Japan for the 9th time - Oct and Nov 2019 - Page 9

Well, rain was forecast. It rained just before dawn. It was not raining now on the streets of Kasai, and soon after, clear blue blinding sky again.

Around Kasai station there is a giant fan, which had Koreans fleeing in terror of fan death.

These are the two full train carriages in the metro museum. The one on the right is a full replica of the first ever subway train to operate in Tokyo.

The inside is the same as the subway car I rode to the museum on, except its pink. Why are they not pink anymore? I scoured for info. All I could find was paragraphs of information on the silver seat fabric they used to use to designate seating for old people and what they reused it as when they phased it out. It is quite weird which bits of the museum had extensive English translations and which did not.

There are not many trains, so here is a bonus shot of the trains they do have. The entry fee to this place is only $2.50.

Japan had elephants? I thought it might have been a translation error, so I quickly searched, and yes, Japan used to have a native elephant species!

I got 9 out of 9.

My head is way too big to fit through the hole.

The school kids in matching colored mullet hats were aggressively preventing me from getting a turn on the train simulator.

Even Rod Stewart is jealous of this model railway. He has been in the news recently because he proudly allowed reporters to see his own awesome model railway he has been building for 50 years.

Red sultana drink? It debuts today, and is available across Tokyo in huge displays such as this. I think its a can of red wine?

Its my old car! In yellow. I wish mine was yellow instead of boring silver, but it is a GT3 MkII club sport just like mine.

Here is one of the alleyways of Takanodababa, a fun place name to say. featuring identically dressed business men.

Takanodababa is a busy place, multiple rail lines go through here.

The walk back towards my hotel was blinding! Japanese roads are very reflective, especially the paint.

Clear Pepsi Max (NEX). Great stuff. Lacking in potassium though.

This is Toyama park. It is just a neighborhood park, but quite large.

My journey back towards my hotel took me through Koreatown again, which was already quite busy in the early afternoon. Thats all for now.

Right by my hotel, food stalls have set up in the street. Mainly serving octopus balls and twisted potato on a stick. The idea of standing and eating in the street never appeals to me.

Just a random street in Shinjuku. Tonights pics will feature many random pics of streets.

I believe this is called the Togo shrine. Somewhere along the road between Yoyogi and Harajuku. Hand held 1/10 of a second.

The main street through Harajuku. A nice area, lots of places to eat and buy handbags.

Takeshita dori, everyone knows the name is amusing by now. I think this street has gone through a bit of a decline in popularity.

Some people will already know, but you will never see the name Samsung in Japan. All the phones are only branded Galaxy. Here is the Galaxy shop.

I think this was a live radio broadcast. It is all men pressed against the glass. The glass also has a big no photo sign. I took a photo.

I did not take a shot of 'the crossing', so here is a non the crossing photo of Shibuya. It is a different crossing from the crossing.

There was some sort of event occurring that required people to line up around the entire block of the Parco store. The picture does not really capture it, but there were at least a thousand people in a line for something. The only thing advertised on the windows was an Akira drawing art gallery, but that was not due to open until the weekend.

Another shot of the Shibuya streets. It is not Halloween, but look closely and you can see a bald Hare Krishna posing for photos with her ass hanging out of her gown.

OH BOY, MORE RAMEN! Tonights ramen was not red or spicy. To make up for the lack of chilli I got the combo with gyoza. I just throw these into the soup. It is probably bad etiquette to do that.

Last pic tonight, going past the robot cafe disco mardis gras whatever it is restaurant thing. It is the brightest lights in town, not really conveyed well in this photo. It can be seen from space.

Here is Sagamiko station. It is one stop down the Chuo line on the local service from where all the rapid services stop at Takao. You cannot really walk that one stop, as it goes through a long tunnel.

Sagamiko is a popular little town, lots of little stores, and holiday homes.

A glass cube pyramid welcomes me to the vicinity of the lake.

