Tokyo 2nd Day

The rush of the previous day did not stop me from getting up in the cold morning of 6am to take a walk around the hotel neighbourhood.

The first thing I realised was that Japan was really the land of the rising sun. Even this early in a winter's morning, it was bright. My first stop was a little shrine I saw while on the train the day before. This is the Takanawa Shinto Shrine :-

These are the "Komainu" or Guardians that guard the entrance of the shrine. These Guardians are usually Lions, Dogs or Foxes and in this case, they look like lions to me :-

Along the streets, I noticed that they are quite visually impaired friendly with these guide markers to help people navigate the streets and train stations. Also, the street are really clean even before the cleaning crew got to it:-

On the other end the town, there is yet another Shinto Shrine call the Takayama Shrine which according to the plaque (in English), protects the residents and businesses in the area. Here, I managed to capture a shot of someone making a quiet prayer at the foot of the shrine:-

After breakfast, we were out of the hotel and headed to Odaiba. It is a man-made island that was originally a landfill site but now houses several theme parks, a beach, a hot spring and shopping malls galore.

This pink cat is the entrance to a huge cat store that everything you want for your pet including a restruant where you can dine with your cat:-

This is just a glimpse of the longest pedestrian bridge that I have ever crossed:-

Inside Pallet Town is the Venus Fort Mall, which reminds me of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas with it statues and painted sky. You would be right saying that this is a very classy mall and the stores they have there are towards the higher end of the scale:-

Tokyo 1st Day

Visiting Japan has been something I have wanted to do for the longest time. Finally, after much planning, I got to holiday Tokyo. It was exciting as we were not going with a tour group but on a "Free and Easy" holiday.

We took a night flight flying out, here is my boy at Changi Airport waiting for our flight:-


Arriving the next morning at 6.30am, we were welcomed into Japan with a light snow fall and -1 degree celsius. It was my first time seeing falling snow so it was something we enjoyed while waiting for the bus to the hotel:-




It was far too early to check-in so after dropping of the luggage at the Hotel we were off to lunch at Ueno which is a 25min train ride from the hotel. We basically just got into the first interesting restruant we saw:-


Ueno's Ameyoko market is very much a mishmash of stuff with fresh and dried foods as well as clothings and souvenirs:-


After lunch and walking around the market, it was just too cold to stay out longer so back to the hotel to check in and conclude the day.

My Return

I've been neglecting my photo blog for far too long now. Well, fresh from a holiday in Japan, I should have some photos to update. Right now it's being batch process from RAW to JPEG so please bear with it for a little while more.

It was a 5 day trip there so I will splitting the postings into 5 parts showing the sights of each day.

Old friends to this blog will notice that I have a new "toy" in the form of the Canon 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens. I got this especially for this trip as I wanted to just carry around 1 lens. It is a great focal range for travel and great for most days but it kind of disappointed me in the night and indoors even with the IS.