Tokyo
The New Koyo Hotel is a good place to stay if you're trying to be frugal. As it's been my experience that Tokyo is one of the most expensive cities in Japan, living 'on the cheap' can in fact be a good thing. It's in an urban area of town, as one might guess from the pictures of the front located here and here. Naturally, because a single room is 3000 yen a night, you won't receive large spacious accomodations. After pulling my rather massive suitcase in, (which was no fun to have to deal with in the numerous train stations that didn't have elevators - but only flights and flights of stairs. Taxi's may be expensive folks, but they may save you -alot- of energy) there was little walkway to deal with. These three pictures are of the room I had at the New Koyo.
One of the most entertaining things for me to see, as someone who has been overseas in the past, and as someone who is ..well, Texan, was the nature of some of the vending machines they have out on every other corner. Remember the days of the cigarette vending machines? Japan has them in abundance. Tokyo, more specifically, has beer and hard liqour vending machines.
The first area my classmates and I visited was the area around the Ueno Train Station. Located up one or two flights of stone steps, is the Ueno Park area. There are so many beautiful things that one can find in the Ueno Area, ranging from fountains (one plain, one with me in it) to almost marsh like areas and a museum as well. Off within the Ueno Park area one can also find a gateway to a shrine. The area is fairly large, with smaller museums within that aren't always open. It's still a must see, even on a crowded day. :)
Asakusa is the area in which one of the most famous historical sites in Tokyo can be found. These pictures are of a pagoda-like structure located near the gate to a rather large shrine. This shrine is dedicated to the water goddess Kannon-sama. Between the gate and the shrine itself there are a number of vendors who sell wares ranging from cheap mechanical toys to fans, chopsticks, and summer kimonos. As we left the Asakusa area, en route to the Tokyo National Museum, we came across a mausoleum dedicated to the Tokugawa Shogunate that reigned during the mid 1600's.
The following pictures are of what I last saw in Tokyo and actively took pictures of: The Tokyo National Museum. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so the following are pictures of the various buildings: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3, and Picture 4. Maybe later I'll actually dig through the stuff I collected to make a scrap book and tell you just which building houses what. ;p
