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Tokyo Christmas 2009 – Kabukicho, Yurakucho and others

  • December 18, 2009 1:44 pm

After Roppongi Hills Christmas decoration post it is time for some other iconic places in Tokyo.

The First one is Kabukicho (for the non-Christmas post please visit here).

The main color was blue and yes, this is a Christmas palm behind the tree:

1_Tokyo_Christmas_Kabukicho_Yurakucho2_Tokyo_Christmas_Kabukicho_YurakuchoThe lights were everywhere including in between the flowers:

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The following pictures I took with my keitai. These were actually the very first pictures I took in Tokyo and these were the very first things I saw once I escaped the Shinjuko huge station:

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And here is the movie – Kabukicho by night with Christmas decoration (it is just next to Shinjuko train station exit – listen to the sounds).

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Here is the second video. I took it right next to the main police station in Kabukicho (you can see part of it to the right). There are always a group of policemen staying in front of it. It reminded me for the big Roppongi police station but the Kabukicho’s one is smaller of course.

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The next one is -

Christmas Yurakucho

Yurakucho is just one station away from Tokyo station – actually you can simply walk from Tokyo station and I do not think it will take more than 15 min. to reach it. For sure there are some big office building here but I think above all Yurakucho is shopping area (or at least this was my impression). Tokyo Kotsu Kaikan was the building, which was attracting most attention so I’ll start with it. Here it is in all its glory:

17_Tokyo_Christmas_Kabukicho_YurakuchoI couldn’t resist and ventured to the top to have a better view on the Christmas tree and the surroundings. I promptly documented this trip to the top. Please do not watch the movie if you suffer from vertigo. I was really fast and the round stairs looked like they will nevere end.

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Here are and the rest of the Yurakucho Christmas pictures:

Just a few more photos. The following pictures I took on my way from Roppongi Hills toward Shimbashi Station. I do not know the name of the area though.

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A nice Christmas tree in the vicinity of Ginza:

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And last but not least – Christmas Ginza (what a Tokyo Christmas post would be withou it?) :)

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Tokyo Christmas 2009 – Roppongi hill

  • December 17, 2009 3:16 pm

Another post for Tokyo Christmas decoration 2009. This time it is Roppongi hill.

It was my first visit ever at that place so everything was new for me. I took may be a hundred picture (or more) from the top of the Roppongi hill building but they are rather for another post (well may be I will add one or two at the end).

Without a further due here are the pictures (and the movies).

The central entrance of the big Roppongi hill building – this is the heart of Roppongi hill.

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May be you noticed the root like black things on the right site of the picture. These are actually spider lags. I do not know if this is “resident” spider or just part of the Christmas decoration but here it stands and it’s really huge:

3_Tokyo_Christmas_Roppongi_hillHere comes and the real decoration – the thousand little lights in the crown of the trees:

6_Tokyo_Christmas_Roppongi_hillEven more trees with lights:

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Many of the lights were actually moving slowly and the main source of this animation was this light stucture:

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Here you can see it in action (together with the rest of the main Roppongi square):

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Finnaly a picture of the main Roppongi Hill building by night:

5_Tokyo_Christmas_Roppongi_hillNow – please follow me to the top and let see how Tokyo looks during the night viewed from the top of Roppong hill.

This is the view from the coffee bar at the top of the building (at that stage one still can use a tripod for the camera – at the very top tripods are forbidden):

IMG_1360And this is from the very top of the building (the Tokyo tower looks as almost you are observing it from above):

Tokyo_TowerI promise a separate post with Roppongi hill pictures and movies but some other time. Next days will be Christmas posts only :)

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Shimbashi, Tokyo – Christmas 2009

  • December 15, 2009 3:20 pm

Shimbashi – just two station from the Tokyo one (direction Shinagawa). This is the staion of the small, causy restaurants and bars where you go after work with your friends and collegues. I was visited it both Friday and Saturday nights but during the second night it was almost deserted. It is definetly Friday night when you should visit it to see the real animation of the streets.

This is the first thing I saw when I approached Shimbashi  (I came from Roppongi hill – may be around 30 minutes walk (but keep in mind that I walk relatively fast).

2_shinsaibashi_Tokyo_Christhmas_2009Of course – this are the Salaryman. You can see them everywhere. May be at Shimbashi is the biggest concentration of salaryman during Friday night in Tokyo (and highly possible the biggest concentration of salaryman in the world :)). Here there are more of them browsing the streets (if you look carefully you may even see one salarywoman).

