View from Hotel window - Shinjuku
View from Hotel Window - Shinjuku
First pic of Day 1 - Traditional Japanese Breakfast at Hotel
Cute building with cat statue
Yes, that's a McDonald's poster, advertising a double quarter pounder with egg and cheese! Tamago = egg
Intersection in Shinjuku showing the sheer amount of advertising visible on all of the buildings
The entrance to a garden in Shinjuku, called Shinjuku-Gyoen Garden. Compared to most American cities Tokyo has little park or green space.
We figured these to be signs for special purpose restrooms, but were amazed at the sheer number of qualifiers to those!! Not just handicapped accessible, that's for sure! This one was at the garden in Shinjuku
Fantastic pavilion in park in Shinjuku
Different view of the same pavillion
This must be a heck of a sight when these water lilies start blooming.
Another view of the same lilies
Rose garden in the shinjuku garden
Another view of the rose garden
These were interesting little roses in the rose garden. There were other colors as well, but I liked the pink ones.
National Noh Theater, we didn't go to a Noh play, but were still hoping to go when we took this. It's located near the Shinjuku park
Entrance gates to the Noh Theater
Steve with his new hat near drink vending machines in Sendagaya near Shinjuku - notice the motorcycles in the alley. Parking of cars and motorcycles tends to be "whereever we can find room", you'd see cars parked at funny angles next to houses in teensy driveways that were so small you weren't sure they were driveways originally. And these drink machines were EVERYWHERE. People don't walk with their drinks, however - you gulp it down there by the machine and put the can in the recycle bin.
Shinjuku intersection
Shinjuku intersection - notice the giant tv screen!
Same intersection - notice the crowds!! The short yellow sign below the traffic light was a tunnel across a roadway - we took this picture so we could find our way back to the tunnel
Shinjuku at night
Same place
Same image as before - but notice the neon sign has changed. These advertising lights were amazingly bright, and would constantly change and flash.
Day 2 - This is a sushi restaurant in the Fish Market. We had an excellent lunch there, of Chirashi, which is basically a bowl of various types of sushi over rice.
The Fish market - they also had a huge number of shops for knives, tableware, ceramic dishes, shoes, egg, seaweed, and fish, of course. 90% of the fish eaten in Tokyo goes through this market. This was about 10 am, so the wholesale markets for the actual fish was over with for the day (that's no longer publicly viewable - you need to be purchasing it for a business now to see the early morning sales).
These little trucks were constantly whizzing by through the fish market, carrying loads through. Note that they're steering with a huge wheel in the front
Pedestrian overpass with a great view into Ginza area, walking to Ginza from Fish Market
Another view. Notice the cars are different than what we see here in the US.
Outdoor escalator down from pedestrian overpass. Notice the policeman going down it right in front of us. Great view from that escalator!!
Flowers in front of Sony building in Ginza, walking to subway
View of Department stores across the street from Sony building. Notice another outdoor tv! We needed to cross here to get to Ginza station.
Inside of Tokyo railway station - there was a netting across the inside to keep the ceiling from falling on people below. A couple of days later, they began working on this dome to fix it up. Good thing, too, because this is the railway station that people use in order to visit the Imperial Palace
Another view of Tokyo station from inside, standing under dome
Outside of Tokyo railway station, as we headed over to the Imperial Palace for a tour
Another view of the station - this was also a hotel, originally.
The moat outside of the Imperial Palace grounds. Note that until the last two to three hundred years that the imperial palace was in Kyoto, what's known as the Imperial Palace in Tokyo is where the Shogunate (military leaders) who ran Japan were located previously. When the Emporer regained control from the Shogunate, this is where they moved the official palace to.
Same view. I never could get a picture with BOTH swans with their heads out of the water.
Water Park outside of the palace grounds.
This was one of the gates into the Palace grounds, the main one used for tours.
Wall inside of grounds. Notice that some rocks have symbols carved into them - these rocks had to be brought in from various feudal lords, so they marked the rocks they brought in.
