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Shibuya Scramble Crossing at night with no one on its zebra stripes, lit towers behind
The real crossing empty at about 2am on a weekday, December 2024 Syced · CC0

Shibuya, Tokyo · a Netflix series in three seasons · 2020–2025

Alice in Borderland

今際の国のアリス

The busiest crossing in the world, empty. None of it was filmed here: the series built its Shibuya 100 km away and found the rest of Tokyo all over Japan.

  • Kento Yamazaki, shoulder-length dark hair, in a grey jacket over a black top
    Kento Yamazaki (Arisu) at a press conference for Kingdom in Singapore; the file is dated December 2020, the month the first season came out Girlmaking · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Kento YamazakiArisu · December 2020

  • Tao Tsuchiya in a red dress, smiling and waving on a racecourse lawn
    Tao Tsuchiya (Usagi) at the Queen Elizabeth II Cup in November 2018, nine months before filming began Ogiyoshisan · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Tao TsuchiyaUsagi · November 2018

On the crossing now2

Photos: The real crossing empty at about 2am on a weekday, Syced, CC0 · Kento Yamazaki (Arisu) at a press conference for Kingdom in Singapore; the file is dated December 2020, Girlmaking, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tao Tsuchiya (Usagi) at the Queen Elizabeth II Cup in November 2018, Ogiyoshisan, CC BY-SA 4.0

Five crosswalks · one empty junction

Cross out of Tokyo.

The story never leaves Tokyo, but much of its empty city was made somewhere else. Pick a crosswalk and walk it: each one comes out where part of the empty city was really made.

Pick a crosswalk. You are standing in the middle of the scramble, and there is no one else here.

  • Ashikaga80 km
  • Toyama251 km
  • Nagoya260 km
  • Ōtsu352 km
  • Nara367 km

A game of wits

Built or drawn?

In the first episode the friends run into the station toilets and come out to an empty Shibuya in one take of more than four minutes, so the set had to hold up all the way round. Some of it was built in Ashikaga; the rest was drawn by computer. Call each piece.

  1. The ticket gate
  2. The public toilets
  3. The road
  4. The buildings round the crossing
  5. The Tokyu building’s shadow
  6. The Starbucks meeting point

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Where we read it
People with umbrellas among food vans on a wide grassy lot in front of tall scaffolding facades
The Ashikaga open set on its farewell open day, 9 November 2025, with food vans in front of the scaffold-backed street fronts IXTA9839 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Former Ashikaga racecourse, Nakagawa-chō, Ashikaga, Tochigi

Ashikaga Scramble City Studio

The empty crossing of the first episode was filmed on a huge outdoor set in Ashikaga, more than 100 km from the real one. Only the ticket gate, the public toilets and the road were built; everything else, even the shadow of the Tokyu building, is computer graphics.

The set was finished in September 2019 on the old Ashikaga racecourse: about 1.5 hectares of land and 6,585 m² of open set. About 70 films, dramas and music videos were made there.

It closed on 31 December 2025, when its lease ran out and the city chose the ground for a new city hall and civic hall. The last public open day was 9 November 2025.

Closed at the end of 2025; the city plans its new hall on the site. Not open to visitors.

Where we read it

Shibuya · the real one

Empty twice.

The crossing the series could not close has been nearly empty for real. Once on a spring Sunday in 2020, eight months before the first season came out; and again at 2am on a weekday in December 2024.

A wide, almost empty paved square at Shibuya Crossing in spring sun, a few people far apart
Shibuya Crossing on 19 April 2020, under Japan’s first state of emergency, eight months before the series came out Asanagi · CC0

19 April 2020: Tokyo’s first state of emergency had begun on 8 April.

Where we read it

In front of Shibuya Station, Shibuya, Tokyo

Shibuya Scramble Crossing

The series could not film on the crossing itself. Shinsuke Sato says it was impossible, so the crew shot in streets around it, some at dawn, steering passers-by out of shot.

Sato says the idea grew from the crowds that gather in Shibuya for nights like the New Year countdown, now about half of them from abroad, and from wondering what Tokyo would be with all of them gone.

The crossing opened in 1973. Up to 3,000 people cross at each green light; a 2014 survey counted about 260,000 people on a weekday.

Open all the time. Walk over from the Hachikō exit of Shibuya Station; it is at its emptiest in the small hours.

