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Here are some shots taken from the window of my hotel room in Tokyo. Sorry about the quality, but the window doesn’t open.

View #1

View #2

Tina and Katy, please note the fall color in the little park!

View #3

View #4

Tokyo is a very cool city – it isn’t hard to get around (signs are all in English as well as Japanese), the people are friendly (especially if you try a few words of Japanese) and even the taxi drivers don’t seem to want to kill you. It’s also a great city for walking, though after about 5 miles I was completely worn out.

Ginza, the main shopping district (much like 5th Avenue in New York) is just insane. It’s about a mile long and is lined with 5-8 storey buildings just crammed with shops of all types, mostly expensive. On Sundays the main section of Ginza is closed off to traffic (mostly), tables and benches are set up in the middle of the street and everybody just goes wandering around. Great fun!

We even managed to find a little sushi restaurant off the main street, though we had to ask several people and take numerous wrong turns before we found it. It was, at least, a pretty “local” joint, though it did sport a single menu in English. We did a lot of pointing and, combined with the use of a phrase book, managed to order a wonderful lunch (sushi in Japan is great) and several glasses of extremely good Sake. The whole thing cost about $45, which is very cheap for sushi of that caliber!

Finally, we took a cab back to the hotel for some rest and then went out to the Roppongi district (where the foriegners hang out) for dinner. My night photography stinks so you don’t get any shots of that.

Ginza

I don’t think these pictures require much explanation – either you like shopping or you don’t. Either way, Ginza is impressive!

The Crowd

Two Frogs

I’m still not sure why I took this photo…

A REALLY Big TV

More Ginza

And the Final Ginza Shot.

It was kind of cool to be able to stand in the middle of what would otherwise be a very busy street!

John Goble and I decided that we were going to walk around Tokyo checking out the sites to celebrate Halloween. John had been here before so he knew roughly where to go and was also able to manage a few Japanese phrases. Oddly enough, however, I ended up navigating and he handled the communication. It must have worked since we didn’t get arrested or tossed out of anywhere.

The first place we went was the Imperial Palace which, oddly enough, seemed to be lacking anything even remotely palace-like. The grounds were nice, though, and we were later told (with lots of hand waving) that the Emperor gets the nice part and us commoners only see a small part of the grounds.

Purple

I know it’s not nice to make fun of people, but I just couldn’t pass up the shot of an older lady with PURPLE hair!

Guard House

This is just inside one of the many gates into the palace compound and is the guard house where the on-duty guards stayed.

Artsy House Shot

I have no idea what this is, but I liked the shot.

Another Guard House

This is apparently where the off-duty guards were stored.

Rock Walls

The various walls in the palace compound are all made of rocks – very large rocks! I wouldn’t want to be the stone-mason on this job!

Moat

More Rock Walls

Notice how the rocks were split. These walls seem to have mostly been built in the early 17th century.

Obligatory Bird Shot

Tokyo has crows all over – you can hear them most places, but you rarely see them – except in the imperial gardens. This fellow was doing a great job of posing.

Castle Base

This is the foundation of a castle that was built of wood and (obviously) burned to the ground. I don’t remember the actual name (D-something) but the sign said that there was a five-to-six storey building on top of this structure.

View From the Castle Base

I have no idea what this structure is, but it was certainly colorful – and a little out of place.

Central Park Area

You can just see a fountain on the far side of the clearing…

And the fountain…

Another Rock Wall

And Another Rock Wall

Getting this shot took forever – people kept walking by and getting in the way.

I wonder, do the Japanes grumble about the annoying American tourists and their cameras?

See if you can figure out what I Photoshopped out of this photo and where I removed it. I did not remove people…

Comments

• Nov-3-2004 11:58:40 by John:
  “Give a man a copy of photoshop, and he’ll sit in a corner and amuse himself for a lifetime…”

  I may be totally wrong, but it looks like there are a couple of suspicious square patches on the left side of the pavement. Dunno what would have been there before…gardener’s stuff…signage…or am I totally off?

• Nov-3-2004 23:08:53 by Jim:
  Nope – that’s not it. I actually removed a barrier at the entrance to the house as well as a couple of barriers stashed off to the left of the house.

Pond

There was also the obligatory little garden area with a fish pond, waterfall, etc. I imagine that this would be stunning in the spring.

The Waterfall

The Obligatory Koi

These weren’t very big – no more than 2 feet!

Stream

Ok – another artsy shot – sorry (or should I say “Sumimasen!”)

