| Tokyo Date(s): July 2003. Album by nathan wolfson. 1 - 95 of 95 Total. |
 1 Tokyo itinerary, created by Kohei, based on our email conversations prior to my arrival. We had to skip Ueno, due to lack of time, even though we started at 9am and didn\'t finish the day till nearly midnight... the photos after the Izakaya located in the Kabuki-cho area of Shinjuku are from another day. |
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 5 Subway neighborhood map (on the wall of the local station) near my hotel. |
 6 Another map of the neighborhood, this one a printed freebie (most neighborhoods/stations have them) with Kohei\'s notes for me about local resources -- all underground, since the station tunnels stretch for block and blocks and are lined with shops and restaurants. |
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 8 Kohei: Guide extraordinare. |
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 10 A JR train window. |
 11 Advertising on the train. |
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 13 Book City, the first destination, in search of old maps and prints. The three shops where we found items are marked on the map. "Black circle is a used book shop and a red icon is an ordinary book shop." View Comments... |
 14 The most exciting find: A Meiji-period woodblock print map of Japan. (The shop is marked "Japan" on the neighborhood map.) Here is a scan of the details about the map from the case it was in, the label on the case, and bag from the shop. The map itself is more than 6 feet long, so I haven\'t scanned it. |
 15 At Hara-shobo, I found a wood block print that was made in the authentic manner but not in a vintage time nor from vintage blocks -- meaning it was very nice but affordable. |
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 17 At the place on the Book Town map marked "railroad", I found this pre-WWII map of the Tokyo streetcar system. "The company name printed on the map is "Tokyo Shi Denki Kyoku" or "Bureau of Eletcricity, ..." View Comments... |
 18 The other half of the front of the streetcar map, showing... busses. "Map as of Feb 1, 1942.What I find interesting is the box in the down left. It is the list showing when Ka..." View Comments... |
 19 One half of the back of the streetcar map, indicating...more info about busses. |
 20 The second half of the streetcar map\'s back, perhaps showing different equipment in use, or info on fares? "It\'s a fare chart. 5 sen, 10 sen, 15 sen, 20 sen and 25 sen for each of the line type like solid line, ..." View Comments... |
 21 A map for hiking, from the same place where the streetcar map was found. For cool old maps like this or the streetcar one that are affordable, this was a great shop. |
 22 From the back of the hiking map... "Some information on the hiking routes in Oku-Chichibu area.Issued in June 1929." View Comments... |
 23 ...and this, too. |
 24 Akihabara: Electric town |
 25 Entering Akihabara, with the elevated trains overhead. |
 26 Vacuum tubes, anyone? Akihabara is like a whole city full of small Fry\'s Electronics shops -- each one staffed by a specialist (which makes it a bit different from Fry\'s)... |
 27 Each small booth is a separate shop. Each floor of each building has dozens of such booths... |
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 31 An arcade in Akihabara. |
 32 Only slightly more than $100 for a DVD-RW drive. |
 33 Pachinko parlor. |
 34 2nd floor for local area networking supplies. 3rd floor for networking over further distances... |
 35 The "welcoming cat" (sometimes associated with Good Fortune becase it\'s holding a large coin, as well as beckoning/grooming) outside a shop in Akihabara. |
 36 The Edo-Tokyo museum (Edo being what Tokyo was called before the 1860s). An excellent window into classical Japanese culture. |
 37 At the Edo-Tokyo Museum, with a reproduction of the Edo-era Kabuki theater in the background, and a procession in the foreground. |
 38 The stalls along the pedestrian road (the Nakamise Dori) leading to the temple (Senso-ji) in Asakusa. |
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 40 Shoulda bought one of those little "welcoming cats"... "It is called "Maneki Neko" in Japanese." View Comments... |
 41 The Thunder Gate (Kaminarimon) with a very large paper lantern. |
 42 Donate 100 Yen, shake the container, pull a stick from it, read the number, and find the corresponding printed fortune. This was mine... |
 43 ...in English, no less. |
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 45 Senso-ji, also called Kannon-sama. |
 46 The Hanayashiki Amusement Park (opened in the 1850s) down the street from the temple. |
 47 Walking from Asakusa to Kappabashi-dogu-gai, to buy "sample food". |
 48 Sample food. Note the "welcoming cat" in the lower left of the display case. This was sample food "in use" for selling food. Elsewhere there was sample food being sold. |
 49 Shinjuku |
 50 Restaurant counters in Shinjuku near Kabuki-cho. One of the elemnts of Kabuki-cho said to have inspired the look of Blade Runner. (Or was it the video screens and crowds we saw later?) |
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 52 Odon Festival near Shinjuku. |
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 55 In an Izakaya in Kabuki-cho (in Shinjuku) with Kohei. An Izakaya is a sort of bar & grill. |
 56 When you hear that Japanese businessmen go out drinking "every night," it is to an Izakaya that they go. As you can see, they\'ve got lots of snacks to keep you drinking. Yummy. |
 57 Shibuya. |
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 71 "Sample" crepes (not pizza, which is what I thought during a quick glance). |
 72 Starbucks near Shibuya are eerily similar to Starbucks near your home. |
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 76 A landmark in the distance, Tokyu Hands. |
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 80 Harajuku, north of Shibuya. (Thanks, Sharon, for the suggestion.) |
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 88 Harajuku, on Sundays, was once a mecca for wild youth styles. In 1999, the Hoko-ten (pedestrian paradise, ie, closing the area to cars) was stopped. I saw very little of this. And didn\'t manage to take a decent picture of much! |
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 90 The Palace Gardens, with Kohei\'s notes. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and didn\'t get to go inside! |
 91 It\'s ironic that I didn\'t get to go into the Palace Gardens, since this is my view of the entrance, from my hotel room window. |
 92 I did, however, take a walk around the moat early one morning. |
 93 "This bridge is called "Nijubashi".If you are interested in the palace, here is the official site..." View Comments... |
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I found your webpage after a google image search for the Hanayashiki amusement park in Tokyo, which I visited recently.
Your webpage/photos are superb. They brought back many memories.
Thank you.
- Carol, Fri, 14 Apr 2006 9:45AM
Your webpage/photos are superb. They brought back many memories.
Thank you.
- Carol, Fri, 14 Apr 2006 9:45AM
Thanks...the "sample" pizza is actually "sample" crepes. A very tasty treat while walking the streets. Thanks for sharing.
- sharon, Mon, 25 Aug 2003 4:03PM
- sharon, Mon, 25 Aug 2003 4:03PM