The streets on the west side of the Shinjuku Station come alive at night with office-less businesses. One is pictured above, a portable ramen shop. I was taking Ryan, on this evening, to catch a night bus. I was expecting there to be an office for the bus company at the address given, but there wasn’t. Instead, there were just some people on the street who check you in and then tell you which bus to get on.

On the train home from Shinjuku I captured a brief video between the Shinjuku and Shinokubo Stations. Another train seemed to be racing us. We stopped and it didn’t so we didn’t “win.” Check it out.

Posted on July 8th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: food, night photography, shinjuku, signs, trains, video. Comments: 1

Today’s photo is another angle from the Park Hyatt Tokyo. This time the camera is pointed towards Shinjuku and central Tokyo.

Posted on July 6th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: night photography, shinjuku. Comments: 1

On a hot and humid night earlier this month we headed to the Park Hyatt Tokyo in Shinjuku. We had lunch there once before, but this was our first time taking in the night view from the top. This hotel was the setting for Lost in Translation starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.

We went to the New York Grill on the 52nd floor initially. When we found out there was a 2,200 yen (about $25) cover charge each, we opted for The Peak Lounge on the 41st floor instead.

The above photo was the view from our table. This is facing north. You can see Shinjuku Chuo Park in the center and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to the right.

We walked back to Shinjuku Station a little after 11 p.m. Part of the west side of the station was filled with homeless people sleeping side by side, many with boxes over their heads to keep out the light and noise. I’ve seen plenty of homeless people before, but this was most unusual. There were dozens of them lined up in neat rows with hundreds of waking people walking down the aisles between them that they had left for us to get back inside the train station.

I took this picture with my TZ10 and left the shutter open for 8 seconds.

Posted on June 26th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: night photography, shinjuku, Tokyo. Comments: 7

Today’s picture is of the same place as the top picture in this prior blog entry, Shinjuku’s Kabukicho. The differences are the vantage point and time of day.

Posted on April 9th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: buildings, shinjuku, signs, Tokyo. Comments: None

On March 26 we visited Shinjuku Gyoen (新宿御苑) for the first time. It was still a week or so too early for the peak of the cherry blossoms (sakura), but a half dozen of the trees were in full bloom. Hanami was in full swing regardless. The best cherry blossom viewing time varies a bit each year, but this year, like most years, it looks like the first week of April will be the best time to view sakura in Tokyo.

Some didn’t care about the flowers. They were there to play on the grass.

Others came only for pictures of the flowers with some serious equipment.

There were other flowers in full bloom, like these Chaenomeles.

Posted on March 26th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: buddhist, cherry blossoms, kids, people, sakura, shinjuku. Comments: 2