Closeup of symbol
Other view of the wall, with some of the other tour group members. The tour was a schedule tour - only two per day, and we had to reserve a spot on the tour several days before
The best preserved of the guard houses
Different view of the same guardhouse
Same - notice, it looks the same on each side. That was by design
The tour guide, with megaphone
Close up of guardhouse roof
This is the imperial household agency building, the people that run the grounds. The emporer stayed here temporarily during reconstruction work on the palace after WWII
We never did hear about why the fire truck came there suddenly. But it seemed to be a routine thing - no emergency
Group of government officials of unknown type who walked into the grounds to get their picture taken in front of the palace
Same
Side view of Imperial palace - the sculpture in front was supposed to represent a pinecone
Main entrance to Imperial palace, with our tour guide
Close up of balcony used for public appearances
Another guardhouse, the wrought iron bridge goes over a moat that they wouldn't let us stop on to take pictures from. The tour turned around shortly after this.
Close up of iron work
Trees on palace grounds. We noticed a lot of trees propped up this way. This group, they were working on - they trim the pine needles to shape the branches.
BIG crows
Same gate as before, different view
Inside of gate
Further close up of gate interior
Another interior view
Tour group exiting. Tour took about an hour and a half. Picture of the symbols on the roof. The circles show the seal of the royal family
East Gardens gate. The east gardens are open to the public and aren't part of the tour
This was originally one of the roof decorations. The building it was on was destroyed at some point by fire/earthquake.
Two cats looking at crow resting on the bicycle handlebars at a rest area in the East gardens
Same picture
Mary in East Gardens. Great view, huh? This was the observatory area.
Another view from the observatory
Walk down from observatory. Notice the sculpture/fountain.
Same, but you can see a bit more of the water
This appears to be a dogwood type of tree.
Close up of flowers on tree
Slightly better picture
East Garden trellises - they use bamboo everywhere for this sort of trellis/plant support
Bamboo growing in East Garden. This was not the largest stand of bamboo we saw, but this was the first one we encountered
Music building in East Gardens. Relatively recent building built at request of empress.
Same - it was a very pretty building with tile mosaics on each wall
Closeup
Closeup of fern growing out of the wall
Moat in east gardens
These trees appeared to be birch trees but the bark was so dark, we weren't sure what they are
Same tree
Closeup of leaves
Another view of east gardens
Traditional garden area inside East Garden
Staff working on a bridge in traditional garden area
This was a view of the waterfall - which you can't see very well in this picture - but we liked the way the trees looked over the water
Closer view of waterfall, with stone lantern
View from opposite angle - from above waterfall
Another view from near the waterfall
One of the garden paths
This was an odd little fountain tucked away under an overhang of rocks
Garden path, crossing a little stream
One of the lights in the East Garden
Entrance gate to East Garden
Entrance to East Garden, as we were exiting. Note the bamboo railing
Waterpark again
Waterpark fountains
stepping stones in the fountain
The park was closing for the day, so the big fountains were turned off
Look at the spray from the fountains!! Looks like fog!
A group of children being brought through the park. Those little hats were cute.
Small shrine on the way to Tokyo Tower
Statue at foot of Tokyo Tower - the orange metalwork is one of the legs
View from Tokyo Tower
View from Tokyo Tower - this was a shrine near the tower
Rainbow Bridge, as seen from the Tokyo Tower
Steve's feet. This panel is a "view through" area where you can look straight down!!!
While waiting for the elevator up to the top viewing level (there were two), we noticed this scaffolding. Currently, they are re-painting the tower, using wood scaffolding.
Same - wood scaffolding. The blue netting is something we saw on a number of construction projects, presumably to prevent anything from falling onto passersby.
View of the Rainbow Bridge from the upper deck of Tokyo Tower, the "Special Observatory." Rainbow bridge was patterned after the Golden Gate bridge.
Another view
Same shrine as before, only higher!! Notice the lights coming on down below - we visited right before the sun set, so it was already getting a bit dark
Another view of the scaffolding used for the repainting of the tower.
View of Shinjuku from the Tokyo Tower
Building with an interesting shape
Shinjuku
Look at all the lights!!
Another view of Shinjuku at dusk
We took several pictures of this view, as the buildings off in the distance just kept getting easier to see as darkness fell, and our hotel is probably one of the buildings you see far away.
This is a picture of the lighted Ferris wheel - the green circle in the center.
BLURRY
The swirling green and purple is again the ferris wheel - it cycles through a number of colors and patterns.
Better picture of view from Tokyo tower
Now the Ferris wheel is blue swirls!!
And Turquoise. Also, now you can see the Rainbow Bridge all lit up as well
Shinjuku! Again!
See - the darker it got, the better we could see the Shinjuku buildings.
Green Ferris wheel!
