No car meet, no race, no plan. This is a Tuesday night walk around the part of Tokyo we were living in, Ebisu and Shibuya, with a camera, some car spotting and a few thoughts on how Japan works. It was the first episode of our Japan series on the TunexTV channel, and the full walk is in the video above.
Camera stores and ice cream
The evening starts in the camera stores, where a wide Laowa lens built for vloggers made everything look crisper than the one lens we'd brought. The thing we love most about Tokyo shows up straight away: almost every corner is a photograph waiting to be taken.
What we spotted
The car spotting starts with a G-Class, then something better: a Toyota Land Cruiser 70-series with barn doors at the back, a tool that's still used for what it was built for. A few streets on, a garage with no sign except a small Japanese plaque for the Toyota Mark II, and inside, a Toyota Century parked with other rare Toyotas. It isn't open to the public. If you know, you know.
And the Porsches. Imported cars are expensive in Japan, and the people who buy them tend to option them to the last detail, so the specs you see on one Tokyo block are the kind you'd hunt for elsewhere.
Perfect Days, by the toilet
Walking through Shibuya's parks you pass the architect-designed public toilets of The Tokyo Toilet project, the ones Wim Wenders built his film Perfect Days around. At first glance the film is about a man who cleans toilets and photographs trees. Underneath, it's about a society where a small group works for years to get into the very top schools and jobs, and one man who chooses a quiet life instead. It's worth watching before you come.
Shibuya River's waterfalls
Between Ebisu and Shibuya, the Shibuya River runs in a concrete channel below street level, and near Shibuya Stream the walls turn into stepped waterfalls, bridge to bridge. Most people walk right past it.
Shibuya Crossing
The walk ends where every Tokyo visit should at least once: Shibuya Crossing, the scramble intersection, with cars, bars, restaurants and camera and tech stores all around it. If you want more of the city first, start with our Eleven Frames of Tokyo, find every Skyline generation in Nissan Skylines in Tokyo, and make a day of A PIT Autobacs Shinonome.
Filmed in Tokyo and first published on the TunexTV YouTube channel in February 2025. Daily posts: @tunextv on Instagram.
Photos: One Breath Pictures
Comments