As previously mentioned I ride the Odakyu Line a couple times a week down to the Atsugi area to teach a course for the University of Maryland University College Asia on a military base. The Atsugi Naval Air Facility (厚木海軍飛行場) has an interesting history. The first time Douglas MacArthur set foot in Japan was here.

The history is far more intriguing than just that though. This was a kamikaze training center. 33 of the pilots refused to give up with the rest of the country and went on a final mission rather than hang around for MacArthur’s entrance. Where they went was never known. Nor have their planes ever been found.

The Japanese expected this area to be bombed by American B-52s, so extensive underground caves were built. I haven’t seen them, but I guess that was the point.

Lee Harvey Oswald was stationed at Atsugi, as was the infamous U2 spy plane.

This statue of MacArthur in the MacArthur Garden is a fairly new addition (1990s I think). Under the statue it says 日本の民主々義の生みの親マッカーサー which translates to something like “MacArthur parented the birth of Japan’s democracy.”

Another strange thing about this facility is the church. It looks Buddhist from most angles but is not. Four congregations meet here–all different and none Buddhist. One is Catholic; another is “Traditional Protestant”; the others are “Contemporary Protestant” and “Word of Victory Protestant”. I’d be interested to know the history of this building if anyone knows.

Posted on September 26th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buildings. Comments: 5

Just left of center is the Shinjuku Center Building. To the left of it, the building that flares out at the bottom, is Sompo Japan Building. Just to the right of the center of this photo is perhaps the most interesting of the Shinjuku high-rise buildings, Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower. My daughter says it reminds her of the Bird’s Nest Stadium the Beijing Olympics were centered around. On the far left is the Mitsui Building and the far right is the Keio Plaza Hotel.

I took this picture from the free, observation deck in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office.

Posted on September 23rd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buildings, shinjuku, skywatch, Tokyo. Comments Off on Shinjuku Skyscrapers

I took a walk the other day through Shinjuku’s Chuo Koen (新宿中央公園). The park provides quite a contrast to the high-rise buildings that surround it. 新宿中央公園 features a rather wide, two-sided waterfall. The side you can see above is almost 10 feet high and more than a hundred feet wide. The other side is at least twice as high.

The building in the background is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office (東京都庁舎 or just 都庁). Like many of the buildings in Shinjuku, it didn’t exist when I last lived in Tokyo in the late 1980s.

If you look very closely at the above photograph you’ll see turtles in the water beneath the waterfall.

And here is a closeup of those same turtles.

The next evening I found myself on the observation deck of the 都庁 with a view of the spot in 新宿中央公園 from which I had taken the top picture. From this vantage point you can see the other side of the waterfall. The turtles are probably still there, but you can’t quite see them in this final photo.

Posted on September 22nd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buildings, shinjuku. Comments Off on Shinjuku from below and above – Part 1

竹下通り in 原宿 on a Sunday is interesting to see once. I can’t imagine wanting to ever walk down it again though–at least not in the heat and humidity that we encountered on this day.

You can pretty much point your camera in any direction while in Harajuku and be able to photograph something interesting.

I pointed mine at the sky and a blimp flew by.

We picked up Maya’s birthday present in Harajuku at a place called Kiddy Land. I asked Maya if she went to Harajuku (or Shinjuku or Takadanobaba) much. She said she hopes to go there someday which surprised me. We go through Harajuku nearly daily as foreigners living in Tokyo, yet a Tokyo native who lives 20 minutes to the east has never been there. Sure she is only 11, but it reminded me that we frequently miss the things in our own backyard.

As a kid who grew up just across the bay from San Francisco I remember thinking how rarely we ever went to San Francisco.

Posted on September 10th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buildings, harajuku, people, Tokyo. Comments: 2

From my apartment window I can see the top of a Buddhist temple not far away. It took me almost a week to actually pay the place a visit. The Nichiren sect temple is called Ryochoin (亮朝院). The structure and grounds are set a bit above the rest of the neighborhood. At this link you can see an old Edo Period drawing of the place.

These two guys are the Nio guardians of the Buddha. Usually they are in the sides of the gate leading to the temple and made of wood, but at this temple they are out in the open, past the gate, at the top of the stone stairs, and made of stone. I posted some more typical pictures of them previously.

I imagine I’ll be taking many morning walks through these temple and burial grounds in the coming year. It’s nice to have so much protection nearby. 😉

This last protector is on the roof of the bell tower at 亮朝院.

Posted on August 24th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buddhist, buildings, japan pictures, nishi-waseda, temples, Tokyo. Comments: 3