Continuing from yesterday’s blog entry, the “Special Exhibition: Vision and Reminiscence of Edo – Masterpieces from the Takahashi Seiichiro Collection of Ukiyo-e Prints” was a lot of fun to stumble upon.

This next ukiyoe reminded me of another recent scene.

I didn’t take a photograph of Enoshima from the same angle drawn by Hiroshige in “The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō,” but I did take one, below, on the bridge out to Enoshima (江ノ島).

And I took one looking back, to where Hiroshige did his drawing 180 years before, from the shrine at the top of the stairs on Enoshima. Much has changed on the landscape with 180 years of development, but you can still feel the ukiyoe if you visit the area on something other than a weekend or holiday.

Finally, there was another ukiyoe (浮世絵), below, that was very fresh in my mind. We crossed Nihonbashi (日本橋) in order to get to the Mitsui Memorial Museum just a half hour before.

It, too, has changed (and yet not changed) in the subsequent centuries–especially with the freeway being built right over the top.

But some things are still there, even if in a slightly different format…

How many other department stores have been in business for more than 450 years?

Posted on November 10th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buildings, enoshima, museums, nihonbashi, Tokyo. Comments Off on Mitsui Memorial Museum (三井記念美術館) – Part 2

Last week we had our names selected from a drawing that we entered to attend the “Ginza International Jazz Festival.” The day before we got hit with the edge of a typhoon so the sky was particularly clear. The weather is never better in Tokyo than the day after a typhoon.

Anyway, after the festival, we walked around Ginza and had dinner at the Ginza Lion Beer Hall. Actually we were on the second floor in the ビヤレストラン as the first floor was full in the no smoking section.

“Bikkuri” means surprise. So how does this sushi surprise people? The taste is surprisingly good? What you get is a surprise? I don’t know.

Unfortunately I didn’t have my LX3 on me as it takes much better pictures at dusk and after dark. These came out OK though given the clear air.

The blue sky in these photos is completely real–not some Photoshop trick. The sky in Tokyo is super after a typhoon.

Posted on November 6th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buildings, ginza, night photography, Tokyo. Comments: 1

On my way to and from Waseda University I pass the above restaurant which serves a variety of fugu (pufferfish) dishes. Fugu can kill you. Of course, if you are a fan of the Simpsons, you already know that. Hence, there aren’t many places that serve fugu. In fact, this is the only restaurant with fugu on the menu that I have ever seen. To serve fugu a chef must pass a test after learning, in a process that requires several years, how to correctly cut the fish so it won’t kill someone. Even then most fail the test.

If you can read Japanese, click on the above photo to see the menu in more detail. Fugu dishes start at just 600 yen (less than $10) for 煮こごり (fugu soup I think), but most are much more. Raw fugu (sashimi), for instance, costs 3,500 yen. I believe that is a fugu (or its skin anyway) wearing the hat in the picture.

I’ll have to try some fugu, and live to tell you about it, at this place one of these days.

Posted on October 24th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buildings, food, night photography, nishi-waseda. Comments: 5

Typhoon 18 recently ripped through Tokyo. The rain stopped in the morning, followed by some incredible cloud displays. While the sky was mostly blue, a few clouds seemed to be trying to catch up to the typhoon. They zipped across the sky at amazing speed. The blue was bluer than I think I’ve ever seen a sky. I have never experienced such clear Tokyo air before. The hard rain of the night combined with high winds of the morning really cleaned things up.

We ate lunch that day on the 49th floor of the Sumitomo Building in Shinjuku with a window seat to enjoy the view. Unfortunately, my kids had both cameras on their field trips to Cambodia and Hiroshima so that view will have to remain only in my memory. After spending the rest of the afternoon in parks and museums, we headed over to the Ebisu Garden Place Tower to enjoy the sunset from the 39th floor. This place has the best free views in Tokyo. Unlike the buildings in Shinjuku, from Ebisu you have great angles on Shinjuku, Shibuya, and the Tokyo Tower. On top of the superior vantage point on this evening, the sky was freakishly clear. Not only could we see Mt. Fuji (my first time seeing it from the Tokyo city center) clearly, we could see as far as possible in every direction. We could even see stars. It was magical. Too bad I didn’t have a camera. Next time a typhoon hits Tokyo I will be sure to hit the Ebisu Garden Place Tower at sunset with camera in hand.

A few days later, after the kids brought back the cameras, I did get some night shots of Tokyo (featured in this post) although the air wasn’t even remotely as pure. I took all four photos from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office. The top picture is of the Shinjuku Park Tower (on the left). It is the building featured in “Lost in Translation.”

Looking out the windows on the opposite side of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office you can see the Shinjuku Station (down and to the left), Tokyo Tower (very small in the distance just to the right of center), and the NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building (featuring the tallest clock tower in the world).

Above is basically the same picture as the one I took in the sunshine more than a month before.

Staring out at this view is something I can do all night long. It looks like I’m not alone.

Posted on October 18th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buildings, night photography, shinjuku, Tokyo, tokyo tower. Comments: 9

We’ve been in Japan for two months now. I remember on those first couple of days thinking that I should immediately take lots of pictures of interesting things in our neighborhood as they would soon become so common in my head that I would forget how curious they are to someone not living here. For whatever reason, I didn’t take those photos and now I can’t remember what those things were. As I originally thought, my immediate surroundings have become too familiar and are no longer strange.

On my walk to Waseda University I pass the above home. It is just around the corner from our apartment. While you may think that Tokyo is all high-rise apartment buildings, there are actually many neighborhoods with few such buildings. Ours is one of them.

The lady who lives in the above home is frequently out watering her plants or chatting with her neighbors. On this morning she is airing her futons, which is a common sight when the weather is nice.

A close up of some of her plants and flowers revels that Mrs. Uchida has won an award. If you can read Japanese click on the above photo to see her award for flowers and greenery.

When a matsuri is going to happen in the neighborhood these lanterns and gohei line the streets.

The streets of Japan, even a big city like Tokyo, are usually spotless and would be very aesthetically pleasing were it not for the power lines that obstruct and foul the view. Maybe one of these days they will be put underground.

Here is a rare camera angle that actually was able to capture a bit of Tokyo without any wires. This home doesn’t look very Tokyoish. It looks more like one you could find in Denmark or other parts of Europe. Our neighborhood has many such “different” homes. I’ll show you some more in later posts.

Posted on October 14th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buildings, gohei, lanterns, nishi-waseda, Tokyo. Comments: 5