After having breakfast with my sister and Patrick I had a day exploring Tokyo by myself.
First off I wandered over through Shinjuku over to the Munciple Government Building.
Shinjuku is full of high rise sky scrapers being an area of solid rock allowing them to be built unlike other parts of Tokyo. Shinjuku is also home to the busiest train station in the world. When I first arrived at the train station I was suprised to see signs for exit 70 and higher but apparently it handles over 3 and half million passengers per day making Clapham Junction look rather quiet.
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[thumb:1867:r]One of the most impressive buildings in the district is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. This administers an area home to 35 million people. So not unexpectedly it needs a fairly big building to house all the administration for it when its supposed to be looking after more people than are in most countries.[thumb:2096:l][newline]
One of the things that it is possible to do is to take a guided tour round the Government building. It was quite impressive to actually walk round the audience chamber and take in how many representatives actually meet there. The detail on the lifts was also interesting as to how much attention to detail had been take.
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The Government Building also has an observation deck that’s possible to take a lift up to. Best of all this is free. From here I even managed to get my only glimpse of Mount Fuji in the distance poking through the clouds and smog hanging over Tokyo.
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Nearby to the Metropolitan Government Building is the worlds largest indoor clock. So I thought I would take a look.
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Tokyo has quite a number of parks so I thought I would wander over and have a look at my first one near the Government Building.
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[thumb:2110:r][thumb:2111:r]What I hadn’t anticipated coming across was homeless people living there just a stone’s throw away from the Government building. I had heard that as a result of the economic downturn that had affected Japan in the 90’s the number of homeless people had substantially increased.
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[thumb:2113:l]Dotted around Tokyo there are numerous small shrines of which this is one of them.[newline]
[thumb:2112:r]Continuing on my walk I couldn’t help but wander pass the hotel that was the setting for all those scenes from Lost In Translation.
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[thumb:2115:l][thumb:2116:r]Bicycle ownership in Tokyo was far higher than I expected before arrived. I had imagined that the place would have been a place filled with cars streaming through asphalt arteries through the city. Instead the flat landscape appears to have made getting places by bicycle if you can popular. One only has to look at the size of the cycle parks to see how many there are.[newline]
My wondering continued to take me through the concrete jungle that is Tokyo.
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That was until I reached one of the main parks just north of the Shinjunku area. I can’t remember the name of this park but it was big.
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One of the most impressive things about this park was the large temple in the middle with the large arches on the entrance to its precints.
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A garden in the middle of the park was very picturesque with the fishes in its ponds.
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Next off it was Shibuya. One thing I learnt about walking round Tokyo compared to London is the distances between stations. In London each stop is usually only a 5 minute walk apart an not usually worth bothering to catch a tube for. In Tokyo the same is not true. Each stop my only take a similar amount on the train but the distances are much bigger with a 15-20 minute walk between stations. Shibuya itself is the fashion capital for young people with plenty of shops catering to their tastes.
Some of the fashions I found quite strange. Such as the girls who wore really short shorts and then thigh length tights to go with them.
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HachikÅ? Square is one of the worlds famous scramble crossings. It also featured in Lost in Translation with animated dinosaurs playing across the windows. I had to make do with animated arrows.
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More Shibuya – these shops reminded me a little of Camden Market and Carnaby Street.
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One of the things I wanted to do was to see some actual real Japanese anime so I took a trip over to the Tokyo Anime Centre in Electric City, Akihabara. Interesting in the same way as wondering round Gosh or Forbidden Planet up in London. A parallel universe I’m not sure I interact with.
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[thumb:2145:r]One of the strange sights to see was the promotions being carried out on the streets of Akihabara. I am used to being accosted by individuals whilst walking through the likes of Blue Water coming up to me and saying,
“Can I just ask you a question?”
but this was a whole other level stepped up in intensity. I don’t know what the women were dressed up for, I can only assume it was tied in with some computer game.