And blue again
Slightly blurry
Overall view of skyline from Tokyo Tower
Interior of Tokyo tower - I was trying to show a larger view of the skyline
Same, but now I've also got a reflection from one of the monitor screens
Slightly better view of the bright lights
Now the Ferris wheel is multicolored!! Yes, I liked taking pictures of it!!
This guy was singing in the lower observation deck of the Tokyo Tower - they have a restaurant/bar in there, and he was singing the Carpenter's Song "Close to you" and not doing a half bad job of it.
View from lower observation deck at night
Hello Kitty bus that was parked outside of the Tokyo Tower
View from the ground. Tokyo Tower was built as a replica of the Eiffel Tower.
Slightly blurry view from the ground
Same - I was trying to get a picture of the lights from the elevator going up and down the tower
School kids who came to see the Hello Kitty bus
They're assembling to take a picture
The kids getting their picture taken
This is BLURRY, but there was a giant Hello Kitty doll in the front seat that you can't see from here.
This is again from below, but this is going straight up the leg of the tower - there's tile around the base of the leg, and the reflection you see there is the lights being reflected off the tiles.
Dog statue at base of the tower leg
Day 3 - Yanaka cemetery - it was raining that day, and we had to walk through the cemetary to get to Yanaka, a section of Tokyo that survived the firebombing.
Tomb area of the last shogunate family in Yanaka
This is a wall in the Yanaka area that dates back to the Edo period
Same wall in Yanaka.... we found this wall down a little alleyway, it was marked in our guidebook, but it's just a little wall in a neighborhood., with only a small sign at the end.
There's the sign at the end of the wall, saying what it is. This alley was pretty typical - just a little road through the buildings.
A local artist's sculpture museum, but it was closed the day we went by-Yanaka
The gate to the museum/gallery
One of the shrines in Yakana. There were many shrines here (both Shinto and Buddhist). This one is Shinto.
A tea shop in Yanaka - as it was raining that day, everyone put their umbrellas in the little stand by the pole in front, and when we walked in, the salesperson gave us a cup of hot tea to drink. Very nice on such a cold wet day!
Volkswagen bus? Or is it?-Yanaka
Another view of the bus - it was in it's owner's garage, so I had to sneak my pictures fast. What a little bus!!
Statue we saw towering in the neighborhood - we never did find a way to see it up close-a Yanaka Buddhist shrine.
One of the buldings (shrine?) in Yanaka. Notice the shiny details on the roof
Small memorial statues on a roadside (Buddist?) shrine. The little red hats have a signficance, but I don't really know what, exactly. But we saw little red knitted hats at other shrines, and these red cloth hats at this one. The toy attached to the one is also important - often, you'd see pinwheels, although again, I'm not sure what the meaning was, exactly.
A large shrine in Asakusa, this is one of the main ones of Tokyo, one of the ones pictured in the news whenever there's a large festival going on. Here, you can see the large paper latern inside the gate, as well as part of the five-storied pagoda.
Again, at the large shrine in Asakusa
Five story pagoda and the shrine gate from the side
Buddhist statues at the shrine
Another statue
Better view of the shrine gate
KISS poster in shopping area one of Steve's co-workers should find this funny.
View from shrine gate to shopping area outside of the shrine in Asakusa
Day 4 - Akihabara - Electric town
Blurry picture of the crowd in Akihabara
Better picture of all the people and neon in Akihabara
Day 5 - We were waiting at the Isetan department store in Shinjuku for it to open, so we could go shopping for a kimono. This group was outside, starting a religious parade.
The person in front of the parade was carrying this lantern
Better view, as he's getting ready to start
Same - but better.
This is a portable shrine that they're carrying.
Better picture of the portable shrine.
Second day spent at Akihabara - look at that crowd!! The street was blocked off to be pedestrian only
The Akihabara crowds and the overload of information on every building. The shops were multilevel - some shops will take several floors (some up to 7 floors), others will take just one of many, and then have a sign across that level's windows.
Crowd at Akhihabara
Same, from outside of pedestrian area
Street performer in Ahkihabara
Same - also notice the guy in the pikachu costume
blurry closeup
same
closeup - look at that costume on the guy!
fairly good closeup. This may seem like a really strange costume, but we saw other, MORE frilly costumes on people, including bouffant hairdo's.
Best closeup. The gal in the pink Chinese dress also performed later.
