I have yet to get past part one in my Suwa Jinja Matsuri series. Someday I’ll return to those pics. Fast forward six months to a neat-sky Sunday in February. I was out for a walk with my camera and decided to visit this Shinto shrine again to see if there were any plum blossoms on the grounds. There weren’t, but the sky made for some good photos anyway.

Normally you approach a shrine from the front, passing under the torii. I came from a park in the back (which is the order of today’s pictures). The kids’ park has been overrun with homeless men. There wasn’t a kid in the place, but there were about a half dozen homeless men hanging out or sleeping in their makeshift, blue-tarp, tent homes.

Ironically, there were boy scouts putting away their own tents on the shrine grounds when I arrived. A chain-link fence was the only thing between the homeless campers and the boy scout campers who were about to head home. I thought it was a strange scene. I wonder if the boy scouts or the homeless dudes felt the same way.

At last I exited, through the normal entrance.

Posted on March 3rd, 2010 under Japan. Tags: clouds, japan pictures, shinto, skywatch, torii. Comments: None

Another shot from the Ebisu Garden Place Tower… I really love it when the sky does this.

Posted on February 6th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: aerial photography, clouds, skywatch, Tokyo. Comments: 2

After Phuket’s Big Buddha, our next stop on the way to the airport was a store called SuperCheap. It was a huge mistake to go here in the middle of the day as there is no air conditioning. The place felt like it was over 90 degrees and humid, not exactly a pleasurable shopping experience.

The inside was sort of like a Costco in the states…

…only it was much bigger…

…and the selection was different…

…and included a carcass of something which you could order a piece of if you like.

We didn’t actually buy a thing. Instead, we looked and looked. When we could stand the heat no longer we went to a nearby restaurant for smoothies and shakes to wait for our cab driver to come back.

Given the hustling and outright scams in Thailand, we couldn’t fully enjoy this day with our cab driver. Not only did he try to drive us to a bunch of places we didn’t want to go (so that he could get a commission if we purchased anything at these places), but he had all our luggage in the trunk of his car. Until we made it to the airport my heart couldn’t rest easy.

We did eventually make it to the airport, with luggage too, so we did finally relax. The sunset out the plane’s window was fantastic.

We pulled into Tokyo the next morning to a glorious sunrise. Even though we had some great times in Thailand, and Tokyo is far too cold at the end of December compared to Thailand, I was happy to be “home” in Tokyo. I like living somewhere with a decent infrastructure, where you aren’t asked every two seconds to buy something, and where you don’t have to worry about your safety and security as you walk the streets. The streets of Shinjuku, when we returned on December 29, were very peaceful compared to what we experienced the prior nine days. Actually, they were peaceful compared to most places in the world as most businesses were closed (for the New Year holiday which lasts about a week to 10 days beginning the 29th), many people had left town, and those Tokyoites that were still around stayed warm by staying inside.

Posted on January 24th, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: aerial photography, clouds, phuket, skywatch, Travel. Comments: 1

Christmas Eve in Phuket featured an excellent sunset. We looked for a place to eat on the beach but couldn’t find anything that would satisfy us all. We ended up going down an alley just to the north of McDonald’s and eating at a place called S&G Restaurant. The food was really good, the prices were cheap, and the staff was friendly. I ordered a creamy curry which was the best curry I have ever had.

This is the main drag (Thawiwong Road) by the beach. Eat at one of these places if you want to pay more for lesser quality food.

You can eat really inexpensively by eating at one of these stalls. This one is in Phuket’s night life center on Bangla Road.

Posted on January 16th, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: clouds, food, kids, skywatch, sunset. Comments: 2