Crowd surfing

Many movies have tried to capture the wildness of Tokyo's nightlife. Cameras pan across its flashing neon lights, shifting through clips of scantily scan women or catching shots of crowds spilling onto the streets. Now having seen it, I don't think I've any movie I've seen has quite done it. It's because a camera is limited to one sense. It can't catch the feeling of hundreds of bodies pressed around you on every side, or the smell of grilled meat one second and perfume the next.

My sister's friend Taro, who she met while on exchange in Ghana, Africa and now lives in Tokyo, met me at my hotel and swept me off to dinner minutes after I arrived Saturday night.

He took me to Shibuya, a district that holds the famous Times Square of Tokyo and is a popular shopping and entertainment spot. We passed by Hachiko, the statue of the dog that has become a famous meeting place. While waiting at a stop light in the middle of the square, I counted nine theater-size screens flashing advertisements on the sides of sky scrapers. The intersection we stopped at is called a scramble. It's where the walk light turns green for all pedestrians waiting there. Hundreds of people had collected, pressing toward the curb like runners at a starting gate. When the green walk light began its chirp, all those people surged into the intersection, squirming through the on comers in their fight to get to the other side. While steering me through, Taro pointed to a bus stuck in the sea of pedestrians, vainly trying to finish a left turn.

Taro took me to a yaki niko restaurant, which has become one of my favorite meals here. You grill pieces of meat and vegetables on a barbecue installed in the table.

Before dinner though, we had a few minutes to wander among the mayhem occurring in the narrow, meandering streets around the area. We even wandered into a video arcade, which is like a cross between a Vegas casino and Rainbow Bright.

Lesson learned: Just follow Taro.