Trip 13 to Japan - October and November 2025 - Page 9

Here is the station at Yokosuka, not much to look at. There are actually 2 train lines to Yokosuka, this is the JR line which was more convenient from my side of Tokyo.

There are 2 submarines there, one identical behind the other. Both Japanese.

A gun from a ship that we probably can't talk about because it was when Japan was our enemy. Very near here is a French museum about how France taught Japan how to industrialise.

There is a rose garden, with very dark red almost black roses.

Apparently this is where everything happens, Dobuita street. It was very quiet and I think most places have closed down.

There is also a more hotel and department store centric area of the city.

Now for the Mikasa. It is in a park, but the park is all closed for renewal. Thankfully the ship was still open, but some of it is also being renewed. The 800 yen entry fee ($8) was on the expensive side.

There were a couple of other people onboard as well as the workers, but there were also plenty of opportunities for photos with no other people.

Gazing directly into the main gun.

There are 3 locations to steer the boat from. This is the armoured bridge. You would struggle to see where you are going through those tiny slits.

Everything is shiny and painted.

Here is the main bridge. You cannot just wander around it fully as it is roped off, which makes for some tricky photo angles. The funnels above are to yell orders via tubes.

I climbed up various ladders. I have some doubts they were original.

Hmm, there is a cafe onboard.

Below deck now, and most of it has been gutted. This is a Pearl Harbour simulator computer game.

The engines and gears are all gone, now it looks like a hospital.

Where the engines used to be is now a museum.

Along the sides they have preserved some of the original fit out, here is a toilet, hello again google image search.

There are at least 3 different dining room areas, one for the Admiral, one for the Captain, one for the other officers. A lot of space was reserved for dining. This proves its really a British ship.

More dining room. The cupboards are original apparently.

Once I got off again I realised it is not actually floating. It is not really a ship anymore.

A challenger appears.

Back at the mall now, and it is quite large and nautical themed.

There is a decent food court, I had a Poke bowl. Expensive because it had vegetables in it.

And for my final picture, a reminder of where I went, with the sign spelling it out.

Behold, Shinjuku that is not Kabukicho. The coloured neon archways are a relatively new addition. I wonder how many have been knocked down by advertising trucks. Also, someone move that van, its in my shot.

I spotted a model car shop. Specialising in just matchbox sized cars. These are all secondhand. This shop had 3 levels, and an annex store across the street.

This is the main street outside the non Kabukicho side of Shinjuku station. I like to stand in the middle of the road near buses.

Isetan looking good.

Good or bad?

Now for what I thought was piss alley but is actually Golden Gai. Almost exclusively for tourists these days as far as I can tell.

There are about 4 little alleys like this, the previously mentioned piss alley is north west of the station, where as Golden Gai is north east.

Here is my fantastic dinner, Lanzhou beef noodle, maybe the best version of it I have ever had.

There are a lot of interesting hotels around, even large ones like this have prices for rest or stay.

Tiny shrine amongst the chaos.

Is this where the robot restaurant was? Is that gone now?

Time to flee.

Back at Ochanomizu, and it has a great opportunity to get decapitated leaning over the tracks to take a cool photo as a train arrives.
Final reminder, tomorrow is a hiking day, the last one.

It takes between 90 minutes and 2 hours to get to Ikusabata station, depending on if you get a Chuo rapid or extra rapid, and which of the 3 branches of the Ome line it goes up or if you have to change trains somewhere. The station here is tiny.

Last time I was here, this little shop selling supplies for hikers was closed. Today it was open. I had stocked up on protein bars and isotonic water before getting here expecting it to be closed, but then I felt bad for the old guy running it so I bought an iced coffee, drank it in about 10 seconds in front of him, and handed him back the empty bottle. He looked concerned.

I think this is my 3rd time standing here waiting for a train to come over the bridge for a photo. My second time doing this hike, and one time I finished a different hike at this station. Still no train though.

Hmm, that's actually blue sky, but white in this photo.

The trail proper starts about 2km away from the station up a very nice road with little shrines. The sign here has a phone number to call if you want a bear delivered to make your hike more interesting.

The dam wall today was impressive.

Something about the light is making everything yellow.

Time to unleash the bear bell one last time and start clapping intermittently.

Tokyo is down there, but you cannot see it in this photo.

