16 November 2018
From Kanda to Harajuku
Walking across the city taking in views of the Tokyo tower
Days where I spend all day with my bum on a plane, bus, train, monorail etc means that by the time I get to my hotel I have a lot of walking to do to get to my daily goal. That goal at the moment is 33,333.33 recurring steps per day. You see November is a 30 day month and I want to get to a million steps in a month. My current record which was set earlier this year when I was in China is around 980k. I am well ahead now but know it will be harder once I am back in Australia to do 33k per day to get my stupid goal, so I have to work on getting far enough ahead on my stupid goal now to give me some buffer. You get the idea.
God was that boring.
So what to do then? Walk all the way across Tokyo from Kanda near Tokyo station to Harajuku near Shibuya station, via the Tokyo tower.
If I didnt need my steps I could have easily just stayed in Kanda, there is lots here. My journey however took me along the edge of the imperial palace, where there are big very new very fancy, too fancy for me shopping centres. But they do have Christmas decorations and public toilets.
I continued down this road until I got to the Tokyo tower, I had never actually been to it before. Tonight I just walked past, no time to go in, steps to get. The next destination was Roppongi, where I already went earlier in this trip where I again wondered if I was in Tokyo or a western country. Why do westerners all love Roppongi? I had not time to explore it properly to find out, need more steps, got to get my steps.
Then I was very surprised to find myself walking through an enormous cemetery, in central Tokyo. It seems like a strange place to put it.
From cemetery land it was just a few more thousand steps to get to Harajuku, not my favourite place, its mainly junk shops and white people taking photos not buying anything (I hate those idiots). To round off the evening I then decided to go to an Australian fast food Mexican style restaurant, Guzman Y Gomez, which I eat in Australia about once a week.
That all wasnt very exciting, but I got my steps.
I have not decided what I am doing tomorrow yet. The weather is supposed to be good, but it might rain early next week so I should probably make the most of tomorrow. Maybe I will just get on a train and head into the mountains and get off at a stop that seems interesting? Mountain roulette!
Cigarette shops are very different in Japan. Advertising is still everywhere. Big posters, billboards, bikini girls, vending machines.
Right near Kanda there is a cool walkway where you can set up a couple of long exposures like this one....
....and also this one.
This is one of the very new looking shopping centres near the imperial palace. The xmas lights show is all choreographed to music. The worst xmas song of all, the stupid one by Paul McCartney... having a wonderful Christmas time. The wrong Beatle got shot.
Ahh, here we have the Tokyo tower. Hard to believe I had never been here before. It is in a weird spot.
I took 2 photos of it, although I like the above one more.
These are actually real. I am used to seeing fake ones made out of timber.
The streets of Roppongi were busy and colorful. I saw a Russian family having their usual middle of the street screaming match. Which reminds me, I also passed the Russian embassy. I held my breath in case they had some Novichok brewing ready to give Shinzo Abe who is currently negotiating the disputed islands off the Northern coast with Putin.
Not Gucci, Prada. Looks like Gucci though.
This is Takeshita street. If you Australian and have been to Japan you have been here.
Here is the other end!
And finally, here is my spicy chicken burrito bowl, just like in Australia! The serving was smaller and they give you more of their fried tortilla things, but other than that, exactly the same! There were a lot of Australians in here too.