Sometimes you take a picture of something not knowing why or even what it is you are looking at. Then, later, you are glad you did. Such is the case with this photograph of Saigo Takamori’s statue that I took in Ueno Park.

It wasn’t until I read Looking for the Lost that I was able to learn who Saigo was and what he did. (I had seen The Last Samurai but didn’t make the connection.) As I read Alan Booth‘s words I remembered taking this picture of his statue.

In Looking for the Lost, Booth retraces Saigo’s steps (as best he could given that some of the paths have been completely overgrown with vegetation and snakes).

Next time I’m in Ueno Park I’ll be able to tell my kids a story or two about Saigo and the Satsuma Rebellion instead of just staring blankly at his statue. This bronze statue, by the way, has been standing in Ueno Park for over 110 years now.

Posted on May 4th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: alan booth, people, Tokyo, ueno. Comments: 1

I’m really looking forward to heading back to Japan with my new LX3. The wide angle and low-light image quality are so much better than my old camera. Images like the above should come out far more dazzling.

I took this in Harajuku (I think). I may have been in Shibuya by the time I took this. The two areas sort of combine and overlap at some point and that’s about where I was.

Posted on March 2nd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: harajuku, japan pictures, night photography, Tokyo. Comments Off on Harajuku at night

Shinjuku NS Building houses this enormous, moving clock. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest pendulum clock in the world at 29 meters. After staring at it for a prolonged period of time, with my jaw dropped to the floor, we headed to the top floor and had some excellent yakiniku that was actually very inexpensive. Here is a picture of that restaurant.

Posted on February 11th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, shinjuku, Tokyo. Comments Off on Shinjuku Clock

Kiddy Land (キデイランド) in Harajuku (原宿) features six stories worth of toys you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the world. My kids were in heaven and could have easily spent the rest of their lives in the place. Luckily they closed at 9 and kicked us out.

To get there, as you head out of Harajuku station (原宿駅) go straight down the main street, Omotesando (表参道), and it will be on your right.

Posted on November 22nd, 2008 under Japan. Tags: harajuku, japan pictures, Tokyo. Comments: 1

Ueno Park (上野公園) in Tokyo is famous for its cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, we were a bit too early (in late March) to see many. Another week or two and this road would have been really spectacular. The fact that there weren’t many blossoms didn’t seem to deter the Japanese from having all sorts of hanami (花見, flower viewing) parties.

If you look closely at this picture (maybe after clicking on it so it becomes larger) you’ll see hundreds of bins for recycling on either side of this road. It’s rare that you see trash bins in Japan even though things are cleaner than just about any place on earth. But in Ueno Park during the hanami season there are more recycling bins than anywhere I’ve seen before.

The sign on the lower right says そう資源 別ゴミ箱 which means something like “preserve our natural resources by separating garbage into the different bins.” On the lower left it says カン (cans) and 生ゴミ (living garbage, like banana peels, etc.)

I should also mention that the above picture was taken at about 10 a.m. in the morning. Imagine the number of people in the afternoon and evening when the blossoms are going crazy!

Posted on November 17th, 2008 under Japan. Tags: cherry blossoms, japan pictures, people, sakura, Tokyo, ueno. Comments Off on Ueno park 上野公園