The Hotel Fooo in Ikebukuro is a “Love Hotel” which means you usually don’t check in to sleep. Depending on the time of day and how much you pay, most patrons are required to leave within 4 or 5 hours. Run by the Happy Hotel Group, ホテル Fooo （フゥー） is right across the street from a Buddhist temple and cemetery (本立寺) that I was checking out. If you look closely, you can see I didn’t bother to get off my bike to take this photo. My A’s hat rested proudly on my head at the time.

Posted on October 28th, 2012 under Japan. Tags: ikebukuro, signs. Comments Off on Love Hotel in Ikebukuro

The establishment in the background says “Karaoke and Party” (カラオケ & パーテイー). If you have seen “Lost in Translation” you may be familiar with these kinds of places. This particular カラオケ館 (they are all over Tokyo) is to the southeast of Ikebukuro Station.

Posted on November 23rd, 2010 under Japan. Tags: buildings, ikebukuro, night photography, people, signs. Comments Off on Karaoke and Party in Ikebukuro

I have shown you several photos of Shinjuku at night in the past. This may be the first I have posted of Shibuya at night though. You can tell I was facing north when I took this picture as the cars headed in the camera’s direction are going to Shinjuku (新宿) and Ikebukuro (池袋). I lived in the middle of those two, Takadanobaba.

Posted on November 17th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: ikebukuro, night photography, shibuya, shinjuku, signs. Comments: 2

Perhaps today’s picture works better with this quote than the photos I originally included with it. The train line is the Toden Arakawa Sen. The corner I took it from was Meiji Dori and Shin Mejiro Dori. The skyscraper in the distance is Sunshine 60 in Ikebukuro, once the tallest building in Japan.

Posted on May 29th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: ikebukuro, night photography, shitamachi, Tokyo, trains. Comments Off on Sunshine City

I have two Japanese maple trees in my backyard in the USA, but I don’t remember them being extra beautiful, extra green in spring. In Japan the maples seem to have an extra spark this time of year. Maybe it’s just because they haven’t been green for so many months so they merely appear extra special now. Or maybe the green gets a little tired later in the summer. In any event, they looked great around the gate of the Homeiji Temple in Ikebukuro a week ago.

From the inside of the gate the azaleas (ツツジ) looked good too.

Posted on May 16th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: buddhist, ikebukuro, japanese maple, temples. Comments Off on Temple gate (法明寺の門)