Where we read it
The bronze statue of the dog Hachikō on its plinth beside an empty square
Hachikō’s statue and an empty Hachikō Square on 19 April 2020 Asanagi · CC0

Hachikō Square, Shibuya Station

Hachikō and the Hachikō gate

In the first episode Arisu and his friends duck into the toilets inside the Hachikō gate of Shibuya Station and come out into an empty city.

Hachikō went back to Shibuya Station almost every day for about nine and a half years after his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, died in 1925. The station’s Hachikō exit is named after him.

Teru Andō’s first statue was unveiled in 1934 and melted down in 1945. Takeshi Andō’s replacement went up on 15 August 1948.

On the square outside the Hachikō exit, at the edge of the crossing. Open all the time.

Where we read it
The silver cylindrical tower of Shibuya 109 with its red 109 sign, at a street corner
Shibuya 109 at the top of the crossing, September 2015 そらみみ (Soramimi) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dōgenzaka 2-chōme, Shibuya

Shibuya 109

By the second season Tokyo has run to plants, and SHIBUYA109 stands decayed. Kento Yamazaki said the Shibuya set was thick with moss and weeds, wrecked beyond anything real.

Minoru Takeyama designed it for Tokyu, and it opened in April 1979. It became known as a sanctuary for young women of the gyaru scene.

A fashion building across the street from Shibuya Station, at the fork of Dōgenzaka.

Where we read it
A glass-walled rooftop deck looking out over Tokyo under a blue sky
The rooftop SKY STAGE of Shibuya Scramble Square in November 2019, the month it opened Kakidai · CC BY-SA 4.0

Shibuya 2-chōme, above Shibuya Station

Shibuya Scramble Square and SHIBUYA SKY

The tower opened on 1 November 2019, while the first season was being filmed. It stands 229.71 metres to its spire, with SHIBUYA SKY on its roof.

It takes its name from the crossing, a few metres away.

The rooftop deck is ticketed by time slot; book on the official SHIBUYA SKY site.

Where we read it
Tokyu Hotels

Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyu

Shibuya, Tokyo

Inside Shibuya Mark City East, connected directly to Shibuya Station, a few minutes from Hachikō and the crossing. Dōgenzaka 1-12-2.

See the hotel
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Shibuya on foot, after dark

Shibuya, Tokyo

Live marketplace results for walking tours of Shibuya. None is built round the series; pick one that takes in Hachikō and the crossing.

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Season 2 · episode 1 and on

Closed roads.

The second season’s first chase needed whole avenues shut, and two cities outside Tokyo shut theirs. Toyama played Meiji-dōri; Nagoya closed its avenues in September 2021 for the run from the King of Spades.

  1. 4 days · 06:00–18:00 · 650 m

    Toyama City Hall’s tower behind autumn trees on a wide avenue
    Toyama City Hall on Jōshi Ōdori, November 2022; Shiokura Bridge crosses the Matsukawa beside it くろふね · CC BY 4.0

    Jōshi Ōdori by Toyama City Hall, Toyama

    Jōshi Ōdori and Shiokura Bridge

    Toyama’s main street played Shibuya’s Meiji-dōri in the first episode of the second season, for the gunfire, the car chase and the stunt driving. About 650 metres was closed from 6am to 6pm for four days.

    Arisu’s car crashes and is thrown off the road on Shiokura Bridge, over the Matsukawa beside Toyama City Hall.

    The street runs from Toyama Station through the centre, lined with government offices and shops.

    Toyama’s main street, a walk south from Toyama Station. Shiokura Bridge crosses the Matsukawa beside City Hall.

    Where we read it

  2. 3 days, then again a month later

    A broad pavement along Nishiki-dori in Nagoya, office towers and bare trees along the road
    Nishiki-dōri looking towards Sakae from the Fushimi crossroads, January 2015 そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Nishiki-dōri, Naka-ku, Nagoya

    Nishiki-dōri

    In the first episode of the second season, Arisu and the others flee the King of Spades down a six-lane avenue. It was Nishiki-dōri, closed for three days.

    It rained on the last day, so the road was closed again the following month.

    The big Nagoya shoot came in September 2021, about a year after the city was first asked.

    A public avenue through central Nagoya, past the Fushimi crossroads.

    Where we read it

  3. Reopened at 10:00

    A tree-lined avenue in Sakae, Nagoya, with cars and low office blocks
    Ōtsu-dōri in Sakae, August 2021, the month before the shoot Tomio344456 · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Ōtsu-dōri, Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya

    Minami-Ōtsu-dōri, Sakae

    For the same chase the production closed the longest central stretch of Minami-Ōtsu-dōri, for what Nagoya calls the biggest car chase in Japanese screen history.