The lake had lots of debris floating in it, but it was a nice blue color.

Behold, the lake, more lake to come.

More lake.

The lake is created by a dam, which looks like it might be a small hydroelectric powerplant.

After giving up on trail starting point #1, I walked around the edge of the lake on this nice path, that included a tunnel with a view.

It is an attractive lake.

The lakeside town of Sagamiko.

Landslide #1. That brought an end to this path. Soon after I ended up back on a road looking for start point #3.

Start point #3, time to ignore signs.

What? Actually this was right near a destroyed shrine. The lower part I could not get near, but there were big rocks where there once was a shrine.

Not a lot of view today, this one is back towards Tokyo.

Landslide #2. I had to climb up this one! It wasnt too bad really.

The upper shrine was still in tact.

More of the view in the same direction from further up.

I waited all day for a clear view from above of the lake. It never came. This is about as good as it got.

Landslide #3. I just skipped across this one and up the side of it.

If you look to the right of the green peak in the middle, you can see the white peak of Fuji in the cloud in the distance. I have climbed some of those peaks in front of Fuji, Mount Tanzawa being one of them, from where I took my best ever Fuji photos.

After the summit, the path down started off like a nice roadway. It did not last.

There was a little viewing platform for the lake view. Except there is no view.

GOD DAMN IT! I had to ignore the rope and warnings again.

Boulders. Fun times climbing over them.

Landslide #4. This one I had to descend down and through. It took a while!

The end of my landsliffic descent.

After about 4.5 hours I arrived at a camp site. It is now cut off as all the roads are closed to get here. The gravel road up to it is now a small ravine.

Roadblocks. I climbed over a few of them.

Eventually I got back beyond the damaged area. All day I could hear terrible music. Look across the valley and up the hill and you will see a theme park. The music from here was very loud.

My path back to the station was the same, so heres a few same same lake shots.

Last shot of the lake. I crossed that bridge, the dam is just the other side of it.

After my last hike, it was just me at the lonely station.

Behold my shoes, purchased new for this trip. They have survived the trip. Altra Superior 3.5, designed for people with very wide feet. No toe blow out, no sidewall blow out. They will soon be cleaned and put in the cupboard until my next trip. My feet are in good as new condition still. All hail Altra and the natural foot shape zero drop revolution or something. They should pay me, or at least sell their shoes in Australia!

Flipping things on its head tonight. Dinner is the first photo. Lots of green onions Okonomiyaki.

Here is a shot on the western side of Shinjuku station. The side without department stores.

I like this shot of the bus departure area without any buses.

This is BIC Camera, but more interestingly, the stadium seating on the right is all for people to sit and play Pokemon Go. It seems to be very popular with senior citizens. Seats mostly empty tonight due to the sudden cold I suspect.

Random neon on the west side.

I took a shot of this street from street level, now here it is from above.

On my way back to my hotel, I ran into a local festival around a shrine. People carry around straw / floral offerings of some kind.

The food stalls I posted last night are for the local shrine festival, there are a lot more tonight. I was trapped in a wave of people, getting in the way taking photos.

Today I went to Narita airport on the N'ex train. The last few times I took the Kesei Skyliner. Nex is a lot slower than the Skyliner and runs only once every 90 minutes from Shinjuku. It runs more often from Tokyo but getting across town with bags on the Chuo rapid line would be painful, so I timed it for a Shinjuku Nex.

Inside of the N'ex. I hate typing that apostrophe.

Narita airport is still horrible. So dated. And so many lines. This is the line before entering the customs area. Just where they check you have a boarding pass. I got to skip the lines beyond this point, but they need to sort it out. The whole place still has no carpet, just concrete, for years now!

I did however find the tunnel that connects a couple of the terminal tentacles together. This was the highlight of my airport visit at Narita. I walked along it twice. No time to straighten this pic!

Last photo of this trip, my A330 on the ground at a very smoky hazy polluted Hong Kong.