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After watching a Seibu Lions game last year we were able to go down on the field with many other fans. Not only were we on the field but we were on the big screen as well. Ryan was rather excited (can you spot him?). Ellie, on the other hand, had been on big screens so many times (thanks to her blonde hair) by this point in Japan that I think she was doing more to get off the screen than remain in the public eye.
Another angle out of the Sumitomo Building in Shinjuku appeared as my desktop wallpaper today. The building to the left is now the more common place for tourists to view Tokyo, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office Building.
While walking to my daughter’s soccer game in a shitamachi area of Tokyo called Fukagawa (deep river) I came across this marker of one of Hokusai’s famous scenes from his series “36 Views of Mt. Fuji.” The title of the ukiyo-e is “Under the 10,000 year bridge over Fukagawa.” The bridge is no longer there so I’m guessing its existence ended up being only a few hundred years at most.
Turning the corner a bit and looking down the Sumidagawa (a much larger and much deeper river than the Fukagawa–it’s the river in the background of the above which the Fukagawa is draining into) yielded the following modern view.
No chance of seeing Mount Fuji from here anymore with most of the buildings being over 10 stories high. Perhaps if you were on top of one of the buildings you may occasionally have a glimpse. The blue bridge in this image is the Kiyosu-bashi (清洲橋). You can still see fishermen (the guy in the bottom of the photo has three fishing poles in the water) though. Some things don’t change.
Between the Rihga Royal Hotel Tokyo (リーガロイヤルホテル東京) and Waseda University there exists a park or garden called Okuma Teien (大隈庭園). I took this shot in the rain from near the hotel looking back toward the Okuma Auditorium (大隈講堂).
One of the first things I ever followed on Twitter was Japan_Blogs way back in 2008. For some reason Japan_Blogs stopped working for a month or two, but now it appears to be back in business. With about 24,000 followers I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who missed it. My blog is one of the blogs listed in Japan_Blogs which means I’m now getting an extra few hundred hits a day with its revival. I doubt they are taking new blogs. It isn’t even possible to communicate with the owner as far as I can tell.
Anyway, there are a couple other blogs not listed on Japan_Blogs which I also follow and you may enjoy too.
Chuchai’s Baruto Mania
ShootTokyo
Today’s photo is of a very crowded Heiwa Street in Kofu. I must have walked this street thousands of times during my eight months in Kofu. The reason for the masses on this occasion was they were all waiting for the Takeda Shingen Parade to begin.
During the first week of April you can witness something in Japan that you probably won’t see anywhere else in the world. April is the new school year. It is also the beginning of the fiscal year for businesses. All of the recent college grads who landed a job with the company that chose them enter the workforce together, as a giant team.
I was roaming around Shinjuku during the first few days of April and happened to spot several groups of these brand new salarymen (サラリーマン) and office ladies (OL). They all looked a little nervous and very green. They all had on the exact same outfits, and when I say exact same I don’t just mean that they all had on suits. They all had the exact same colors and brands. Even their briefcases and hairstyles looked identical. No one was breaking from the group either. They were a pack that was not going have anyone stand out for any reason.
I took this photo in the lobby of one of Shinjuku’s skyscrapers. I was there for the view (and lunch) at the top, not to stalk the new initiates (aka lemmings).