Tokyo 2007
It's that time again! I finally got around to hosting all the Tokyo pics, so here are some of the best. There aren't as many this year, as a lot of it I covered last year.
Captions come under the image, and all images are clickable for a higher res version.
Back in Harajuku, a fun place for all. It was pretty early on a weekday, so the streets weren't crowded at all.
A little later in the day, it starts to get more crowded. On the weekends it's a sea of people. There's a lot of small, unique stores in the area. A lot of them have awesome names, which you will soon see
Nothing like a price down sale at "Store my Ducks" to get things going on a trip
We didn't go in here, so I don't know exactly what it is. It could be a store shaped like a cube, or it could sell cubes, or it could have nothing to do with the word "cubic" at all.
Hip hop style clothing is very popular with 14 year old Japanese boys
Careful, this toilet packs a punch
Bruce just couldn't hold it anymore
Kiddyland is a huge toy store. This is a couple days before valentines day, hence all the valentines day stuff at the top of the store. An interesting note is that they say "Happy Valentine!". Apparently in Japan valentines day is when women give gifts to men. There is another day later where the men give gifts to women. There was chocolate EVERYWHERE. Some of the big malls (when I say big, I mean 11 total floors) had converted entire floors to selling nothing but chocolate. They were packed with people buying it as fast as they could serve people
$13 drink at a nice cafe in a stylish area.
Very cool new mall in Tokyo (Omote Sando Hills). This one is basically a giant spiral, so you can walk around the walkway and go to every floor without having to take an escalator or elevator.
I had never noticed a gas station in Tokyo before, and maybe the reason why is that the pumps are all hanging from the ceiling.
This was one section of an arcade that was nothing but photo booths that were geared towards young girls. What you see in the picture is about 1/5th of what was actually there
One of the busiest intersections in the world
Hot sake served in a little wooden box that you pour into the small cup
An ice cream burger sounds awesome
On Sunday morning, we went to one of the temples that has a market. There are always lots of fun festivities going on at the temples during the weekends. This guy has a big hammer thing that they pound on rice to make it really thick. They keep smashing it until it's like one giant firm ball.
People would come and try their hand at it as well
The end result! the mass is taken apart into smaller balls which are then coated in... something. The left one is red bean (I'm pretty sure), but not sure exactly on the other 2 kinds. They're all good. It's kind of like a really chewy sweet thing.
To drink, you get a fermented rice drink. It's thick, warm, and has a very strong sweet, but almost pungent taste. I really liked it, but Zhen hates it
In Harajuku, there's a bridge where a lot of people come out for cosplay. It's pretty interesting to see.
The two kinds of toilet in Japan. Going into nearly any bathroom, you will see either the squat toilet, which is recessed into the ground, or you will get the super advanced Toto that washes you, etc.
Ginza during the day. It was a holiday so the road was closed and made into a pedestrian zone.
Most restaurants in Japan have very realistic molds of their food outside so you can see exactly what you'd be getting.
The Tokyo City view is high up in one of the largest buildings in Tokyo. This was just one angle on a cloudy day. Rather than posting all the pics, it's basically 360 degrees of this as far as the eye can see
Anime museum in Akihabara. At least, that's what it's called. It was basically a gift shop. The building it's in is apparently where a ton of anime is made.
Cool lightbulb store
Cool appliance store
One of our favorite restaurants in Tokyo. They do a huge full meal, as you are about to see
If you missed it last year, you swirl the raw beef in the hot water to cook it, then dip it in a sauce. Totally awesome
The roof of one of the big department stores has a little arcade on the top. There's a little train ride that is covered up because it's raining. It also has a pet store ($2000-$3000 dollar cats and dogs)
View from our hotel room at sunset. The buildings are way brighter, I'm just not a very good photographer
Tokyo City View, but at night this time. It's MUCH more impressive at night (obviously). Tokyo is amazing at night, and this is the best place I've found to see it all.
This guy was sitting there carving the figures you see all around him
We didn't eat here, but we should have.
Ice cream! Everyone loves ice cream! In case you can't read, here's the flavors:
"Cherry Blossoms, Sake Kasu, Carrot, Roast Rice, ???, Pumpkin, Green Tea"
Ok, that's pretty normal except for roast rice, sake, and carrot... now the second row:
"Fermented Soybeans, Salt, Vanilla, Purple Potato, Red Bean Jam, Ashitada Leaf, Ginger"
Nothing says delicious like a scoop of Fermented Soybeans on a scoop of Salt.
Ueno Park. It was too early for Cherry Blossoms to bloom, so we were surprised to see this tree blooming when all the others hadn't yet. It turns out it's actually a plum tree, but it's still cool looking anyway.