    Buses were diverted, and the crew scrubbed tyre marks off the road until just before it reopened at 10am.

    Sakae’s main shopping avenue, south of Sakae Station.

    Where we read it

  4. After dark

    A long multi-storey car park with wavy white louvres along its face
    The municipal car park at Kinjō Pier, May 2022 Tomio344456 · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Nagoya City Kinjō-futō car park, Minato-ku, Nagoya

    Kinjō Pier car park

    In the fifth episode of the second season the car park is a game venue, where Arisu searches for Usagi. Its shape in the dark suited the series.

    A municipal car park at Kinjō Pier, at the end of the Aonami Line.

    Where we read it

Ōtsu · Lake Biwa · season 1, episodes 5–8

The lake and the prison.

The Beach, the hotel where the survivors gather, stands on the shore of Lake Biwa, 352 km from Shibuya. Its outside was filmed from a boat on the river that drains it.

A brick-coloured hotel wing round a courtyard garden with a willow, a spired tower above
Kayanoura in Ōtsu, on the shore of Lake Biwa, September 2011 Fumihiko Ueno · CC BY 3.0

Former Royal Oak Hotel Spa & Gardens, Kayanoura, Ōtsu, Shiga

The Beach: the former Royal Oak Hotel

The Beach, the resort hotel at the heart of the first season’s second half, is the former Royal Oak Hotel Spa & Gardens in Ōtsu. It is in every episode from five to eight, after eleven days of filming.

The hotel gave the production its full help. Inside, the crew filmed a chase, a lookout on the roof and a scene in one of the guest rooms.

No longer trading under that name. See it from the public lakeshore at Kayanoura.

Where we read it
A calm river between green wooded hills
The Seta River from the Minami-Ōtsu Ōhashi bridge, May 2020 運動会プロテインパワー · CC BY-SA 4.0

Seta River at Ōtsu, Shiga

The Seta River

The Beach’s outside was filmed from a houseboat on the Seta River, chartered from the Amisada restaurant, which runs sightseeing boats on it.

The Seta is the only river that flows out of Lake Biwa. Downstream it becomes the Uji and then the Yodo; it runs for 75 km.

Walk the banks in Ōtsu, or take a sightseeing boat on the river.

Where we read it
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Ōtsu and Lake Biwa

Ōtsu, Shiga

Live marketplace results for tours and cruises on Lake Biwa from Kyoto and Ōtsu. Check each for the southern shore, where the Beach stands and the Seta River leaves the lake.

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A red-brick Meiji building with a pointed central tower behind a clipped garden
The red-brick front of the former Nara Prison, March 2013 663highland · CC BY 2.5

18 Hannyaji-chō, Nara

The former Nara Prison

The second season’s Jack of Hearts game, dokubō (“the solitary cell”), was filmed at the former Nara Prison.

Finished in 1908 to a design by Yamashita Keijirō, it was one of the five great prisons of the Meiji era. It became an Important Cultural Property in February 2017 and closed that March.

Hoshino Resorts opened the Nara Prison Museum here on 27 April 2026. Its red-brick wings fan out from a centre so daylight reaches the ground floor.

HOSHINOYA Nara Prison, a hotel of 48 rooms each made by joining cells, was set to open on 25 June 2026.

Nara Prison Museum: 9am–5pm, last entry 4pm, with timed tickets booked in advance.

Where we read it
Hoshino Resorts

HOSHINOYA Nara Prison

Hannyaji-chō, Nara

A hotel of 48 rooms in the former Nara Prison, where the Jack of Hearts game was filmed. Each room joins several cells, under high ceilings and red brick.

Check availability
Hoshino Resorts

Nara Prison Museum

Hannyaji-chō, Nara · Timed tickets · book ahead

Open 9am–5pm, last entry 4pm, by timed ticket booked in advance; same-day tickets can sell out. The red-brick wings, the story of Meiji prison reform and a gallery in the old medical block.

Book a time

Arisu and Usagi

The last two on the crossing.