Akhihabara buildings
street crowds
Hawker for a maid cafe. Maid cafe's are cafes where the wait staff all dress up in maid costumes. The uniform they use depends on the restaurant - this one was pretty typical for the people handing out ad leaflets. Judging by the ads we were handed, the food's expensive and bland.
This was SUPPOSED to be a picture of the gal from the maid cafe, but I got a local instead.
She's passing out leaflets.
This one was pretty clear - notice she's got a stuffed animal in the pocket of her uniform? There's a bizarre tendency to use CUTE images in all advertising - whether it's a little green frog or a little blue cartoon guy, there's usually a cutesy character in there somewhere, in just about all advertising (including TV).
Street performers in Ahkihabara.
Another maid cafe person
The gal on the right is from a maid cafe, but the person on the left in the red kimono type outfit is something else. She's a singer, who was playing one of her albums and signing autographs. We bought a CD from her and she signed it for us.
Closeup of the singer and the maid
Another KISS poster for the benefit of one of Steve's co-workers. These were just too funny to not take pictures of.
Blurry picture from a mall balcony in Shinjuku call Times Square when we went looking for a place to eat - we ended up at the hotel restaurant that night, as all of the mall restaurants had LONG lines.
Same - but that is Tokyo tower in the distance
Day 6 - Outskirts of Tokyo - we're headed for Mt. Mitake. We are on the Ome train line.
Getting even further out
Train station at Mt. Mitake
View of the landscape
Sign at Mt. Mitake train station
Cablecar up the mountain. The cable car station was a 10 minute (once we found the bus stop) from the rail station.
Slightly less blurry cablecar picture
View from cablecar - it was pretty steep!!
View from inside cablecar
View from lookout area at the top of the cablecar route
Same looking down toward Mitake railway station.
We used this map quite a bit while walking to the Komadori Sanso inn - thankfully, it was clear enough to read from the camera LCD
View from Mt. Mitake
Steve in our room at Komadori Sanso. Komadori Sanso originally opened in 1776.
Ceiling detail
Beds - you sleep on thin futons, thankfully there were plenty of blankets - it gets COLD in the mountains at night!!
Darn, this is blurry - this is the doorway to our room. Note the paper screen door.
Mt. Mitake map - English version. It's a bit outdated compared to the Kanji version, we suspect.
Day 7 - A map in Kanji
History of the area
Pigeon at the inn
Front gate to the Komadori Sanso inn. Notice the car in front - we got a lift down to the cablecar in that on our last day. Anything bigger than that wouldn't fit through the narrow roads through the area.
Mt. Mitake Shrine entrance
Same, but also pictured here is what appears to be a drinking fountain - people walking up the hill to the shrine would stop and get a drink from there, using the little dippers you see there. It may also have a purification ritual tie to it, but of course, we don't know for sure.
statue in the shrine
View down the steps
Detail of a carving on the shrine gate
One of the little shrine buildings we saw on the way to the main shrine.
View from the shrine.
Hiking trail information signs. We took this picture and other like it just in case later signs only displayed the Kanji names. The Mt. Hinode trail only had Kanji for a good portion of the way.
Similar hiking trail signs
View from the trail
View
Picture of the shrine at Mt. Mitake. It was about a 15 minute walk up many stairs from the initial gate.
adjoining view
Another shrine building. They were doing some work on this building
Detail on carvings. The gold is apparently real gold as the manager of the Komadori Sanso (a priest at the shrine) had night watch duty one night according to his blog. From someone else blog Komadori Sanso has been in his wife's family for 27 generations.
Dog statue
Prayer collection box at shrine
We're not sure about this, exactly, but it seems to be a place where prayers can be left
Another view of the shrine
Roof detail of a shrine building
View from shrine building
Another board where prayers??? are left
Building where you could buy the little signs to put on the board, as well as souvenirs and good luck charms
Another part of the shrine, in an area we couldn't go into
Same board as before
Another view of shrine
Signboard outside shrine
Another building in the shrine grounds
We're not sure what was on these signs, either
More buildings in shrine area
Another walkway/road down the hill from the shrine
Nice view! Notice the interesting way the hillside is being used to grow plants
Pretty flower we saw growing. It LOOKED like some sort of day lily by the leaves and stems
closer on day lily
This is the best closeup of the day lily flower - it was a very light purple
view
nice view
Resting area along trail
View along trail
Nice view, huh?
This shows how STEEP this mountain is!!!
