At gas stations in Japan the service personnel bow to the cars as they drive away. I thought that is what would happen by the ground crew at Narita Airport as we pulled away from the gate on our holiday getaway to Bangkok. Instead, they just waved.

This is the first time I have had a window seat on a large plane in a very long time. Not only that, it was on the right side of the plane so I had good views of Mt. Fuji …

… and Tokyo soon after take off. Our apartment is actually in the above picture, between the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro skyscrapers.

The skies can get crazy blue, at times, this far above the smog and clouds.

Sometimes you can get above some layers of clouds, but still have some other varieties to gaze at hovering at similar levels and above.

Finally, seven hours later, we landed in Bangkok. The new airport, Suvarnabhumi Airport, is very nice on the inside and out.

Stay tuned for our Thailand adventures over the next few weeks.

Posted on December 29th, 2009 under Japan, Thailand. Tags: aerial photography, bangkok, mt. fuji, Tokyo. Comments: 2

The night before our trip to Thailand, we visited Ebisu to check out the lights. There was a nice crescent moon on that night a couple weeks ago, and Mt. Fuji could be seen as well (although it is a bit obscured by clouds in the above photo).

We are back from our Thailand vacation now, and I’ll start blogging that trip beginning tomorrow.

Posted on December 28th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: mt. fuji, night photography, sunset, Tokyo. Comments Off on Sunset from Ebisu Garden Place Tower

Meiji Jingu is to the right. Yoyogi Park is just past the trees. I don’t think this shot would have come out as well with my TZ7. I used my LX3 for this one.

Posted on December 27th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: clouds, harajuku, night photography, skywatch, sunset, Tokyo. Comments Off on Sunset behind Yoyogi National Gymnasium (国立代々木競技場)

“Oh no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla, yeah

臨時ニュースを申し上げます！
臨時ニュースを申し上げます！
ゴジラが銀座方面に向かっています！
大至急避難してください！
大至急避難してください！”

The third line, in Japanese, in this Blue Oyster Cult classic when translated is something like “Godzilla is heading towards Ginza.”

I took today’s photo as Godzilla was leaving Ginza and heading towards Hibiya Park.

Posted on December 23rd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: ginza, Tokyo. Comments: 1

The fall season and “back to school” go hand-in-hand in many parts of the states. In Tokyo the fall colors a delayed by not weeks, but months. Today’s photos were taken in December. The foliage on the Waseda University campus, although mostly gone now, was quite beautiful in late November and early December.

Once the leaves began to fall, the campus looked quite different in early morning, before the cleaning crews arrived. The place was blanketed in leaves.

Unfortunately, the Japanese are far too efficient at raking leaves. They do so on a daily basis so seeing the leaves on the ground is something of a rarity.

In the above photo you can see three grounds keepers removing the fallen leaves, pretty much as they fall. There were probably 10 people on campus doing nothing but making sure leaves were not under foot. I would have preferred to walk through a few inches of the stuff myself.

Posted on December 17th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: people, Tokyo, waseda university, 紅葉. Comments: 1