Kento Yamazaki, shoulder-length dark hair, in a grey jacket over a black top
Kento Yamazaki (Arisu) at a press conference for Kingdom in Singapore; the file is dated December 2020, the month the first season came out Girlmaking · CC BY-SA 4.0

Kento YamazakiRyōhei Arisu

Tao Tsuchiya in a red dress, smiling and waving on a racecourse lawn
Tao Tsuchiya (Usagi) at the Queen Elizabeth II Cup in November 2018, nine months before filming began Ogiyoshisan · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tao TsuchiyaYuzuha Usagi

Haro Aso, who drew the manga, says he built both leads from himself: Arisu from his own indecision at about twenty, Usagi from the part of him that stands on its own.

Shinsuke Sato directed all 22 episodes for Robot, with Yutaka Yamada’s music. The series won Best Direction, Best Cinematography for Taro Kawazu and Best Visual Effects at the Asian Academy Creative Awards.

Kento Yamazaki is shown in a file dated December 2020, the month the first season came out. Tao Tsuchiya is shown in November 2018, nine months before filming began: no free photograph of her from the run turned up.

Where we read it

Season 1 · 10 December 2020 · 8 episodes

  • Ashikaga Scramble City Studio
  • Hachikō and the Hachikō gate
  • The Beach: the former Royal Oak Hotel
  • The Seta River

Every crosswalk, mapped.

Where it is now

11 places you can visit, from Shibuya to Nara. The closed Ashikaga set is marked as a site you can only pass. The former hotel at Kayanoura, the Beach, is private ground, so it is named in the story above but not pinned.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open all the time. Walk over from the Hachikō exit of Shibuya Station; it is at its emptiest in the small hours.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. On the square outside the Hachikō exit, at the edge of the crossing. Open all the time.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A fashion building across the street from Shibuya Station, at the fork of Dōgenzaka.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The rooftop deck is ticketed by time slot; book on the official SHIBUYA SKY site.

  1. Shibuya Scramble Crossing at night with no one on its zebra stripes, lit towers behind
    The real crossing empty at about 2am on a weekday, December 2024 Syced · CC0

    In front of Shibuya Station, Shibuya, Tokyo

    Shibuya Scramble Crossing

    The series could not film on the crossing itself. Shinsuke Sato says it was impossible, so the crew shot in streets around it, some at dawn, steering passers-by out of shot.

    Open all the time. Walk over from the Hachikō exit of Shibuya Station; it is at its emptiest in the small hours.

    Where we read it
  2. The bronze statue of the dog Hachikō on its plinth beside an empty square
    Hachikō’s statue and an empty Hachikō Square on 19 April 2020 Asanagi · CC0

    Hachikō Square, Shibuya Station

    Hachikō and the Hachikō gate

    In the first episode Arisu and his friends duck into the toilets inside the Hachikō gate of Shibuya Station and come out into an empty city.

    On the square outside the Hachikō exit, at the edge of the crossing. Open all the time.

    Where we read it
  3. The silver cylindrical tower of Shibuya 109 with its red 109 sign, at a street corner
    Shibuya 109 at the top of the crossing, September 2015 そらみみ (Soramimi) · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Dōgenzaka 2-chōme, Shibuya

    Shibuya 109

    By the second season Tokyo has run to plants, and SHIBUYA109 stands decayed. Kento Yamazaki said the Shibuya set was thick with moss and weeds, wrecked beyond anything real.

    A fashion building across the street from Shibuya Station, at the fork of Dōgenzaka.

    Where we read it
  4. A glass-walled rooftop deck looking out over Tokyo under a blue sky
    The rooftop SKY STAGE of Shibuya Scramble Square in November 2019, the month it opened Kakidai · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Shibuya 2-chōme, above Shibuya Station

    Shibuya Scramble Square and SHIBUYA SKY

    The tower opened on 1 November 2019, while the first season was being filmed. It stands 229.71 metres to its spire, with SHIBUYA SKY on its roof.

    The rooftop deck is ticketed by time slot; book on the official SHIBUYA SKY site.

    Where we read it

Stay

Above the station, inside the prison.

A room in Shibuya Mark City, and a night in the Nara cells.

Tokyu Hotels

Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyu

Shibuya, Tokyo

Inside Shibuya Mark City East, connected directly to Shibuya Station, a few minutes from Hachikō and the crossing. Dōgenzaka 1-12-2.

See the hotel
Hoshino Resorts

HOSHINOYA Nara Prison

Hannyaji-chō, Nara

A hotel of 48 rooms in the former Nara Prison, where the Jack of Hearts game was filmed. Each room joins several cells, under high ceilings and red brick.

