This pure euphoria when the traffic lights turn green and the choreography begins: Hundreds of people run towards each other from all sides at the Shibuya crossing, quite quickly, but in no way hectically or aggressively. In fact, passers-by at the Tokyo intersection, which is one of the largest in the world with up to a quarter of a million people a day, seem to be guided by invisible threads. Two bodies hardly ever touch, let alone jostle or even collide. Like in a gigantic school of fish, people stream past each other, close together and yet everyone for themselves.
It’s probably what excites city lovers about the world’s most famous crossroads and what leads a sociologist like Richard Sennett to argue that living in cities makes people more democratic. Because the people there seem to communicate effortlessly without words and come to terms with each other. Although it has to be said that it hardly takes any effort to find your way across one of the zebra crossings in the Shibuya district – unlike in Rome, for example, where it takes a certain amount of courage to cross a street. This is mainly due to the fact that there are hardly any private cars in Tokyo compared to the number of inhabitants.
If you want to have a car here, you have to prove that you have a parking space, which hardly anyone can afford. This has the pleasant effect that it is not really loud. Also, even at Shibuya Crossing, the nearest park or small shrine is not far away. After the big city kick, the pulse can be brought down quickly there.