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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.
Almost nine months ago I left you hanging with part 5 of our Mt. Mitake hike taken in November of 2009. I will probably include a part 6, 7, and maybe 8 later; for now, I’ll skip ahead to the conclusion as a bit of a warning to anyone trying this hike, which is excellent this time of year (mid to late November).
As mentioned in the first post in this series, the hike, as laid out in the book we were following, was supposed to take 4 hours and 45 minutes. If you take no breaks, have no kids with you (like we did), and jog portions of the trail you may be able to do it in 5 hours. After seven hours, the sun began to set, and we didn’t know if we were 10 minutes from the end or 3 hours. I took the above picture at that point with flash. We had already been jogging a bit as we didn’t want to get stuck in the dark.
With no headlamp, the only way to make the correct turns was by taking a picture of the signs with flash. My camera saved us from getting stranded in the Japanese wilderness for the night. The last hour, in the dark, was a bit scary, but we made it. That was the last time in Japan that I went hiking without bringing along a headlamp, just in case.
One night the family and I were walking back to, I think, the Tanashi Station on the Seibu Shinjuku Line. We had been at Tama Rokuto Science Center all afternoon and were quite hungry. In the distance we saw this sign. I don’t think I’ve ever been to an In-N-Out Burger, having never lived close to one, but at the time it seemed like it would really hit the spot to all of us. So, in a famished excitement, we crossed a couple of streets to get to this sign…
…only to find out this sign had nothing to do with In-N-Out Burger; it was merely an entrance sign for some other business.
As we suspected, there is no In-N-Out Burger in Japan.
Last October, Ellie and I headed out to Jingu Stadium to catch a Swallows game which was listed on my printed schedule. Upon arrival we found that the Swallows weren’t playing that day after all. Instead, we caught the end of a game between Keio University and Meiji University.
This giant banner was hanging on the side of the stadium showing the six teams that play against each other. I wanted to catch a Waseda game, but that never happened. Yuki Saito, Waseda’s star pitcher, is entering the Japanese draft instead of coming to the USA to play. It will be fun to watch his career, even if it is only from afar.
Today’s photo is of a few buildings in Ginza which are absolutely loaded with “bars.” Those who visit these kinds of small bars are usually regulars since many operate on the bottle-keep system. Many customers may have their own bottle kept for them behind the counter. This is just a relatively small glimpse of the many similar establishments within a few blocks of this location. Literally, there are hundreds.
So it isn’t surprising that, as an owner, it may be difficult to select a name that hasn’t already been chosen. Hence, a bit of zoom on the above picture revels the following:
Were they out of names or did one owner just decide to differentiate their place from the rest?
Today’s photo is of an alley near the Ueno Train Station.