I’m not a shopper myself, but a stroll through Ginza is pleasant enough without having to worry about obtaining the latest from Cartier or the other high-end retailers.

Posted on March 2nd, 2012 under Japan. Tags: buildings, ginza, Tokyo. Comments: 2

Mt. Fuji (富士山) is on the right of this photo in the distance. The building in the center with the tall smokestack is the Meguro Incinerator. One of these days I’ll have to tell you about the incinerator tour I went on in Japan.

Some Japanese vocabulary for those of you learning Japanese at the moment…

sunset = yuuyake = 夕焼け (literally: evening burn)
crescent moon = mikazuki = 三日月 (literally: three day moon)

As always, these photos look much better on a big screen after clicking on them. I have had several people ask about using my images. Here is the deal. All images can be used under a Creative Commons license for non-commercial use only. What this means is you are free to use images from traveljapanblog.com on your blog, Facebook, for fun, etc., but you must link to the page on this site that has the photo. If you don’t know that specific page, you can simply link to traveljapanblog.com from the same page you include the photo. If you want to use a photo for any commercial use you must contact me before using the image and we can work something out. All images are copyrighted, even though I allow people to use them.

For each picture I post there are actually two images on the server. The one you see above is a small one. For the larger size (great for desktop backgrounds) click on the image first and then save the image that appears. I have even larger images available should you ever want to make a print.

Posted on February 20th, 2012 under Japan. Tags: aerial photography, moon, mt. fuji, night photography, sunset, Tokyo. Comments: 6

There are three places in the world where you can find both the Eiffel Tower (or something similar) and the Statue of Liberty (or something similar). Can you name them?

The first one is easy–Paris. There you can find the original Eiffel Tower and one of the original Statue of Liberties.

The second place is today’s photo. In Tokyo you can find Tokyo Tower, modelled after the Eiffel Tower, and a recent Statue of Liberty–separated by the Rainbow Bridge across Tokyo Bay.

The third place features the newest copies–Las Vegas.

In less than five months I’ll be checking out the Statue of Liberty in New York for the first time.

Posted on February 1st, 2012 under Japan. Tags: odaiba, rainbow bridge, statue of liberty, Tokyo, tokyo tower. Comments Off on Odaiba

tea room at Ikegamibaien (池上梅園)

During the winter in Japan trees are frequently covered in straw rope or wires formed to make a teepee of sorts which supposedly protects the tree’s branches from accumulating large amounts of snow and breaking. The devices are called yukitsuri (雪吊 or snow hangers), and you can read more about them here.

Posted on January 24th, 2012 under Japan. Tags: pine, Tokyo, yukitsuri. Comments Off on Tea house at Ikegamibaien (池上梅園)

Shibuya (Tokyo, Japan) on a rainy November evening

After checking out Opeth at O-East, I headed out into the rain to catch my train home. The darkness, coupled with the sea of umbrellas, made the scene too cool to merely walk through on my way home so I went up in Starbucks to get a better view of things.

Posted on January 19th, 2012 under Japan. Tags: people, rain, shibuya, Tokyo. Comments Off on Shibuya rain