In the previous two posts, I wrote a lot about what I experienced in Tokyo. So in this post I'll show you some of the visual highlights instead of writing a whole lot more. Enjoy!
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| Senso-ji temple was near my hostel, in Asakusa. The temple was in my back when I took this picture. It shows the (huge) shopping street leading up to the temple, nearly empty because it was late and rainy. |
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| In contrast, this is the street leading up to the Meiji shrine where Emperor Meiji and his wife are enshrined. This one was nearly empty because it was early in the day. You can see how the street is just being cleaned of dead leaves. |
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| Inside the Meiji shrine, a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony was going on. Actually, this wasn't the only one: I caught glimpses of three ceremonies in the short time I spent here. |
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| Also in the Meiji shrine, there was an Ikebana exhibition - I don't remember which school though. |
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| I took this snapshot in Yoyogi park - and not for the scenic beauty, in this case, but rather for the two runners in the center. Have a close look! They appear to be holding hands, but in fact they are both holding on to a rubber band. The guy on the left has "guide" written on his shirt, while the girl's shirt says "blind runner". I've never seen this before, but thought is was really amazing! |
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| Ginza = skyscrapers + designer stores. And a huge pedestrian zone on select sundays :) |
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| The imperial palace gardens are basically a huge green oasis of peace and quiet in the middle of Tokyo's skyscrapers. |
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| In Yasukuni-jinja, about two and a half million people are enshrined, mostly people who were killed in some war. There are war criminals among them, creating a bit of a controversy especially when politicians come to visit the shrine. |
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| I found this vending machine near a pond on the grounds of Yasukuni-jinja. Can you guess what you can buy there? Of course - it's carp food for the huge carps in the pond. |
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| Mori Art Museum is located on the 53rd floor of a building in Roppongi. The museum is open till late, so I took the opportunity to take in Tokyo by night before I went in. The red lights on top of many buildings were constantly flashing on and off - I guess that's because of the airport that is located in this direction. |
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| The National Museum in Ueno. Besides hosting some great exhibits, the building and its interior are not too shabby, either. |
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| Among other exibits, the advertising museum has one panel with products from every decade since the 1940s. It's very interesting to see how the products themselves, and also their design and packaging, changed over the years. |
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| This store sells Shoju. No sake, no other beverages... just hundreds of different varietes of Shoju. I was quite impressed! |