Despite this being a short hike with a giant shrine complex in the middle (coming up shortly), the trail is a proper trail, complete with trail furniture.

The stairs up to the shrine were very colourful.

No one here! I had the shrine area to myself.

I remembered this weird wall and bridge from last time, it does not seem to serve much purpose.

Although here is the bridge. Once you are on top of the wall the trees here are the most colourful, once again suggesting they are deliberately planted near shrines.

A view of where I was the day before yesterday (Mount Odake, I think, back centre).

This is the main summit of the day, Takamizu, but there is also Iwatekeishi and Sogaku.

The trail between the peaks is relatively flat.

Behold, summit number 2, Iwatekeishi. A better view of Tokyo below.

Nice view, some cloud coming, but also more blue sky.

The view gets better.

The day consisted of coloured leaves and logging regions, swapped out for each other regularly.

Bonus leaf and mountain pic.

I now entered a heavily logged area, Tokyo is down there. Not much smog today.

The logged area made for quick progress.

But then, some more rocks. One last chance to plummet on this trip. I did not plummet.

I think that's basically the way I had come up and around from.

I believe this is the summit of Mount Sogaku.

The path down was different to last time, but basically forest areas that will one day be logged.

Almost back, one last chance for the bears to spring a surprise.

They did not get me. Statistically, according to daily news articles, I should have been attacked by a bear 20x by now, but never even saw one. This is Sawai station, I sprinted to get here in time for a train, or else it was a 45 minute wait, so no chance for a stance photo.

Surprise Shotengai. East of Okachimachi some way after the highway overpass. Owl themed, named 'Satake', I have no idea if that means owl. Most things were closed.

They take xmas decorations seriously here. The bottom levels are shops of some kind, but above that I think is peoples homes.

Asakusa now, which I visited when I was in Tokyo 3.5 weeks ago. Here is a beef store with a shrine in the roof.

The Shotengei here were all a bit quiet.

Hello. Already closing at 6:30pm.

Been there, done that.

Time to cross the bridge in the direction of the NHK golden slug.

First view of skytree. Portrait orientation. This one was a long exposure balanced on a gate.

Second view of skytree. Portrait orientation. A canal, a train overpass, and restaurants under it.

Nearby was a shrine lit with black lights. Weird.

They went all in on lights in this shrine park.

Final photo of skytree. Portrait orientation. I think this is the street most people take a similar photo from, but generally back a bit further with some zoom. I have no zoom.

Here is the xmas market. The tape on the ground for crowd control at the eating stalls seems optimistic.

The food court is more my pace. Actually the food court is my favourite place of all. I have been to this one before.

I lined up to get some sort of ginger pork hot plate thing, but in front of me were 2 deaf people seemingly ordering for 50 or more deaf people who kept coming up to change their order with sign language. I think it might be some kind of deaf Olympics, as I saw Ukraine Deaflympics jackets on some teens earlier. Maybe junior deaf Olympics, i don't know. Anyway, I could not wait for an hour to order, so I changed stores and got hot soba with pork and green onions. Not bad.
No plan for tomorrow yet, research time.

There are a huge number of photos, too many. They might not all be straight. Descriptions will be brief.
This is the street from my hotel to Okachimachi station, my starting point. The steps and distance to the station are not included, but it is only one block.

Station 1 of 30 - Okachimachi. Not the main entrance. You will see this again at the end (if I make it).

I went anti clockwise, so headed north. Station 2 of 30, Ueno. A major station where Shinkansen trains heading north terminate.

Station 3 of 30 - Uguisudani. This one sounds like it belongs in India. You can go to the museums and zoo nearby from this station.

I had to cross the tracks a few times today. It was often not possible to walk alongside the tracks.

This is the first public toilet visit of the journey. I stopped documenting them after this one.

Station 4 of 30 - Nippori. Another major station with a couple of non JR lines transferring here too.

Station 5 of 30 - Nishi-Nippori. Not every station has a big entrance. I may have been on the lesser side too.

I am not entirely sure why, but a 2nd photo of Nishi-Nippori station. Maybe I was worried I would not take enough photos?

I then headed up hill to the highest point of the day, and then had to walk down and back up these stairs to get the station shot.

Station 6 of 30 - Tabata. I stopped here for a coffee.

Early on it was grey and cloudy, but as you can see, throughout the day the cloud disappeared.

Giant golf bowl. I thought I should take more photos of things that were not station signs.

