Crossroads

Y'know, this crossroad at Shibuya ain't that big or wide. It's actually pretty small to be honest. I had to look around for the Tsutuya Starbucks to confirm I was in the right place. Strange, it seemed the first time I was here it looked bigger.

I sat on the rail of one of the subway exits and just watched.

Besides the buildings, everything was moving. The people, the billboards, the cars. That seemed to give the space an overwhelming grandiose feeling - that can make your head spin a little if this was your first time to a big city. It explained why - even if it's not that big a crossroad - there's at least one guy with his GoPro on a selfie stick walking around every time the traffic man turns green, and why countless photographers camp around for that perfect shot, and why people pose for photos in the middle of the road at the risk of getting stamped over by the non-stop human traffic. That was probably me, the first time I visited. I must have crossed it 5 times just posing for photos.

On hindsight, now just sitting and watching - the crossroad ain't that big or wide, but it must have felt a million heavy downtrodden steps after a bad day, a billion happy skips after good news, a zillion excited runs to catch that perfect shot, and a trillion more treads from people who need to walk across it everyday to get to work/home. The last being boring and nondescript, but nonetheless important. How much has it seen? How much has it felt? How many hearts were broken here? How many proposals were made here? How many moments were created here? Were all of these emotions somehow left here?

And is that why this crossroad holds so much fascination and intrigue? I sit and wonder.