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Another angle out of the Sumitomo Building in Shinjuku appeared as my desktop wallpaper today. The building to the left is now the more common place for tourists to view Tokyo, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office Building.
While walking to my daughter’s soccer game in a shitamachi area of Tokyo called Fukagawa (deep river) I came across this marker of one of Hokusai’s famous scenes from his series “36 Views of Mt. Fuji.” The title of the ukiyo-e is “Under the 10,000 year bridge over Fukagawa.” The bridge is no longer there so I’m guessing its existence ended up being only a few hundred years at most.
Turning the corner a bit and looking down the Sumidagawa (a much larger and much deeper river than the Fukagawa–it’s the river in the background of the above which the Fukagawa is draining into) yielded the following modern view.
No chance of seeing Mount Fuji from here anymore with most of the buildings being over 10 stories high. Perhaps if you were on top of one of the buildings you may occasionally have a glimpse. The blue bridge in this image is the Kiyosu-bashi (清洲橋). You can still see fishermen (the guy in the bottom of the photo has three fishing poles in the water) though. Some things don’t change.
Back in the 1980s, when I first lived in Japan, the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building was the building to go to the top of if you wanted a great view of the city. There was no Sunshine City, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, Mori Tower, or Ebisu Garden Place Tower at the time. The two times I revisited the Sumitomo Building on our most recent adventures in Japan the observation deck was empty. It’s still a great place to view the city (although with the other high rise buildings that have since been built some views are more obstructed than they were 20+ years ago), and you can avoid the crowds at the other places here. Also, there are several floors of relatively inexpensive restaurants at the top with fabulous window seats.
I took photos of my kids’ Suica passes because I knew they would lose them and was hoping the picture would get me a replacement. Amazingly enough, they never lost them, although they did leave them at home and had to purchase train tickets once they got to the station on several occasions.
This pass allowed them to go from Takadanobaba to Tamachi and back as many times as they wanted. They could also get off or on at any station between those two stations on the west side of the Yamanote Line (including Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Meguro, Shinagawa, etc.)
This pass was Ryan’s. If you can read Japanese, you can see his name and age personalized on the bottom in the middle. The cost was about $400 for six months, which was the regular price for an adult. For kids 12 and under and those going to “qualified schools” (TIS wasn’t one of them) the price is much less.
You can also use a Suica card in many stores and vending machines if you put some extra yen on it.
Another random wallpaper of the day offering… This is my daughter sporting a Nishi-Waseda (西わせだ) Happi Coat for one of the many festivals we enjoyed in Tokyo.
That’s a 7-Eleven in the background. Although founded in the USA, 7-Eleven is now a Japanese company. There are far more 7-Elevens in Japan than anywhere else in the world. You can find almost 2,000 of them in Tokyo alone! In the USA I enter a 7-Eleven about once a year. While living in Japan I entered one, or a similar store (like Lawson, FamilyMart, etc.), daily. They are far more interesting, and have a much larger selection in Japan. It’s also the place to do your banking, buy concert tickets, etc.
One of the walks in the Water Walks in the Suburbs of Tokyo book was called Oji (王子). This is a great little part of Tokyo. I could have taken the Toden Arakawa Line, which ran right next to my apartment, but chose to ride my bike to Oji along the street car line instead.
Near the end of the walk I went up the only tall building in the area, Kitatopia. Today’s photo is of the view looking north from the observation deck on the 17th floor. The school you see in the picture is fairly typical of Japan, four stories with a courtyard for physical activities in the center. This is actually two schools, Ojisakura Elementary School and Ojisakura Middle School. (王子桜小学校と王子桜中学校)