The Land of the Rising Sun

Returning home from Europe, I had four days in Tokyo. Japan is a fascinating country, with lots to see. At night, the place is lit up by hundreds of thousands of neon lights (no wonder we are going to hell in a hand-basket with global warming!!).

I stayed in Shinjuku - an area of large office buildings and the busiest railway station in the world.

Shinjuku at Day

And at Night

Yoyogi Park, near Harajuku

Harajuku rock band

Harajuku is an area where young people buy their funky clothes. During the weekends it is often the meeting place of the Japanese punks - although I think the hot and humid weather scared them off today! Along Yoyogi Park are young people trying out their rock bands - very loud and one band next to another.

A pagoda near Ueno Zoo

Japan is a strange place with the very modern intermeshing with the ultra traditional. You can be in Akihabara looking at the latest electrical goods, standing next to someone in traditional dress. Dotted round the city are shrines and pagoda's everywhere.

The Ginza

The Ginza is Tokyo's prestigious shopping area with many department stores and the famous stores of Cartier, Louis Vuitton, etc..

Plastic display meals

Most of the cheaper restaurants have samples of their food on display. These are made from plastic and depict the meal that you are likely to receive. Somewhere in Japan a factory must make these. I guess its because the Japanese language contains three elements; the spoken sounds, the written sounds in english characters and the japanese characters. Many places have pointing sheets with photos of the food that you can point at - good for us tourists!

Ueno Zoo

I was told that Ueno Zoo had a Giant Panda so I took the train to Ueno to see it. I was greeted with signs at the zoo saying that the panda had died on April 28th... so the above is as close as I got to a panda!! Following are some animals from the zoo.