Check availability

Go there

On foot and by the lake.

Shibuya after dark, and Lake Biwa from Ōtsu.

Viator · Ad / affiliate

Shibuya on foot, after dark

Shibuya, Tokyo

Live marketplace results for walking tours of Shibuya. None is built round the series; pick one that takes in Hachikō and the crossing.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours
Viator · Ad / affiliate

Ōtsu and Lake Biwa

Ōtsu, Shiga

Live marketplace results for tours and cruises on Lake Biwa from Kyoto and Ōtsu. Check each for the southern shore, where the Beach stands and the Seta River leaves the lake.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

What’s on

Open daily.

The Nara Prison Museum, by timed ticket.

Hoshino Resorts

Nara Prison Museum

Hannyaji-chō, Nara · Timed tickets · book ahead

Open 9am–5pm, last entry 4pm, by timed ticket booked in advance; same-day tickets can sell out. The red-brick wings, the story of Meiji prison reform and a gallery in the old medical block.

Book a time

Take it home

The manga.

Haro Aso’s first volume, in English.

Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

Alice in Borderland, Vol. 1

Haro Aso (Viz Media)

The first volume of Haro Aso’s manga in English, where Arisu and two friends find Tokyo empty.

Find the book

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The file

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

12 of 12 places · 17 of 17 Moments

  • Shibuya Scramble Crossing

    In front of Shibuya Station, Shibuya, Tokyo

    • Nobody left

      Ryōhei Arisu and two friends find Tokyo empty and must survive games to stay alive.

    • A countdown crowd

      Sato pictures the crowds of a Shibuya countdown night all gone from Tokyo.

    • The real crossing empties

      Tokyo’s first state of emergency runs from 8 April 2020; photographs taken on 19 April show the crossing almost empty.

  • Hachikō and the Hachikō gate

    Hachikō Square, Shibuya Station

    • Through the Hachikō gate

      Arisu and his friends run into the toilets inside the Hachikō gate and come out to an empty city.

  • Shibuya 109

    Dōgenzaka 2-chōme, Shibuya

    • SHIBUYA109 in ruins

      In the second season Tokyo has run to plants and SHIBUYA109 stands decayed.

  • Shibuya Scramble Square and SHIBUYA SKY

    Shibuya 2-chōme, above Shibuya Station

    • A new tower

      Shibuya Scramble Square opens on 1 November 2019, during the filming of the first season.

  • Ashikaga Scramble City Studio

    Former Ashikaga racecourse, Nakagawa-chō, Ashikaga, Tochigi

    • The crossing, built

      The empty crossing is filmed on an outdoor set in Ashikaga, more than 100 km from Shibuya.

    • Four minutes, one take

      The run from the station toilets to the empty city is one take of more than four minutes, so everything in it had to be built.

    • The set closes

      The Ashikaga set holds a farewell open day on 9 November 2025 and closes on 31 December 2025.

  • Nishiki-dōri

    Nishiki-dōri, Naka-ku, Nagoya

    • Running from the King of Spades

      Arisu and the others flee the King of Spades down Nishiki-dōri, closed for three days.

  • Minami-Ōtsu-dōri, Sakae

    Ōtsu-dōri, Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya

    • The longest stretch

      The chase closes the longest central stretch of Minami-Ōtsu-dōri.

  • Kinjō Pier car park

    Nagoya City Kinjō-futō car park, Minato-ku, Nagoya

    • A venue in the dark

      The Kinjō Pier car park is a game venue where Arisu searches for Usagi.

  • Jōshi Ōdori and Shiokura Bridge

    Jōshi Ōdori by Toyama City Hall, Toyama

    • Meiji-dōri, in Toyama

      Jōshi Ōdori plays Shibuya’s Meiji-dōri for the car chase of the second season’s first episode.

    • Off the bridge

      Arisu’s car crashes and is thrown off the road on Shiokura Bridge.

  • The Beach: the former Royal Oak Hotel

    Former Royal Oak Hotel Spa & Gardens, Kayanoura, Ōtsu, Shiga

    • The Beach

      The former Royal Oak Hotel plays the Beach in episodes five to eight.

  • The Seta River

    Seta River at Ōtsu, Shiga

    • From the river

      The Beach’s outside is filmed from a houseboat on the Seta River.

  • The former Nara Prison

    18 Hannyaji-chō, Nara

    • The Jack of Hearts

      The dokubō game is filmed at the former Nara Prison.

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