29 October 2012
The great walk
Its the last day of my weekend in Tokyo. My flight isnt until 8pm in the evening. So theres no excuse not to walk a great distance.
If you enjoy pictures of city scapes, you will enjoy todays photos, otherwise dont even bother reading.
All in all I walked pretty much from 7:30AM until 3:30PM, with 2 x 20 minute subway rides and 10 minutes to sit and eat lunch.
The goal was to get tired enough so that I fall fast asleep on the plane and experience teleportation back to Sydney.
Right now as I am typing this I am on the bus back to Narita airport, trying to see the screen in the glaring sun. The weather today was absolutley superb.
I have no doubt in my mind that Tokyo is the most modern city on earth, and should be used as a template for civilization. That doesnt necessarily make it the best place to visit as a tourist.
If you want historic sites and wilderness and remoteness and peace and quiet, its not for you. If you want to see what urban planning taken to the extreme can produce, come to Tokyo.
Too bad it could all dissappear into the sea in the next great earthquake any minute now. Hopefully not right now as the bus is going over a rather massive bridge.
Dawn out my hotel room window. I awoke bright and early and packed my bags. Quite the logistical challenge in my small room, its not possible to fully open my suitcase and stand on the floor at the same time.
I had to open my suitcase and lay on the bed and lower things into it.
The sun is glaring on Kabuchiko. As I awoke it was grey and raining. But if I craned my neck out the window I could see blue sky approaching. Within 10 minutes the sky was completely clear.
Crossing the river on the way to the sky tree.
I am not exactly sure whats going on here.
The skytree, worlds second tallest structure. I couldnt go up today, didnt want to waste 3 hours in line. It doesnt actually look that tall to me?
Photo taken as proof this was a business trip. Note this is a community drop off point for bagged waste.
This is an auto panorama of about 20 photos. I think the curve is done like that because the camera assumes I was going left to right, not from ground to sky.
It is sort of out in the middle of nowhere, and sits on a giant shopping mall. I was there too early to go inside the mall.
Nearby is the Sensoji temple in Asakusa. I have been before. Its very modern and its main purpose is to sell plastic crap to tourists as theres a big market and amusement park all the way around it.
Communal stagnant water drinking.
Last photo of a temple for this trip.
Nearby past the tourist market thats made to look old but is new is a network of covered shopping streets, selling mainly shoes.
Japanese people love shoes, ABC marts are 10 floor shoe stores. Trucks drive around covered in neon advertising the release date of the latest adidas pump gel whatever.
Next stop, Ueno. This is looking back to where I had come. Ueno is a large station with all the museums and zoo around it. No time for looking in museums today I had more walking to do.
And on that note, I didnt visit a single museum the entire time I was here, I guess the closest to a museum was the Toyota historic car thing.
Nearby Ueno is what is considered the last open air market in Tokyo. It has maybe 20 shops selling fish and fruit in the street. Its a shame you cant see a pig get butchered like in Taiwan or buy the penis of various creatures to improve your virility like in mainland China.
The seafood places werent selling whale, I heard there is no whale catch this year?
Next stop on the great walk is Akihabara, been here many times. The maid girls seem to run away now when you point a camera at them. Which makes it all the more fun because Japanese girls cant walk properly, so they especially cant run in heels.
Most of Akihabara is places like this, selling light switches, light globes, fuses and wire. Thats not to say there isnt giant electronics shops, porn stores, arcades and maid cafes.
Looking back towards Akihabara, this guy was taking a photo so I did too. The buildings are cartoonishly colorful.
The only skyscraper for miles around is in the Kanda region. I was here around noon and the torrent of office workers coming out for lunch was too much to bare. They are all dressed identically and look mad as hell.
A dragon sculpture lives under this bridge.
The standard shot of Ginza. Looking particularly nice today bathed in bright sunshine. I wasnt dressed to have sushi for $500, plus those places were full of Russians with bags full of handbags.
Instead I headed into the basement of Mitsukoshi and bought a bento...
Then took it up onto the roof to eat, where they have provided a nice garden. I cant think of a nicer meal experience for $5. And neither can all the mothers with prams hanging out on the roof.
After that, I still walked for hours but was in a bit of a daze. So the last photo is me typing this right now!