Here is a great look at some fantastic old-style boats from the bridge near our hostel during the day. One of the best things about Japan is seeing stuff like this just smooshed in the middle of nearly futuristic cities skyscrapers.
Also visible from the bridge is the Asahi tower. I am still unclear as to whether or not this is actual offices of Asahi or what it is except that in booklets it is referred to as ASAHI TOWER. Either way, you can never go wrong with massive pictures of beer cans perched atop a skyscraper.
Here are some shots taken of the monstrous metropolis known as the Shinjuku section of Tokyo. it is a massive city jam-packed with high rise towers, shops and complete insanity. If i remember correctly it also serves as the economic hub of all of Tokyo.
I am not exactly sure what the hell this place really was, but the opening below the giant monster grabbing its own crotch had a bunch of huge wireless microphones so i assume it's some kind of karaoke place...perhaps the BEST KARAOKE PLACE IN THE WORLD
This is the front of a retardedly large shopping complex that actually sat in front of another huge shopping complex and inbetween two others in a fairly small area of Tokyo called Nakano. We took a rather confusing trip of subway interchanges to get here based on a post on the Kidrobot messageboard mentioning that this was the main mecca in Tokyo for finding toys. Nakano Broadway, the building behind what you see here most definately held the largest number of tiny toy stores stuffed into nooks and crannies in one place than I have ever seen before. I didn't see any pieces that I absolutely had to have, but there was a big manga shop inside that I purchsed an art book from.
This was some sort of clthing store, but I decided that I would like to have it as the name of a band one day.
Saying goodbye to Tokyo! Here we are waitning to board our first Shinkansen (bullet train) during the trip. It would be a nearly 3-hour trip to Kyoto and that was while blazing at speeds around 250 km/hour. The ride was incredibly smooth and the seats very comfortable. Doug slept most of the time while I got drunk off of Sapporos brought around by a lady with a cart.
Also during the ride, I witnessed a rather bizarre even. I walked into the smoking car behind our car to sit and have a smoke and as soon as I sat down in the rear of the car a fight almost broke out. A short, stocky, rather disheveled guy was literally screaming at this other gentlemen and pushing him. Almost instantly several men got up from their seats and grappled both of them, who continued to shout at each other. This went on for several minutes when another man, fairly older and wearing a business suit got up from his seat and started hitting the disheveled man. Finally the security came, sat everyone down, and took the fight-starter in the chamber between cars. The guy that was getting picked on and several other people got up and walked to the next car behind us, but the guards had the truant in the mid-section still, so I was kind of stuck and had another smoke. Eventually he was brought in and sat down...this is when he started VOMITING PROFUSELY and making some of the most disgusting vomit sounds I have ever heard. The guards walked up and down several times and it looked like the guy filled up a few bags.
I still have no idea what everybody was shouting about.
Here we are in Kyoto, just after arriving and walking across yet another bridge to get some food. I had no idea beforehand that there would be this much water in japan.
Getting dinner at a little place that was recommened by the lady at our Kyoto hostel
Attempting to navigate our way around a new subway system in order to go out and get our drink on
So we found this Irish pub that was actually run an Irish guy...which at first seemed great because so far we hadn't been in many places that actually had any English-speaking people working there. Unfortunately it becamse very apparent that this guy wanted nothing to do with Americans and simply served us drinks and chatted with some English people who also lived in Kyoto.
Outside of the pub was this parking lot for bicycles. One unexcpeted thing was the insane amount of bicycles in Japan...and this was evident in every city we visited. This was the only lot I saw though - everywhere else bikes were merely parked alongside walls or small fences on the sidewalk.
This is a cool building outside of the pub...I don't know what it is, but it looked neat.
More evidence in the Irish bartender's feelings towards Americans.
After a couple of pints we headed over to a British pub down the street...this one was a chain of pubs around Japan run by Japanese people. it was also overly lit and played a lot of 80s music.
I discovered the next morning that somewhere I had lost my hair brush
Waking up in the patio at our hostel and preparing for a long day of walking around and exploring. Kyoto, having not been blasted to bits during WWII houses a lot of aincient temples and castles, so we were hoping to finally get a taste of old Japan.
Fairly close to our hostel was a pretty large and beautiful temple that has been standing for a couple hundred years (with some rebuilds in the timespan). It was interesting walking inside and seeing that it still acts as a well-used house of prayer.
One day I plan on having a fountain that looks like this in my living room...maybe it will spit koi out of its mouth as well.
When we exited the temple I saw a crane fly by and land at a fountain directly across the street. These are magnificently beautiful birds and hold a lot of spiritual resonance in Japan. it was very calming seeing a large animal like this in the midst of the city.
About 20 minutes walking from the temple we came upon a great castle. Unfortunately the ticket doesn't give an English translation for the name, but there were some information signs inside the grounds. This castle served as the main security for the Imperial Palace, which wasn't too far away.
I wish signs for things as mundane as parking lots (like this one) were as awesome as this in the States
These were vehicles parked outside of the Kyoto Police Station. i like imaginging that whoever drives these has to dress up like a Sentai hero (IE power rangers)
This looked like a government building of some sort
An awesome mascot for whatever place it was outside of
END of part 3
Thanks for looking!
