Category: Photo Content

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Tokyo Tower

I was reading the International Herald Tribune and found an interesting article on Tokyo Tower. In it, a professor emeritus of history at Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University, Masanori Nakamura, states, “Tokyo Tower stood for a dream of the future, but that dream is gone. Tokyo Tower offers no more dreams, just as Japan has no more dreams.” Ouch! I’m not sure if I completely disagree, but I don’t completely agree either.

This article, coupled with a request to include more pictures, made me think about some Tokyo Tower pictures I’ve had sitting around in my archives.

A color shot of Tokyo Tower from the base

 

Climbing the tower to the first observatory level,

Inside the structure

 

The elevator is the very idea of modern,

The elevator to the next level

 

The view from the top is impressive,

The roads make a star shape

 

 

I also had some black and white pictures I shot on film (remember film?) last year.

An uninspired tower photo,

The tower, in black and white

 

A parking area under the tower for tour buses,

Bus parking

 

Resting quietly. Everyone else is inside,

Resting

 

There is a mini-amusement park on the way up. Why?

A very small merry-go-round

 

The elves are a little scary.

Why?

 

This character must be dangerous as it is fenced in. Is this Thomas?

Caution: Character may bite

 

Of course, Pikachu is obligatory.

A very large Pikachu.

 

 

Finally, who can resist their lovable mascots? You be the judge of what they look like. I have my ideas. Visit the Tokyo Tower website here to learn about the hobbies of the Noppon twins (the mascots are twin brothers – who knows why).

Will children have long term issues after meeting these mascots?

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Let there be light

Tomo came down to Nagoya for a short weekend and we decided to go to the Kobe ルミナリエ (illumination, or Christmas lights). Tomo has been before, and we thought it would be fun to run down there on the train, catch the lights, and head back to Nagoya because we had some things we were trying to accomplish. It seems everyone else was trying to visit the illumination as well because the queue was incredibly long.

Here the crowd sweeps back on itself.

Oh, the humanity.

And here it just seems to go on, and on, and on.

Oh, the humanity.

And the sign really says about 90 minutes from here. And I do believe it was close to 90 minutes from that point.

Only 90 minutes from here

 

Fortunately, along the way, there was a little bit of a pre-show with well lit streets and department stores.

Daimaru department store in Motomachi

 

Only 90 minutes from here

We were fortunate to even get a little bit of Engrish along the way. Maybe Flench is a more appropriate title instead of English. I’ve never been to a place called “Tooth Tooth” in France. Tomo noted that it looked more like a “Salon Dethe” instead of “Salon de The.” I guess you have to watch your spaces.

What kind of Patisserie? What kind of Cafe?

 

We finally got there though, and the show was pretty spectacular.

 

The view is better up high

I found the glow from all the cameras to be a show itself. And it seems most of those are from cell phones. Japanese LOVE cell phone cameras!

The electronic glow

 

Tomo didn’t mind taking pictures, nor did other visitors.

Tomo taking a picture

 

Just the right picture

 

I enjoyed the reflection off the Louis Vuitton shop.

Louis Vuitton

 

Here is what everyone came for:

ルミナリエ

 

ルミナリエ

 

ルミナリエ

 

ルミナリエ

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Why not Kyoto?

After I bought my new Macbook, I suddenly had a laptop surplus. I happened to be chatting to a friend, expressing a little buyer’s remorse, when he suggested I sell the computer to him so he could give it to his sister for college. Hey, that’s a good idea! She lives in Kyoto so I had a great excuse to travel to Kyoto this weekend. In addition, a colleague suggested that we drive there this weekend as well. So my plans converged and Saturday was designated as a trip to Kyoto.

We really didn’t have plans – just playing it by ear. As my colleague suggested, it is the difference of being tourists and living here. Just do what we wanted to do. We met Reina at Kyoto Station to “deliver the goods” and have lunch. I had never met her, so it was a little awkward. “Hey, here’s a really nice computer that is a little old. I hope it works for you.”

We were hoping to have a little bit of fall colors in Kyoto. Last time I was in Kyoto was in November, 2003 (I think). The colors were great – I think it was Thanksgiving Day or a weekend before or after Thanksgiving. This time, we were a BIT to early. However, there were still some good colors. We went on a scenic drive and got a few good shots.

One view along the scenic route in Kyoto

 

Another view along the scenic route in Kyoto

 

After leaving the scenic route we were trying to get to Kinkakuji. Unfortunately, it was getting late and the traffic was bad. As we were heading to Kinkakuji, we passed Ryoanji. Since I was the only one who had been there, we decided to stop. It is one of my favorite places in Kyoto, so I was thrilled to stop again. Ryoanji is famous for its Zen rock garden and one of my favorite black and white photos is from Ryoanji. I snapped a few more pictures at Ryoanji. The property has a lake, and I snapped a few pictures as we walked around it. It was getting dark, so the pictures are a little dark as well.

One of my favorite black and white photos

 

The Zen garden at Ryoanji

 

The Zen garden at Ryoanji

 

Reflections on the lake at Ryoanji

 

After Ryoanji, we decided to cross Kyoto to go around Higashiyama. We wanted to go to an okonomiyaki restaurant in the Sanjo / Gion area of Kyoto for modanyaki. Kyoto traffic was remarkably bad. Really, really bad. We were also were planning to go to Kiyomizudera temple. Every fall, the temple and the trees are lit. Since this was the first weekend, it was crazy busy. We made it to the area, parked the car, walked to dinner (and bumped into another colleague in the crowd who seemed to find the coincident unremarkable) and enjoyed the scrumptious okonomiyaki (Kansai style). We then walked to Kiyomizudera. It was late but still crowded. My pictures were really disappointing. I was frustrated by the crowd and not paying enough attention so I technically wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be. Oh well.

A Zen garden we stumbled upon

 

On the way to Kiyomizudera

 

Kyoto at night from Kiyomizudera

 

It was great though to be in Kyoto and made me realize how lucky I am to be here. I finally got home around midnight. Definitely a long day.