For all of the Tokyo Marathon 2010 pics click here.
The above picture is my last of the day, just before heading into the Iidabashi Metro Station. I was very cold and very wet at this point. Watching the rest of the race in front of the TV provided a nice contrast. How often do you get to witness the same sporting event in person and on TV in your home and have them both be live?
I took this one from the steps leading up to the pedestrian crossing overhead.
The view from the crossing was great but police kept people moving.
Runners were in shower caps, wet suits, garbage bags, and anything else they could think of to try and keep dry.
Today’s first picture is an example of how to not do night photography. I only had my TZ7 with me at the time. Although the TZ7 can accidentally take pictures at night with the correct exposure, it doesn’t usually. I couldn’t get it to take any with an exposure length of more than 1 second or less than 15 seconds, and you can’t manually set it for exactly 4 or 5 seconds, which is what this view needed. The above is the 15-second version, which turns the train into a nearly complete ghost. I’ll get a better picture of the Toden Arakawa Line (都電荒川線) at night with my LX3 (which does allow for any exposure of my chosing) one of these evenings.
The Arakawa Line is the closest train system to our apartment. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go where we usually need to go and is slow compared to the Tokyo Metro and other train systems we can choose from. But it is a fun train to ride when you aren’t in a hurry and have no place in particular to go. You can ride it all day, getting off and on as many times as you wish, for just 400 yen. Kids (under 12) pay half price to ride.
This old, streetcar, tram type line feels a bit like riding the San Francisco Cable Car. The controls all seem to be mechanical. There are no computer displays or buttons to push. Instead, levers are pulled and switches are flipped. This is the last of its kind in Tokyo, even though the city was covered with them in the first half of the 20th Century.
There are several interesting neighborhoods near the Minowa end of the line.
Here is a video I took of a little stretch. Unfortunately, no streetcar passed us going the other way while this was being taken. Other than having to wear a tie, I think this would be a very fun job to have–at least for a year or two.
One reason not to shop at Uniqlo is to avoid embarassing situations like the above. Since everyone seems to shop at Uniqlo you may find your qlothes to be less than unique.
I took today’s photo a month ago on our way back from Tsukiji. While the day seemed like it was well underway for us (as we had been up and about for six hours) it was just beginning for these morning commuters on the Tokyo Metro.
Being 6′ 4″ in Japan has its pros and cons. On a crowded train you aren’t face-to-face with those crowded around you. On the other hand, I hit my head on the dangling hand grips on a very regular basis.
A funny story happened shortly after I took this picture. At one of the main stations most people got off, and I grabbed a seat next to a sleeping beauty. She looked very similar to the lady in the advertisement holding the “Zasshi” (magazine). She was sound asleep though and had no idea a strange gaijin was now sitting next to her. As soon as the train started she put her head on my shoulder and proceeded to sleep on me. My 11-year old daughter’s eyes grew quite wide as she observed this woman sleeping on her father. I tried to get her to take a picture of the two of us, but she was unwilling. 😉
At the sleeping beauty’s stop she promptly woke up and made a beeline for the door, never looking back or noticing who it was that served as her pillow.
Lest you think that being slept on is all fun and games, I’ve had similar experiences a half dozen times since then and they have all been far less pleasant. Usually it’s a fat, sweaty guy, or a pimply-faced teenage boy, or simply far too hot to have anyone asleep on your shoulder.
Sometimes the trains are calm, clean escapes from the rat race outside. Such was the case on the Saturday I took the above photo on the Tokyo Tozai Metro line. But then you get a rebel rouser on board who shakes everything up…
You should have heard the thunderous applause! I had to pop some earplugs in and change trains at the next stop to save my eardrums.
Soon my kids will be riding the Yamanote-Sen from Takadanobaba to Tamachi on an almost daily basis. It won’t look much like the above. I took the above picture on the Seibu-Sen on our way to Tokorozawa, going in the opposite direction as the commuters, late in the morning. Some lines, for instance the Seibu Shinjuku Line arriving at Takadanobaba from Tokorozawa, are jammed to the max. Hopefully, getting on at Takadanobaba will be pretty decent since many people should be getting off there for Waseda University.
I don’t think we will regularly be encountering this:
