Mr. Yamanote, j/k this is not his real name but the name of the most intriguing railway line in the world - the Yamanote-sen. as the main artery of the transit system, it runs through the major areas in Tokyo in a circular path. other railway lines either branch off the yamanote or share stations with it. also it is interconnected with the subway system. Millions of ppl travel by it everyday, and on the train is like a micro-Tokyo, u gotta see interesting ppl from all walks of life. it worths it just to pay 300 yen, jump on the train, go for a lap, which takes less than an hour, and get off at the same station. see the department stores in Ikebukuro, to high-rises in Shinjuku, to Harajuku fashion, to teenagers’ pilgrim Shibuya, mamonaku~ ebisu, meguro, shinagawa, shimbashi... all those southern areas, to tokyo, to Akihabara’s electronics (highly recommended for all y’all gadgets freaks - eye-dizzling showcases! free catalogs!), and about 20 mins later u’ll be back at the starting point... wow a trip to experience the life of a tokyo-jin!
through the window we saw the conductor’s room, here Mr. Conductor was in his daily routine. the white card on the right was his schedule, tells him the exact time the train is supposed to arrive at a particular station. i used to dream about driving trains, but as u can see, it’s a pretty boring job, try it with PS game “Densha Go!”.... a strict schedule to drive around a circle... i noticed that they didnt even say anything to each other as they switch duties... and all he got with him is just a cushion that he brought... it’s pretty sad :-(
the yamanote and its famous green color, as it arrived at Shinjuku
something to think about: why all the japanese have to dye their hair? i almost thought that the girl in the pic was a foreigner.
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this is truly amazing, all japanese girls want to be singers, and they actually do it fo real! look at Ms. Kawajima Ai in her school uniform performing live on the street, no ordinary street but right in front of Hachiko, one of the most popular meeting place of tokyo outside the Shibuya station! that’s like the most crowded place u can possibly find! she probably brought all the stuffs there by herself too... which included a keyboard, pair of speaker, mic, generator, all the stands, all her CDs (self-produced including a nice CD jacket ~ just 300 yen = $3.00 or more if u wanna contribute more) and posters... all these stuffs loaded on the cart... I 100% ADMIRED HER! singing while playing piano - that’s skill! all the music composed by herself - that’s skill! not to mention her music was good too. mannnnn she’s super
another angle, we can see the entrance to the Shibuya Sta. next to her was a vendor selling fake italian and england premier league soccer jersey.... bah.
near the upper middle of the pic u see the dog statue - that’s the Hachiko... it has a story about a loyal dog that had been waiting for its master everyday at the station and after its master was dead somewhere else, it still kept waiting at the same spot everyday blah blah blah....
still outside the shibuya sta. we saw the crowd, starbuck coffee (on the right), HMV, Nakashima Mika...
the imperial palace, on a super hot sunny day when u could hear the cactus so loud (i missed them here in america), atsui.... suddenly thought of aiko sama and how fat she had become lately.
the Meiji Jinguu in Yoyogi, Harajuku, dedicated for Emperor Meiji, the most famous+popular shrine for common japanese ppl. this structure right here is called torii, the gateway to a shrine. there were 3 and this is the most inner one. it was the morning me and my aunt were departing for Hokkaido, sooo hot and humid mushi atsu~~ i started to terribly miss the sound of the semi........ hey jeremy i bought u that thingy from here, hahah we’ll see if it really helps :-P
inside the Meiji Jinguu. here u write ur wish onto the lil wooden board (gotta pay for dat first) and just hang it there.
this is another shrine, called Yasukuni Jinja, found near the palace. it’s another important shrine of Tokyo. what’s special about it? it holds the spirits of the dead soldiers of the Japan Empire. this place is EXTREMELY SENSITIVE TO CHINESE becuz it was japan which attacked china in WWII and i think u all have heard of the Rape of Nanking and hopefully understand the truth of it --- the japanese got this shrine here to honor those WWII japanese soldiers! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! japanese PM and politicians often frequent this place, causing diplomatic turmoil... there was some kinda ceremony to remember the dead soldiers on that day (HAH!), we saw old ppl (supposedly WWII veterans) in their army suits marching and stuffs... really got onto our nerves... and there were ppl came to us handing out flyers that support imperialism, yelling out slogan... i HELLA wanna soc them in the face and disrespect them and actually I DID by sitting right in front of place where they pray and stuffs (i was changing my camera lenses) until a security came and told me to get up in japanese. oh well i guess this is a good way to learn about history and nation pride...
Yasukuni Jinja. notice the 16 pedal chrysanthemum of the imperial family.
good thing they’ve built a museum next to the shrine, so i could take a rest to enjoy the air-con and go to the bathroom. in the exhibition was a type-zero fighter of the kamikazes... so i sat down and start reading (trying to understand) the packet that down-ass imperialistic guy gave me, i wondered if he noticed that im a Chinese... blah blah blah all about Great Japan’s nationalism... BULLSHIT. very ironic, and, logically, in the book section there were nothin wutsoever on the japan’s invasion on China during WWII. instead there were collections of kamikaze fighters’ back-home-letters binded into books, and plastic models of WWII japanese navy vessels... oh yeah i also saw some korean visitors there, wonder wut they feel about that place..... anywayz too tired were we so we decided to eat lunch there since there was a canteen. in the menu ~ Shogun karee ~ The General’s Curry, which follows an old recipe found on a WWII warship and replicates the flavor. O_o