Closeup of flower
Not sure what kind of plant this is
From the trail
Not that you can see it here, but there's moss hanging from this tree
Huge rock - this was listed on the map as the tengu-iwa rock, which is a type of "goblin"
neat little stream
Steve, about to cross a little bridge.... this one, I was not about to cross, as it didn't seem too sturdy - but I managed to cross on rocks without getting my feet wet.
Fuzzy rocks
Not just fuzzy rocks, BLOOMING fuzzy rocks
Detail of blooming moss
Rocks that formed stepping stones across the stream
View of stream and the "Rock Garden"
Waterfall
Waterfall again
Closeup of waterfall
Shrine rocks at waterfall
Black and white butterfly
Another shot of the butterfly
View along the trail
Gate and trail
From the front of the Komadori Sanso
Purple flowers on tree along trail up Mt. Hinode
Detail of flowers
View of Mt. Mitake from neighboring Mt. Hinode
The red mountain name is the one we were on, Mt. Hinode, the one just below it to the left is Mt. Mitake.
Another view of Mt. Mitake from Mt. Hinode
Tulip tree
Peak marker for Mt Hinode
This was a map of the mountain areas. Trails are in green. The area to the left is where we were, Mt. Hinode (902 meters), the peak to the right is Mt. Mitake (929 meters tall) - you can tell, because of the cablecar track - that goes up toward Mitake. You can see here, too, that there IS a road up Mt. Mitake, but it's pretty steep.
The full map up at the top of Mt. Hinode
Got a little closer in
The view from Mt. Hinode of Tokyo
Another view from the top of Mt. Hinode
The view again, but this time including the rocks, etc at the top.
View in another direction - this was the only viewing direction obscured by trees
Again, the view towards Tokyo
Little pavilion at the top of Mt. Hinode. There were all sorts of little blue ceramic tile bits all over the ground here - perhaps the previous roof??
A pretty tree at the top of Mt. Hinode
Marker post at the top of Mt. Hinode
The path up to the peak Mt. Hinode
Flowers on the way up.
More flowers!
Gorgeous!!
Hostas growing AS weeds, not just like weeds!!
Space heater in our room at Komadori Sanso
Doorway of Komadori Sanso room
Detail of doorway - neat floor, huh? As you can see, we wore slippers around the house, but not into our room - the Japanese prefer to leave shoes at the front door, and wear slippers indoors, but if you have tatami mats on the floors, it's socks and barefeet only, and our room had those.
Dining room at Komadori Sanso. The tatami mats on the floor are the reason slippers aren't worn in here - no shoes, just either socks or barefoot.
sliding shoji doors in the dining room
Various things at the end of the dining room - a huge drum, a piano, the family shrine, and the space heater, among other things.
The very start of dinner - they fed us VERY well. The little teapots are filled with veggies and meat, to make a kind of stew. They also served us fish, bamboo rice, veggies, pickles, miso soup and tempura.
Another shot of that end of the dining room
Steve - but a bit blurry
Name tag on table - the second day we were there, a few more guests arrived, so the dining room had a few more of us
Day 8 - Building that looks like Atari symbol in Shinjuku.
Day 9 - This is the statue in honor of Hachiko, an akita dog who used to wait at this station every day for his owner to come home from work. Sadly, one day the dog's owner died while away from home. The dog still came to the station every day for the next ten years, waiting for his owner to come home.
Slightly better picture of the Hachiko statue. The original statue was created in 1934, a year before the dog died himself. That one was melted down during the 40's during the war for the metal, but then in 1948, they commissioned with the original artist's son to recreate the statue.
Shibuya intersection. Interestingly, they stop the cars in all directions, everyone walks, then traffic resumes.
Another angle of the intersection. This was taken from the second floor of a Starbuck's cofee house.
This delivery company was all over Tokyo. We figure the logo is supposed to suggest "we'll treat your package with all the care of a mother cat with her kittens".
Giant watch ad. Note - another outdoor tv for advertising.
Shinabashi railway station
Shiodome large shoppinh office area clock. We were passing through this area from Shimbashi station.
Outdoor pedestrian walkway above the traffic. It was like a giant maze!! I felt like it was actually an experiment on humans - there were mall entrances as the reward at the end, after all!!
Entrance to another park, this one was near the fish market, called the Hama-Rikyu Garden
Irises in the Hama-Rikyu garden
Close up
Another iris in the Hama-Rikyu garden
We have NO IDEA what kind of plant this is. But it's taller than Steve. Perhaps it's name is Audrey?
