The World Ends With…well, maybe not this time.

Finally, I went to Shibuya on Saturday.

I know I know, it wasn’t my first time there; I mentioned being there a few weeks ago for clubbing. But this time I went for myself.

I bought nothing there. For me–a plain and poor gaijin college student–Shibuya is a bit…well, it’s not my style. But I have yet to discover everything this treasure has to offer, since I had a few other things on my agenda that evening.

Shibuya is a mix of high class and youth culture, though for me it was all the same–everything is expensive and thus I had little interest in shopping as opposed to simply observing. And the observing was especially enjoyable for me, thanks to a Nintendo DS game called “すばらしいこのせかい,” or in English, “The World Ends With You.”

No, I can’t read people’s thoughts with my Player Pin. And there are tons of brands of clothing, and I don’t think any particular brand is matched up with any particular area, only to change to a different brand within minutes. But, as TWEWY is based in Shibuya, the map in the game does resemble the real thing.

I came out of one of the station exits, looking out towards “Scramble Crossing,” or at least that’s what it’s called in the game.

Yeah, there’s HMV (known as AMV in the game) and Seibu (Shibu Dept. Store). Walking around Shibuya is just like walking around in TWEWY.

Here’s the famous statue of Hachiko, which was near the station entrance:

The story of Hachiko is very famous, and numerous references are made about this dog in Japanese pop culture (I first learned of it from the NANA anime). Hachiko is known for loyally waiting for his master at the station as he returned from work every day. You can read the rest of the story here.

From my first visit to Shibuya coming out from a different station exit, I had recalled seeing another landmark but couldn’t remember how to get to it. I turned on my Nintendo DS and loaded TWEWY to figure out where it was in relation to Hachiko. Just like in the game, I made a turn at the West Bus Station Terminal, and around the corner was what I had been looking for:

I don’t know if there’s any story to this. I know it’s called the Moyai Statue. As you can probably tell by now, this post is mostly revolving around the real Shibuya in comparison to TWEWY.

Tower Records even looks like TWEWY’s “Towa Records”!

I could’ve taken endless pictures showing TWEWY fans the resemblance, but it was pretty crowded; after all, it was a Saturday evening.

I must also note that, from my first visit to Shibuya, the club we all went to (was it ‘Club Adam’ or something?) was surrounded by love hotels. Kenisha told me during our second visit that this particular area on Dougenzaka is called “Love Hotel Hill.” Go figure.