Make Believe Bonus: Meikyoku Cafe Lion

Me And The Retired Gang Dozing Off To Classical Music

All photos by author

Shibuya on a Wednesday afternoon is not much different than any other time in the neighborhood — it’s loud. Get off your bus or exit the station and you’re instantly blasted with noise. It comes from the sound trucks advertising new pop singles, host clubs or adult-oriented job sites; it comes from stores jostling for attention via an assortment of hit songs or mind-numbing jingles; it comes from the myriad screens around the Scramble crossing; it comes from the mass of locals and tourists perpetually in the area, talking and livestreaming and trying to get attention for their establishment.

Silence in Shibuya is a near impossibility — it’s more realistic to find places where the sound is less severe. There’s at least one location, though, where sound becomes the center of attention, and provides a kind of escape from the familiar cacophony of modern Tokyo…despite still being pretty loud.

I needed that sanctuary in the middle of a particularly hectic week (or month…or summer…), after a succession of meetings to attend and deadlines to meet. Plus, there’s no guarantee this oasis will exist much longer in Shibuya, redevelopment potentially erasing one of the places to truly slip away into from the neighborhood.