Peony garden, but no peonies right now....
Peony garden in Hama-Rikyu. Interesting trellis structure
The water in this park is all seawater - they have a sluice gate that opens to the sea to regulate the water level. Apparently there's frequently ocean fish in the pond. According to the history on the park, instead of being a controlled pond, it had originally been a tidal pool area until a family member of a Shogun filled it in during the 1650's. It then became a residence of the shogun until the Meji Restoration, where it became the property of the Imperial family. In 1945, it was donated by the Imperial family to the City of Tokyo. Only after that did it become publicly accessible.
Another picture of the same spot. Many of these water courses were build through the park because it had been used for duck hunting by the shogunate. Permanent duck blinds were built in the 1700's, that are still on the grounds today.
Another view in the park.
View of the sea/boat area visible from the park
Rainbow bridge
View of Tokyo Tower from the park. This view is going to be obscured by the building being constructed. There is a plan to build a new Tokyo tower in about 10 years.
closer view of Tokyo tower
View of two of the permanent duck blinds built into the grounds. We went into the one on the left - it faces a narrow waterway to bring the ducks closer in
Pretty view
Nice little island between the bridges
Another small bridge in the park
One of a number of little mounds in the park, near the drink vending machine.
The tea house at the garden. There were people there participating in a traditional tea ceremony. I had intended to sign us up for that at a different park, but we weren't sure what day we'd go to the park and they wanted 3 days notice. We didn't know this garden had one and it appeared that we missed the start by a few minutes.
Ok, this is one you can't see very well.... keep going.
Had to gamma-correct for you to see it.... this is a memorial created to console the spirits of all the ducks that were killed here. It's tucked under the trees, so it's a bit hard to photograph.
Plaque explaining the duck memorial
Slightly better view of plaque
Statue in the park
And the explanation of the statue
Neat looking tree - the branches were so sparse of leaves until the very tips of the branches
Blurry picture of the 300 year old pine tree
Better pic
And we're getting closer still
Neat tree, huh?
The explanation plaque. Notice all those logs used to prop up the tree branches?
This one was blurry
This tree apparently needs a LOT of support to hold it up
Further back in the tree
View from the side - you can see the tree trunk now.
Same but blurry
There we go! No blur on this one
View from a walk way above as we walk back to Shimbashi station
Shimbashi station, we're heading to Ueno to visit the National Musseum.
Our train, as it pulls in to the station
In Ueno, there's a science museum as well as art museums, etc. We found this whale statue particularly ironic. We arrived too late to go to the National Museum. It was our last non-travel day in Tokyo and Museums closed at 4:30 or 5:00pm on weekdays.
Fountain in Ueno park
Even though you can't see it well here, this gal had her dog up on the railing, viewing the fountain - it actually looked like it liked being up there. It was a shiba inu, and what you can't see is that she also had another dog, who appeared to look like a cream-colored dachshund!!
The fountain shifted in what it displayed - different jets going at different times.
Another picture of the gal. See - the dog is still on the railing
OK, this is blurry, but I kept it because it illustrates something odd we found with Japan - we saw NO mixed breed dogs. These were a border collie and what was probably a old english sheepdog.
There was also a terrier and a shiba inu with them.
Shiba inu dog
Trying to get a better pic of the shiba - they seemed taller there than the shiba inu's I've seen here in the US. This was the breed we saw the most of in Japan. We also saw some schnauzers, and a westie.
As the group is leaving.... I really wanted a good pic of that border collie and that shiba.
Off they go.
Statue in the park in Ueno
Tried to get a good pic of the explanation
Slightly better - basically, this says he was a prince who formed what later became the Japanese Red Cross.
The Yamanote line train. We took this train line all over through Tokyo. It forms a circle around the city, and hits many of the main stations, and you can transfer to other lines to go out to other areas at those stations. So it was generally a matter of taking the Yamanote line train to whatever station we needed to pick up the other train line to get us where we were going. It was remarkably easy to get around - as you can see, the train destination info is on the train in english. And there's monitors inside that show info on what the next stop is, etc., in both English and Japanese. There is an automated voice that also speaks in English. This car is relatively uncrowded.
Hotel Lobby. I have NO IDEA why there's trees in the lobby. They weren't there the day we came in, but they were there the day we left.
