On Tuesday, I decided to jump on the subway and check out some of Tokyo. It turned out to be a very interesting day.
Tokyo Station
Tokyo station itself it probably a bit over an hour away from me on the trains. To say it is impressive would be an understatement. This place is absolutely huge. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that the main building has been restored since the war.
As the station is right in the city, there are many skyscrapers rising above it. It is in close walking distance to the Imperial palace, and a lot of other sites. The Tokyo train system (including the subway, ground, elevated, shinkansen (bullet train), etc.) is extremely efficiant. You could get virtually everywhere in Japan with them, although they are fairly expensive when compaired with other countries (I'm thinking specifically about Korea).
Tokyo station does not mearly consist of the elegant older building. It's quite modern as well. There are many restaurants, shops, stalls, etc. within it. You could probably spend a few hours just checking out the place, if you so desired.
Downtown Tokyo
To me, it feels like all of Tokyo is downtown Tokyo. There are buildings as far as the eye can see, and then many eyes past that. This group of photos is all from the area around Tokyo Station.
This is in front of the grounds of the Imperial Palace. You can see Tokyo Tower in the distance.
This is just an example of a street.
No explaination necessary.
This is looking down the street in front of the Imperial Palace. Again, you can see Tokyo Tower in the distance.
I thought this was an impressive view of some skyline from the Palace grounds.
This is another view from the same spot.
Here's a better view leading up to the tower.
This is known as 'Fountain Park.'
The Imperial Palace
The Palace area is quite impressive, although you cannot enter the area right around it. The public is allowed access to the east gardens though. I suppose that Emperor Akihito and his wife reside here.
The bridge here is awesome looking.
This is a classic close view of a bridge in front of the palace.
This is a second bridge, which is beyond the one if the previous picture.
This moat surrounds the Palace grounds, complete with a steep wall on the palace side.
I wonder how his guys fighting skills are? He was kind and said 'konichiwa' to me though.
As you might suspect, I like taking pictures of the tower.
Just a nice view of the palace wall.
On the corners of the walls around most Japanese castles, are guard towers such as this one.
This was taken from within the east gardens. Hey there birdie!
I just thought this was a nice picture. There is a public restroom near here. I watched a young boy go in, and exclaim "hwa-jung-shil!," the Korean word for restroom. I said 'annyong' to him, and 'annyong hasaeyo' (Korean words for hello) to his father. The kid stared at me in utter amazement, and his father walked a few steps before realized what I said to him. He then turned around and just stared at me in disbelief. "How could this guy know that we are Korean, and then say hello to us in our own language?", I'm guessing they were thinking. I told them that I lived in Ulsan, in my broken Korean. The father seemed happy, and the kid was extactic; jumping around and waving at me. It really made my day; watching the boy act so excited.
Here's an awesome picture of the blossums on a plum tree. Soon, the cheery trees (sakura) will blossum.
Nice flowers, eh?
What about these ones?
I have no idea what these buildings are for, but I took a photo anyway.
Another picture of the moat.
There are fish in most every pond in this country. I like to put my hand out over the water, and watch the fish poke their heads up when they see it. Many tourists like to feed the fish, so like Pavlov's dog, when they see a human hand over them, their body is tuned to expect food. It's entertaining to watch a couple dozen fish all poke their heads above the water when I wave my hand. I feel like a magician!
This sure is pretty.
Tokyo is warm enough to have cool trees like this one.
I'm wondering if these are embassy houses, government houses, or what.
Here's another one of the houses on the Palace grounds.
A nice large plum tree.
This was an interesting building. It was so interesting that...
...these people were painting pictures of it!
Many years ago, there stood a castle here. Then it burned down.
A park.
A gate.
Here's a nice picture of the moat.
What's this lighthouse doing here; right outside of the gates?
The Budokan
This is probably one of the most famous arenas in the world. It's famous for hosting some music concerts (Bob Dylan, Cheap Trick and Dream Theater have all produced live albums from here, and many other famous bands have played here (think The Beatles and The Rolling Stones). Also, many sporting events are commonly held here, like martial arts tournaments, mixed martial arts fighting (UFC, Pride, K1, etc.), and pro wrestling. There was a judo tournament going on here when I took this picture.
Yasakuni ShrineYasakuni Shine has been in the news a lot lately. It is a war shine, used to honour (or worship) dead Japanese 'war heros' from the past. Included are those who have been recongized by the world as war criminals. Routinely, the Japanese Prime Minister (currently Junichiro Koizumi) has made a point of visiting this place, much to the dismay and disgust of many countries. Some countries, such as Korea and China, have been very public about their agony over the PM visiting this place. It is seen as venerating these war criminals when the Prime Minister comes here, and this has affected international relations between Japan and it's former enemies. There is also a war museum on site, which sugar coats some of Japan's questionable history (it's explaination of the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910 is a good example of this).
Here's a large ttori, leading to the shrine.
These trees make the place appear very solemn at this time of year, due to their lack of leaves.
There are a number of good stalls, picnic tables and guys playing some music in the grounds.
This guy was making some of my favorite food; okonomiyaki. Mmmmmmmmmmm... I make sure to eat some.
This lady was making octopus dumplings.
There's the main gate, leading to the shrine.
One of the large buildings on the grounds.
Yasakuni Shrine.
Nice picture.
Here's another view of the shrine.
A nice close up of it.
This is inside the war museum. I took this before noticing the 'no cameras' sign.
A cool looking old locomotive.
Some howitzers.
Leaving the shrine.
Tokyo Tower
Next, I headed off to check out Tokyo Tower. The Eiffel Tower is Paris must've been modelled after it... ;)
It sure does look impressive though. It's 33 feet higher than the tower in Paris. The Japanese seem to like to do things a little bigger than everyone else. Currently, there's another tower in the works; due to be completed in 2010. It is planned to reach 600 metres. That would make it the tallest free-standing structure in the world; putting the CN Tower in Toronto at number two.
Of course, I had to go up the tower. Here's some of the breathtaking scenes that I saw. You can see Tokyo Bay here.
These building really look cool, I think.
Kabuki Theater
The Kabuki Theater is located in the popular Ginza shopping district. Since this is Tokyo, that means there are many, many neon lights.
Here's the famous theater. Kabuki is a kind of Japanese play. There is lots of white make-up involved in this, as well as traditional Japanese music and guys yelling Japanese things. It was very surreal and weird to me, but also very interesting and entertaining. I'd like to go again sometime. I rented a radio and earphone, which gave me an English explaination of what was going on.
A closer view of it.
Here's a picture that I took. Since you're not supposed to take pictures, I at least turned my flash off. As a result, I could not get a decent photo.
So I just took this one from Wikipedia.org.