The Back Way Out

John and I managed to find what looked like a construction exit. Nobody threw us out and we did get a good shot of another moat and a rock wall in “iffy” condition.

Don’t Do That!

I have no idea what we’re being told not to do – can somebody translate?

Exit

This is a very large exit gate/fort leading out of the east side of the Palace grounds.

Exit Gate House Detail

Here is some more detail. It’s kind of hard to see, but there is a large log holding up the roof. On one end it was well over three feet in diameter!

Exit Doors

Here is a more detailed shot of the doors in the gatehouse. Do you see anything strange on the right-hand door?

It’s a Doorknob!

Yes, that really is a doorknob neatly set in to a gate that is a solid 10 inches thick! The funny thing is that it actually worksand appears to be used to latch the gate shut.

Final Gatehouse

And here’s the final gatehouse as we leave the palace grounds. The layout of the walkway from the main gatehouse to the little one is apparently designed to slow invaders down, giving the defenders time to do whatever 17th century japanese did to palace invaders.

Final Mote

I liked this view over the moat – amazing the difference that 4-5 centuries can make in a city-scape.

John Goble (my co-worker from California) and I decided that to combat jetlag a bit on our second day in Sydney we should hike over to the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It’s only about 1/2 a mile (0.9-ish km) away so this seemed to be a reasonable plan. We got back to our hotel 3 hours and 5 miles later – after hiking all the way over the bridge and back!

Sydney Harbor Bridge From The Rocks

This is the view of the bridge from “The Rocks” – one of the oldest parts of Sydney. Doesn’t look too bad, does it?

Sydney Opera House

And here is a shot of the Opera House from the same place. If you know me you know that this is one of my favorite buildings.

Comments

• Oct-28-2004 21:02:12 by mom:
  that’s the best shot of the Opera house ever – whatever those parallel lines are makes the photo!

Breakfast!

This sign just cracked me up

Comments

• Oct-28-2004 08:03:49 by Carol:
  Can you get sausage links straight up, too?
• Oct-28-2004 09:17:35 by John:
  Gee, Carol…I think the only thing I can follow that with is “No, but you can get your double entendre neet…”

  

Hiking up the Bridge

Here is the approach to the bridge – still doesn’t look too bad, right?

Sydney Traffic

The obligatory shot of traffic.

Sydney Opera House from the Bridge

Here is the first of a number of shots of the Opera House. The bridge has a great view of the Opera House and the harbor, which was one of the main reasons for the hike.

Downtown Sydney

This is downtown Sydney. You can’t see it, but our hotel is right in the middle – quite cool!

Looking Down From The Bridge

Feel the vertigo…

More Sydney Harbor

And More Sydney Harbor

More Downtown Sydney

Morning Rush Hour

Here’s another shot of rush hour – this time from the other side of the bridge.

Explosives Barge

This was going under the bridge as we were hiking back.

Explosives Barge

I think they’re worried about smoking!

And Another View of the Barge

Find the Bird!

Opera House Yet Again

I think this is my favorite shot – or at least the “Most Photoshopped” one

St. George

Would you use a bank with this logo?

Comments

• Oct-28-2004 08:05:50 by Carol:
  Launder your money? Nah, at St. George, we INCINERATE IT!!
• Oct-28-2004 09:10:22 by John:
  “When it comes to VC investment, St. George *understands* a high burn rate…”
• Oct-28-2004 09:11:26 by John:
  Isn’t this vaguely like visiting a neurologist who uses Barney as a logo?

The Rocks

Harbor Bridge Again

Hello, Charlotte!

Here are some shots of the view from my hotel in Sydney. Unfortunately, the building right in front of the window blocked what would have been a stunning view of the Opera House

View #1 – Looking out toward the entrance of Darling Harbor

The freeway in this photo heads right to the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

View #2

Same as the previous view, but zoomed in on a rather cool apartment building.

Downtown Sydney really rolls up the sidewalks at night. When we asked about this we were told that until recently housing wasn’t allowed in the city-center of Sydney – it was for business only. Kind of like downtown Dallas, I guess, though with a lot less charm and a lot fewer potholes.

Old Church

Just below my window was an old Anglican church. I never got a chance to check it out, but I did at least get this shot. I liked how it sat amongst all the modern skyscrapers.

Last Photo

This is looking out the other way from my room. If all the buildings (and 10 miles of city) weren’t in the way you would be able to see the Pacific Ocean from here.