 2 days after the Tohoku/Kanto quake. You can see that there's less people than normally, but about 2 days after that, it was back to normal.(except for most of the neon signs and big TV screens were turned off to reduce power consumption.)

I don't know really why, for the last 3 years I use to hate Shibuya and love Shinjuku more, but this year, I was in Shibuya at least 5 out of 7 days a week and I miss this place so much! I loved just to hang out with friends in cheap Karaokes and arcades in Shibuya and enjoyed some very coffee or chai tea latte a lot at Starbucks.

Cute little electric candles were placed on each table. Maybe for couples to feel more romantic?! Very catchy but I loved those! XD

I love this one with the lights in the background. I should have tired to go more macro on manual to get a nice bokeh.

Hidden Xacti to grab a timelapse since they don't really like photographers in Starbucks. They told my friend not to use his mini-tripod. Suggested that he could hide his camera in his Bic Camera bag (how ironic!) and take his footage. James Bond style! orz I never was told not to take pictures though, maybe cause I was dressing like a salaryman! XD Here's the time lapse : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiw_dAmwLnc&feature=player_embedded

Center gai almost deserted 2 days after the quake. The izakaya hosts were desperate to find customers but they failed every time so they were pretty down.

Hmmm! Asahi beer is my favorite beer brand in Japan. Asahi Super Dry is the one I like most. But the Sapporo Gold star is also very good.

Waiting for the train was never very long in Tokyo, and more precisely on the JR Yamanote line.

Whoops! I had my ND filter on so when using Aperture priority it got took dark. Had to use some manual settings on the shutter to get more lights. (ISO leaves too much noise for my taste...) Didn't want to remove my filter since I didn't have anything to store it with me at that time.

Is that Flash? No, it would leave more red in the light rays. XD I really loved when those advertisement buses passed in front and left those trails on long exposure shots.

An awesome little dodgy place in Shibuya! They made delicious takoyaki and it was only 315yen too! I had an awesome time every time I went there. I'll definitely go back next year!

Some very nice BMW probably owned by Yakuza with those 100% tainted windows with probably curtains behind them! XD Just joking but still...

Friendly Starbucks face. This was the new design cause the day before that it was the brown classic type.

Gorgeous day it was! I think the next day we had some flash freezing rain for 10 minutes. I was exiting the station at that time and me and and some 40 people decided not to wait for it to stop and started running towards a "Kiosk". It was the first time ever I was queue waiting to buy an umbrella!

Waited for my friend in front of Starbucks and decides to grab some pics and a video.

Another try at bokeh-macro-shot-plastic-electric-candle picture taking. Darker but still kinda nice.

The moon was very bright that night!

It was very dark and creepy at times, but I loved hanging out in Shibuya. THe creepy part was that it was very dark, but so crowded at the same time that it felt out of place. Like you're in a field to watch some fireworks, but everybody's moving fast and the fireworks never come...

Full moon over Hachiko crossing. I took this one right before entering the JR Yamanote line station in Shibuya. Sorry for bad pixel picture, since I was using the Lumix LX3's digital zoom.

Shibuya station JR Yamanote line bound for Shinjuku, 1 stop from my Shin-ôkubo station stop.

Notice the secret 鼠 (nezumi) in the picture. He was "washing" himself while literally thousands of people were around. I was sitting right behind the Hachiko dog and waiting for my friend, with everyone waiting for their friends at this spot...

March 31st. Was on one of the last train in the JR Yamanote going back to Shin-ôkubo. Took this one as I entered the train in the Shibuya station. I had an awesome night with my friend Kevin in 3 different bars and went for a last beer at some Family Mart in Center Gai. Was leaving on April 1st so it was a cheerful but sad goodbye night.