The End
That's it! Leave comments!
Captions come under the image, and all images are clickable for a higher res version.
Back in Harajuku, a fun place for all. It was pretty early on a weekday, so the streets weren't crowded at all.
A little later in the day, it starts to get more crowded. On the weekends it's a sea of people. There's a lot of small, unique stores in the area. A lot of them have awesome names, which you will soon see
Nothing like a price down sale at "Store my Ducks" to get things going on a trip
We didn't go in here, so I don't know exactly what it is. It could be a store shaped like a cube, or it could sell cubes, or it could have nothing to do with the word "cubic" at all.
Hip hop style clothing is very popular with 14 year old Japanese boys
Careful, this toilet packs a punch
Bruce just couldn't hold it anymore
Kiddyland is a huge toy store. This is a couple days before valentines day, hence all the valentines day stuff at the top of the store. An interesting note is that they say "Happy Valentine!". Apparently in Japan valentines day is when women give gifts to men. There is another day later where the men give gifts to women. There was chocolate EVERYWHERE. Some of the big malls (when I say big, I mean 11 total floors) had converted entire floors to selling nothing but chocolate. They were packed with people buying it as fast as they could serve people
$13 drink at a nice cafe in a stylish area.
Very cool new mall in Tokyo (Omote Sando Hills). This one is basically a giant spiral, so you can walk around the walkway and go to every floor without having to take an escalator or elevator.
I had never noticed a gas station in Tokyo before, and maybe the reason why is that the pumps are all hanging from the ceiling.
This was one section of an arcade that was nothing but photo booths that were geared towards young girls. What you see in the picture is about 1/5th of what was actually there
One of the busiest intersections in the world
Hot sake served in a little wooden box that you pour into the small cup
An ice cream burger sounds awesome
On Sunday morning, we went to one of the temples that has a market. There are always lots of fun festivities going on at the temples during the weekends. This guy has a big hammer thing that they pound on rice to make it really thick. They keep smashing it until it's like one giant firm ball.
People would come and try their hand at it as well
The end result! the mass is taken apart into smaller balls which are then coated in... something. The left one is red bean (I'm pretty sure), but not sure exactly on the other 2 kinds. They're all good. It's kind of like a really chewy sweet thing.
To drink, you get a fermented rice drink. It's thick, warm, and has a very strong sweet, but almost pungent taste. I really liked it, but Zhen hates it
In Harajuku, there's a bridge where a lot of people come out for cosplay. It's pretty interesting to see.
The two kinds of toilet in Japan. Going into nearly any bathroom, you will see either the squat toilet, which is recessed into the ground, or you will get the super advanced Toto that washes you, etc.
Ginza during the day. It was a holiday so the road was closed and made into a pedestrian zone.
Most restaurants in Japan have very realistic molds of their food outside so you can see exactly what you'd be getting.
The Tokyo City view is high up in one of the largest buildings in Tokyo. This was just one angle on a cloudy day. Rather than posting all the pics, it's basically 360 degrees of this as far as the eye can see
Anime museum in Akihabara. At least, that's what it's called. It was basically a gift shop. The building it's in is apparently where a ton of anime is made.
Cool lightbulb store
Cool appliance store
One of our favorite restaurants in Tokyo. They do a huge full meal, as you are about to see
If you missed it last year, you swirl the raw beef in the hot water to cook it, then dip it in a sauce. Totally awesome
The roof of one of the big department stores has a little arcade on the top. There's a little train ride that is covered up because it's raining. It also has a pet store ($2000-$3000 dollar cats and dogs)
View from our hotel room at sunset. The buildings are way brighter, I'm just not a very good photographer
Tokyo City View, but at night this time. It's MUCH more impressive at night (obviously). Tokyo is amazing at night, and this is the best place I've found to see it all.
This guy was sitting there carving the figures you see all around him
We didn't eat here, but we should have.
Ice cream! Everyone loves ice cream! In case you can't read, here's the flavors:
"Cherry Blossoms, Sake Kasu, Carrot, Roast Rice, ???, Pumpkin, Green Tea"
Ok, that's pretty normal except for roast rice, sake, and carrot... now the second row:
"Fermented Soybeans, Salt, Vanilla, Purple Potato, Red Bean Jam, Ashitada Leaf, Ginger"
Nothing says delicious like a scoop of Fermented Soybeans on a scoop of Salt.
Ueno Park. It was too early for Cherry Blossoms to bloom, so we were surprised to see this tree blooming when all the others hadn't yet. It turns out it's actually a plum tree, but it's still cool looking anyway.
The End
That's it! Leave comments!