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Mt. Fuji sunset from Shinjuku (Tokyo, Japan – November 3, 2009)
On a recent, extremely clear sky day, after rain and wind, I went to the top of Shinjuku to watch the sun set. It was marvelous. And yes, that is Mt. Fuji (in the upper right part of the photo) from Tokyo. The sun set on one side of the building and then…
The moon rose over the other side of Shinjuku…
And then the people came out to play…
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.
My last post on Waseda University was so popular, and one person who responded wanted more, that today I will offer a part two.
This first photo, above, is the view from my Friday night class in Building 11. Waseda University is in Shinjuku-Ku but is far enough away from downtown Shinjuku that you can see the high-rise buildings rather nicely.
The second picture is the view out my office window in Building 6. Even though this part of the building is covered in ivy, Waseda University is not part of the Ivy League. 😉
Finally, for today anyway, here is a shot of the university on the approach from Waseda Station on the Tozai Subway Metro Line. The Okuma Bell Tower can be seen in the background. Some sort of festival is going on pretty much non-stop. On Friday, November 6, the Athletic Festival will be held. Later this month, it appears there is going to be a Photo Journalism Festival.
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.
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.
You will not have a hard time finding a place to eat in Shinjuku at night. The streets are lined with places, sometimes six or more stories high. The restaurants aren’t hard to see either. With all the light coming from them, Shinjuku can be brighter at night than during the day.
The above photo is of one of the entrances to Kabuki-Cho on the east side of Shinjuku station. The building on the right has a 7-11 on the ground floor and then other floors featuring shabu-shabu, okonomiyaki (pancake filled with vegtables, squid, mayonnaise, etc.) and takoyaki (octopus balls), a bar, a manga cafe, and a place to play mahjong.
Kaiten Sushi (回転すし) is when you don’t order sushi, you merely pick your sushi choices off the rotating conveyor belt. That’s what the above place is, with prices starting at just 100 yen per plate. You frequently see fun pictures of the creatures you will be eating in Japan, something that doesn’t seem too appetizing in the states.
Which of these smiling fish would you like to eat?
Or perhaps you’d prefer pork in the form of a pig pretending to be a tanuki? Apparently they don’t serve raccoon dogs here, but you can get something made out of pig like tonkatsu. I love tonkatsu, but this pig at the door makes me want to eat it somewhere else.