6_shinsaibashi_Tokyo_Christhmas_2009Actually eveything is very colourful and animated. I hope you can get the feeling from the photos:

9_shinsaibashi_Tokyo_Christhmas_200910_shinsaibashi_Tokyo_Christhmas_2009If Shimbashi has a heart it must be definitely the street immediately next to the railway. It is the most animated of all and most full with light and live. Here are and some of the coolest small restaurants:

7_shinsaibashi_Tokyo_Christhmas_20098_shinsaibashi_Tokyo_Christhmas_2009This is the main square just in front of the staion with the christmas decoration:

4_shinsaibashi_Tokyo_Christhmas_2009And here is the video (a short one):

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The main attarction though is the locomotive. Actually it is always there but it is not always covered with lights neither it is always singing:)

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5_shinsaibashi_Tokyo_Christhmas_2009And here you can here the “singing” locomotive (also a panoramic view of the square):

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I will continue tomorrow with more photos and videos from Christmas Shimbashi and Tokyo.

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Tofukuji, Kyoto – Koyo viewing

  • December 10, 2009 3:13 pm

I asked the clerk in the tourist office at Kyoto main station  “What is the best place  for autumn leave viewing?” – “Tofukuji temple” he answered without any hesitation.

Of course I had no other choice but to go directly to Tofukuji temple (moreover it turned out to be extremely close to the main station. Just take one of the JR trains and you will be there in 3-4 minutes).

Unfortunately it was a rainy day but still it had its own charm (I hope you’ll feel it from the photos).

This is one of the few successful photos with flash:

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And without the flash:

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Even more momiji:

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And now is time for some more colors (pink and yellow) :)

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This creature I found in one of the gardens. It reminded me the “Princess Mononoke” movie little forest spirits. Who knows may be he is one of them just pretending to be from stone :)

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And this is the lake next to which the creature was “hiding”. It definitely must be one of Princess Mononoke forest spirits.

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And some more photos of momiji and the temple:

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And even more :)

The temple is also interesting. It has a zen garden (next to the lake with the “mononoke” creature). This is part of the building surrounding the garden (on the second picture you can even see part of the moss garden where the creatures were hiding):

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Just a few more pictures of Tofukuji temple buildings (in the rain):

I would like to end the post with just two more pictures. The first one – the roof of the main building  surrounded by the momiji:

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And the second one – I called it “Koyo canopy” I simply can not figure up anything more suitable :)

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I hope one day I’ll have the opportunity to visit Tofukuji in a nice, sunny, autumn day and than the real “koyo canopy” shall be revealed :)

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Zojoji Temple, Tokyo – Autumn

  • December 2, 2009 3:33 pm

Just a few random pictures from Zojoji Temple from Saturday. It is located next to Tokyo Tower so you have quite a spectacular combination of modern and ancient. And to make the point I am starting with the first picture – the temple (part of it), the ginko and the tower:

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Another one. This time slightly more of the roof of the temple and the red sceleton of the tower behind.

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More of the temple and the autumn colors of the trees:

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The maple tree behind the old wooden port.

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The stone with the red ivy on it (distance shot).

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And close shot:

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The Jizos.

These are Jizo. Statues of the dead children, stillborn or aborted fetuses. It is really said but they always have beautiful colorful windmills:

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And some of the rest of the Jizos.

There are many of them:

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Some more of the photos.

Buddha (may be) and red momiji.

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Again – nature (the branches of the trees), ancient temple and modern structures (the Tower). One of the most common compositions in Zojoji.

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Kabukicho – the other Shinjuku