Hotel lobby - again, this wasn't there until the day we left, but it was still pretty neat.
Slightly better - somehow, the wood all looks red in these pictures, but it really was a light tan, just a bit darker than balsa wood.
Display of some neat wood screens
This was the toilet in the hotel room. No, it wasn't a bizarrely fancy hotel. These toilets can be found all over the place - the inn at Mt. Mitake even has them, I've seen them at department store bathrooms. This is not the traditional Japanese toilet which we also saw in several public restrooms (along with western style toilets). The Japanese toilet (and other Asian toilets) look like a urinal that is rotated so the long side is on the floor.
This is something we liked a lot - a hot water heater for making tea. It kept the water hot all day, so you could make a cup of tea any time you wanted.
Day 10 - The inside of the limosine bus on the way to the airport to leave. I had to take a picture of this - there are doilies on the headrests!!!
Government building in Tokyo - one of the towers of this building is the tallest building in Japan
See - WAY up there
This little scooter is of a type we saw all over town. A scooter with an area for cargo on the back, with a big huge windshield. Sometimes, they had coolers attached at the back. Notice the large number of bicycles parked along with motorcycles - we saw whole PARKING GARAGES full of bicycles, as they're far more maneuverable than cars in Tokyo, particularly in the side streets.
Little vans and trucks. There were an astounding number of small vehicles like this.
Keio department store. We spent a LOT of time getting food here. The department stores in Japan often have a grocery store in the bottom levels, along with an area of reasonably priced prepared foods. So you can go in and buy a hot meal on your way home from work. They had TONS of food, and fantastic desserts available at these department stores.
Closer view
We have no idea what these odd round things are sticking out of the ground.... air ventilation for the railway/subway station below??
The Keio sign also says "Shinjuku station", as the railway station is attached to the department store. So you can go into the department store, buy what you want, then exit through the train station. In rainy weather, you don't even need to go outside.
Tried to get a shot of the crowd. Seems you can wear just about anything you want in Japan, everything from suits to formal kimono to weird getups on the teenagers. And yes, that's an umbrella the one person is holding - on sunny days, gals can be seen carrying parasols. I saw a number of women toting around TWO umbrellas - one that was a bit frilly for sun, one clearly for rain.
little bitty cargo truck. We saw a lot of these in town
See - multi-floor advertising. If we'd known Japanese, it would have been information overload.
This was taken so you could see the streetsigns. Notice, the streetsign for Nishishinjuku 1-chome goes in both directions. That's because it's not a streetsign - most streets don't have names. Instead, the name goes to the ward or city block area. Then the buildings are numbered based on which ones were built first. So good luck finding an address based on an address in a phone book - it would have been pretty much impossible for us without a city atlas we had purchased in Madison (though we hardly navigated by address).
Streetsign again - the one that was obscured a bit in the previous photo can be read better here
Narrow streets - we were able to use this citibank's ATM's - had english text and everything.
You can see a bit of a smaller railway station
This building was covered in this shiny blue tile that I only saw on a few buildings in Tokyo. It's pretty striking. I had hoped they would have had laundry hanging out, but you can't see it here - most people don't have dryers, and you'll see laundry hanging on poles on their balcony, with futon bedding flopped over the balcony rail to air out.
We think these red triangles on some buildings are perhaps an emergency exit - there's handles on the outside of the window frame.
Weird building.
Tried to get a photo of Tokyo Tower as we left
There we go
This is one of two ferris wheels - not sure which one was the one that they light up every night.
Same ferris wheel and the bridge. We THINK this is the one that gets lit up - you could see it near the bridge from Tokyo Tower
Bridge
Tokyo, as seen from the Rainbow bridge
Shipyards and fish market - the white building with the red writing on top is the Fish Market
Double-decker road ways
I can't remember what this building is, but I thought it looked neat
This is the second ferris wheel.
Better
not too good
Road construction. I only took this because of the blue netting. Many of the construction projects we saw had this blue netting on it, I guess to protect people from flying debris.
Space is so tight, they built some building UNDER overpasses
Nice pic of ferris wheel
Drove by it pretty close!!
Ok - it's blurred, but you get the idea. That's laundry hanging out at many of the apartments.
Tokyo Disney was just a stone's throw away, but we didn't really want to go there. We did pass it on the way out to the airport, though.
Disney castle, visible in the distance
Horse race track
Rice paddies
