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Sunday, August 18, 2013

Shibuya 109

Above, the 109 building in the Shibuya shopping district of Tokyo.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.


This building was featured in two kaiju movies.

First, it was featured (and blown apart by Gamera) in Gamera 3: Awakening of Iris (also known as Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (or Irys)) in 1999.

Later, in 2000, it was again blown apart by the sonic shock waves of Megaguirus in Godzilla x Megaguirus.

Above, the 109 building during the Christmas season.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.
According to Wikipedia:
The building, located just across the street from Shibuya Station, opened in April 1979. The architect was Minoru Takeyama. Tokyu, the building's operator, designed the building as a "Fashion Community" containing small retail stores targeting the early-30s female consumer. Tokyu intended the store to compete with Seibu Department Stores, which was making inroads into the Shibuya area. 
The name of the building, 109, is a form of word play (goroawase, specifically numerical substitution) and is taken from the Japanese characters (meaning 10) and kyū (9) as in Tōkyū. The interior of the building is designed to move shoppers in a loop on each floor from the elevators past various shops. A movie theater was originally planned for the top floor, but the fire department would not grant approval due to emergency-evacuation routes not meeting appropriate standards. Although originally targeted at women in their 30s, the building later became more known as a mecca for young women from the gyaru subculture.
Shibuya is spotlighted on page 27 of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan.

To read more on the Shibuya 109 building, go here.

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