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Shinjuku By Day, Shinjuku By Night

Todd — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:48:48 +0000

The Hilton in Shinjuku is just blocks from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government complex. The complex is, to say the least, quite an impressive set of structures in a city filled with them.

It is the second tallest building in Tokyo and the 7th tallest in all of Japan. (I saw the tallest, the Yokohama Landmark Tower, when I went to visit Yukes, creators of the excellent WWE Smackdown vs. RAW games in Yokohama.)

You’ll also notice the uniquely shaped Cocoon Tower, Tokyo’s response to the famous “gherkin” (30 St Mary Axe) in London, I suppose. I’d seen it under construction on my trip to the Tokyo Game Show in 2007 but as of October 2008 it was open.

The second half of this set were all time-lapse photos taken at night as I wandered back from my delicious ovary and brain dinner. Tokyo never sleeps – even at midnight the train station is buzzing and cabs are waiting everywhere you turn.

Eyeglass Bridge

Todd — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:33:34 +0000

It’s just my luck that my day one day off in Tokyo was a Friday, when the only publicly accessible part of the Imperial Palace (Kokyo) complex, the East Garden, is closed. (The Palace itself and the inner gardens are generally not open to the public. Only two days a year, the Emperor’s birthday and New Years, are the public allowed to enter.)

I got some great shots, though, of the Meganebashi (Eyeglass Bridge). The light was terrible since the sky was so overcast and bright. The conditions, though, did bring out the reflections of the bridge in the moat underneath making the “eyeglass effect” really prominent.

Sensoji Temple

Todd — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:51:09 +0000

Another day, another Buddhist temple. On our one day off in Tokyo we visited Sensoji, a Buddhist temple in the Asakusa district. This large temple was completed in 645 and is the oldest in all of Tokyo.

After passing under the Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate) and its huuuge lantern you are assaulted by a bunch of vendors hawking crappy souvenirs. Of course they’re crappy Japanese souvenirs so I found myself powerless to resist. I ended up only buying a small cup of a warm, unfiltered rice drink. It was kind of like drinking rice pudding so I was in heaven.

It was hard to pass up the opportunity to take pictures of burning swastikas. The swastika, known as manji (“the Chinese character for eternity”) in Japanese, was everywhere in Japan. It was a little strange at first but considering that the swastika was used for a least a few thousand years by peaceful religions it seemed a shame that a single crazy man (and a few million of his countrymen) could so change the meaning and association of the symbol in such a short period of time.

ANYWAY, the incense pictured here are burned before entering the temple. They feature the left-facing swastika (omote manji) representing love and mercy. The people burning them would wave the smoke over their hair and faces, the traditional belief that the smoke has healing powers.

The main Sensoji temple building was absolutely massive. I was really taken aback by the size as you approached it. A celebrity of some sort was visiting that day. When we first walked up the stairs there was a huge crowd with bright lights and a camera trained on the guy. The life of a celebrity is always the same, I guess, no matter where you go.

The light was terrible that day so I’m not terribly happy with most of these shots. The pagoda, in particular, didn’t turn out terribly well. (There’s a great night shot of the pagoda on this site.) I am really happy with the end of the set, particularly the stone mother and children and the dragon at the Bell of Time.