  • November 29, 2009 3:37 pm

I didn’t know where I am going. At all me prevoius visitis in Tokyo I was on “the other side” of the Shinjukiu station – the side of the “Keyo plaza” and “Hilton” hotels and the “Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building”. Now I asked in the agency for the cheapest hotel (if possible in Shinjuku area) and that is how I ended up in Kabukicho (even though 8000 yen per night wasn’t so awfully cheap). Yes Kabukicho and its hotels is definitely for salary men and definitely not for family people with kids (unless they visit it as tourists of course). Especially I disadvise if you are with kids to take some of the cheap hotels their. Even though the hotel was clean I always could feel (even though very, very weak) cigarette smell (yes, in Japan they smoke, they smoke a lot and they smoke everywhere). Also if you are a lonely man (trying to find your way to or out of the hotel) expect to be stopped at least once per 20-30 meters and offered sex services or invited to bars with hostess. I was just refusing politely even though some of the black dudes were quite imposing (but still polite I must say). Otherwise I felt quite safe in the area (as pretty much everywhere in Japan) and there were no any problems when I was browsing the streets late in the night or just coming back to the hotel. Needless to say there were at least a thousand bars in the area and at least as many restaurants but I didn’t enter a single one apart for a ramen shop. The interesting thing about this ramen shop was that it was next to a kebab shop (in ramen there is a pig meat) but apparently they co-existed peacefully ( I am still sorry I didn’t took a picture of the two restaurants next to each other).

But enough of “speaking” – it is time for the pictures galore. Here is Kabukicho by day:

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And here is Kabukicho by night (when the real life starts):

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I just want to finish this entry with a picture of a small street ramen shop (I really like this one (the dish I mean – the picture too:))).

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Shisas – Okinawa

  • November 21, 2009 4:05 pm

All the pictures are from our recent trip to Okinawa.

Shisas are demons with body of dog and head of a lion. You can see them everywhere in Okinawa. Usually they sit on both side of the entrance door of the house but you can find them on the roofs also. One of them is always with opened mouth and the other one with closed (I learned from wikipedia that the one with opened mouth scares the evil spirits away and the one with the closed one keeps the good spirits in the house).

Here they are:

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Quite expressive faces – aren’t they?

And another pair:

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And the rest of the shisas (Actually I am cheating here. Let’s see if you can find the imposter:))

Of course nowadays you can find shisas in all sizes and forms in almost every Okinawa shop. Nice souvenirs (together with the awamori) arn’t they?

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Minoo Waterfall 1

  • November 15, 2009 12:22 pm

OK. This was the first trial and I must admit it was a little bit premature one. The real Koyo (autumn leaves) will be in 1 or rather 2 weeks. Another important point – if you really want to take some nice shots – go early (before noon). The Minoo river valley is very, very narrow one and at 3 p.m. (the time I arrived) more than 90% was in deep shadow.

Just a little bit traveling information. If you are starting your trip from Kobe take Hankyu from Sannomiya and chnage at Juso (23 min. with the rapid train). Take the train in direction to Ishibashi (around 15 min.). At Ishibashi change again and take the Minoo Hankyu line for 3 stations (or 6 min.). This is. The movies are from the Minoo line (I filmed all the three stations). This is from Ishibashi to Sakurai:

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This is from Sakurai to Makiochi stations (you can see for a first time the mountain here just after the turn):

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In this one we finally arrive at Minoo:

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Here are the photos.

As I said most of them were taken in deep shadow so I had to boost the contrast (so they look closer to what I saw with my own eyes). And again – go earlier (before noon) if you really want to take great shots.

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I took pictures and from the waterfall itself but it was too late and they are definitely not worthful showing (especially for such beautiful waterfall as Minoo). I will show though some pictures from the roadside pubs and small restaurants (izakayas) which you can find especially toward the end of the road (just before the waterfall).

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In this one I spent a pleasant hour with a bunch of ojiisans who invited me to join them in the very moment I ordered o-sake. I don’t think you can feel lonely in Japan. If you do – just go to a bar and you’ll got a company immediately – that’s guarantee :)

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Awamori – Okinawa diaries 1

  • October 22, 2009 2:13 pm

As promised here comes my first blog entry for Okinawa and yes it is dedicated to awamori.

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Awamori – I like how it sounds. It is pure, it is strong and it reminds me about Rakia (a strong Bulgarian beverage). I like it. Just be careful with it. Some of the awamori brands contain 60% alcohol!!! They come in different shapes and forms – bottles, clay vases, clay shisas. I liked the shisas (on the big picture above), we even bought one of them for present. The cheapest bottle is just above 1000 yen (usually a glass of awamori in a hotel bar is between 800 and 1000 yen) but the big clay vase (you’ll see in the picture bellow) was 52 000 yen. Sometimes the awamori has a snake within the bottle (I thought this is only Chinese tradition but apparently it is not, also lets not forget for the very close trading contacts between Okinawa and China at least until the conquering of it by Japan in 17 century).

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