scramble

by studioISH

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After my half day trip to Yokohama, I was back in Tokyo to research my thesis. A next stop included the Shibuya Scramble Crossing. The world’s busiest crossing is (not surprisingly) in its most populous city.

At a corner that reminds one of a skewed version of Times Square (Starbucks- check! bright lights, big screens, neon signs- check! ), hundreds of busy bodies, each with a purpose unimagined by the next- spill out from the train station and walk across bustling neighborhoods to inundate the intersection from all directions. Traffic stops from all directions, thus letting pedestrians cross every-which-way: hence the term scramble.

They are Japanese, of course, and thus even this chaotic event occurs in the wraps of a sense of order. The real question that took me there was this: If the signs weren’t in Japanese, and the people walking by looked and spoke like you and me, would you have been able to place the metropolis on the globe?

Identity is an intriguing thing…