Nice light for this photo at Komagome.

Station 7 of 30 - Komagome. It's black.

I had to wait to cross quite a lot of roads, this added substantial time to the day.

Oh look! A Yamanote train on the Yamanote line.

A little shopping street across from station 8 of 30 - Sugamo.

Station 9 of 30 - Otsuka. Hard to read the sign. A tram runs in front of the station.

There is the tram.

Station 10 of 30 - Ikebukuro, one of the bigger ones.

Nice trees, suitably yellow.

I got lost a few times trying to stick close to the tracks. If I did it again I would use more main roads between stations.

Station 11 of 30 - Mejiro. I bought a kiwi fruit juice from here.

Sections of road like this were the best, no traffic lights, no people in my way.

Crossing the first drain of the day!

Now for a few shots of Takadanobaba. A busy area that has become a lot busier in the last few years.

There are a few old shopping streets in the area.

Here is the station, 12 of 30 - Takadanobaba.

Things get even busier at the next station, 13 of 30 - Shin-Okuba.

Shin-Okuba is where Korea town is, which is super busy these days.

Shinjuku ahead.

Nearly at the busiest station in the world.

I decided to avoid people and the sun and go under the bulk of Shinjuku.

But I still came up for photo of station 14 of 30 - Shinjuku.

The front of the station, the overpass is off limits.

I walked along the elevated pedestrian areas past Times Square.

Station 15 of 30 - Yoyogi. Very close to Shinjuku.

The back streets of Yoyogi are little restaurant filled.

Station 16 of 30 - Harajuku. Apparently it has been redone? I could not tell.

Takeshita street. No time for me to go down there. Progress was slow due to too many people.

A nice photo ends part 1.

Heading towards Shibuya, very busy, very long traffic light cycles. Tower records is still going.

Station 17 of 30 - Shibuya is still a construction site. I managed to get lost and waste a lot of time here.

But first, a shot of 'the crossing'.

OK, this is another public toilet shot. Very orange.

Station 18 of 30 - Ebisu. We have now exited the popular areas.

Yebisu garden. I think I have been there once before, does that garage roof thing cover an old train line? This is not a station on the Yamanote line.

Station 19 of 30 - Meguro. Atre shops are the brand at most stations, probably owned by JR East.

Confirmation, another Yamanote train on the Yamanote line.

Dusk approaching.

Station 20 of 30 - Gotanda. Another black one.

A few different non JR trains overhead.

Station 21 of 30 - Osaki.

Time to cross another drain.

After Osaki, it is important to stay inside the train line or else it is a big loop around where all the trains park. If you do it right, you will soon be at station 22 of 30 - Shinagawa, and you will be on the home straight.

Shinagawa station itself is a big construction site, but the Shinagawa Prince hotel complex and theme park lives on.

This is the modernist part of town, that is now getting more moderner.

Station 23 of 30 - Takanawa Garden is the newest station on the line, opening in the last year or so.

A lot of big new buildings here, and many more under construction.

I will go that way I guess.

Tokyo tower in the distance right on dusk.

Station 24 of 30 - Tamachi.

The smoke company sponsors the smoking areas in Tokyo. This one is for vaping only.

A food truck park with it's own allegedly beloved mascot.

The station with the hardest name to type, station 25 of 30 Hamamatsucho.

Hamamatsucho has also been a construction site for years, it is where the airport monorail goes from.

A nice old building.

Heading back into the familiar busy areas, almost back at Shimbashi.

Some sort of eating festival blocking the view of the train out the front.

Station 26 of 30 - Shimbashi station.

Nearby is station 27 of 30 - Yurakucho. It is all busy areas along here.

Lots of illuminations of course.

Now for the main station, Tokyo, which is station 28 of 30. The main station but Shinjuku is the busiest.

Outside of Tokyo station.

Now the very familiar to me station 29 of 30 - Kanda.

The streets around Kanda station are restaurant filled.

Station 30 of 30 is most familiar to many people, Akihabara.

No time for Yodobashi, I am almost back!

Here it is, back to the start, Okachimachi. But this is not the entrance I started from.

The street my station is on is now properly dark.

And here it is, after over 10 hours, back to the start.

To celebrate, soup curry! Delicious.
It took me forever to type all this out, zooming in on the station names.
Tomorrow I fly home, but not until 4:40pm.