A bit more of Tokyo

So here are few scattered images from our stay in Tokyo.

On my first day at the meeting, the gang went out to explore Tokyo's shopping districts. The found Tokyu Hands, a huge department store with arts and crafts ware. They also bought Roy a new acoustic guitar that he was very proud of.

Yael and I went for an evening stroll outside and saw a lot of building lighted.

The next day I took a camera on the monorail ride to the conference. It was held in a science building in a new area of Tokyo. This was a huge landfill area for the last decades, that about 15 years ago was transformed into a large island with office buildings, parks, hotels, and conference centers. The monorail was a "new" line (about 12 year old) that run from downtown to serve that island.  Unfortunately the day was rainy.

Part of my assignment for the day was to get tickets for a cartoon museum. The only place to visit was with a reserved ticket that you can buy in a "ticket machine" in a line of convenience stores. My host asked one of the postdocs at the meeting to go with me for a few stations to a place there was such a store. It turned out that this building, which is a local TV station, was the site of some summer fair, and so it was full of people that queued in lines in spite of the rain and wind.

I returned early that day and we went to see a design exhibition called 21_21 Design Sight. It took place in Roppongi, a posh area of Tokyo. We managed to reach the site from the subway after going up from -50m below ground (according to the signs). Luckily this was done one in a cascade of escalators.

The exhibition was a bit strange, it dealt with what is private information about oneself and what is not. An interesting concept, and some of the "stations" were provocative to think about these issues. Others missed the point I think.

Tokyo, first day

We stayed in Tokyo for several days, but in few of these I spent in a scientific meeting (the excuse to get us all out to Japan). And so, unlike other locations, most of our interactions with the city where oriented toward seeing shopping districts rather than locations. 

Nonetheless, there are few things to tell about the place.

We stayed in a hotel that was part of a large complex of building called Shiodome. This complex included a subway station, a station for above-ground monorail, several hotels, shopping malls and offices.

Our hotel was walking distance to Ginza, the 5th Ave-like area of Tokyo. So we started our exploration by walking on foot toward the central part of this neighborhood.

Although this was a business area, we did find little jewels hiding on the corner.

We went to the Sony building. It had a large aquarium outside with tropic fish, of the types I am more used to see while diving. This large grouper seemed bored in.

We then went into the building to see various gadgets. We saw a 3D movie about an aquarium in Okinawa (seems like a nice place to visit with manta rays and whale sharks) and then went through floor that showed off Sony's attempt to reinvent the walkman in the iPod world, as well as other gadgets. Seems like 3D television will become a big thing in the very near future.

We then decided to go to Akihabara, the electronic's market place. To get there we had to figure out the Tokyo subway map.

Fortunately, we realized that the JR train, which appears very subtly on the subway map has lines going to most places, and better yet, we have a JR pass that allows us to ride freely. And so, we went on the JR green line.

The train is popular and full of people, but luckily we need to go only for three stops.

There are online TV ads on the train, as well as information about estimated arrival time to each station ahead of us.

Akihabara turned out to be a very busy area with large billboards.

Next to each restaurant there were young people, usually girls, advertising the place. Often they were dressed in interesting outfits.

We checked out few stores for discount gadgets. And then started searching for a puzzle store Yael heard about from her puzzle contacts. It took a while to find, as addresses in Japan are not that easy to decipher, but in the end we found the place.

It was on the fourth floor of a small building, and they had an impressive selection of puzzles.

We then decided to enter one of the big electronic stores. Roy wanted to check digital tablets and I wanted to look at cameras. Each of these stores was spread over several floors.

The impressive part about them was they seemed to have everything. Every camera, every lens I heard of, and moreover, every camera bag I heard of (which is a much wider range of selection).

After we got our share of stores, we decided to move on. The next destination was Harajuku, an area known as the center of hip population of Tokyo. We got off the station onto a pedestrian street teeming with people, stores and resturants.

Many of the stores had people standing in front calling customers to come check the merchandise.

The girls checked some of the hip clothing stores while Roy and I waited. This gave us a chance to see a fair share of colorful people going by.

We then searched for a place to eat, but all were tired, and so we ambled back to the hotel on the JR line and then found a nice restaurant in the food level of the building next to us.

At night we could see the Tokyo tower lighted up through the windows of the hotel lobby.

Kamikochi

We woke up early. Surprisingly we had a good night sleep with the sounds of rushing river outside.
We came down to eat our breakfast. The two kids were now labeled as "vegetarian", which is a bit funny considering Roy's food preferences.

Once again the setting was impressive and elaborate. We enjoyed breakfast, although the fact that it included rice made it easier on some of us.

We checked out of the hotel, and went for a hike. Outside was nice and cool (first time since we came to Japan!). We took a path that went upriver for 3km or so.

The path crossed areas that were more of a marsh than river. The morning fog hang over the water and gave the place a more mysterious feeling.

This time in the morning we didn't see the large crowds of people, although we did pass few people on the trail. Few times we passed groups that were dressed and geared for what look like a serious trek (large backpacks, heavy shows, and walking sticks). We felt surprisingly light (sandals and camera) compared with them.

We reached a place where the path went onto a wooden ramp over marshy lands.

In some places it took a rather strange twists to get through.

At one of these turns we suddenly run into a troop of monkeys. These are Japanese Macaque monkeys, that are well known for their intelligence.

They were arranged around the path, and were clearly using it for transportation, although they did get on and off of it. They were collecting some kind of plants (or bugs off the plants) along the road.

Some of them were more cautious of us, while others were not bothered by our presence.

One mother with a rather young baby was a bit off from the rest and totally ignoring us. One tourist was standing next to her and she simple walked around the tourist when we wanted to get to the next plant. The baby was very active and trying different things and also mimicking the mother's behaviors. He was was very very cute.

All the while, his mother was busy eating. She kept moving, and whenever he realized she is not next to him, he would jump and run to hide next to her.

We continued up-river and reached a pond.

This pond was known to people in the area for a long time and was considered a holy place where the spirits convene. There is a temple next to it (which we didn't visit), but instead toured around the pond.

It was very still and very clear. With beautiful reflection of beauty around it.

In the clear water fish swimming next to us seemed as though they were suspended in the air.

The pond ended in a small stream that made its way to the river.

We crossed the bridge and made our way back on the other side.

By now it was a bit hotter and there were more people around. We saw another monkey troop, but they were not as nice and run away from the crowds.

After finishing the train we began the long way to Tokyo. It involved a bus to the nearest town with rail service. From there a local rail to Matsumoto. There we reserved seats on the Shinkansen to Tokyo. We had an hour to get a nice lunch in a restaurant in the train station. We then boarded the train and in two hours were in Shinjuku, one of the busiest rail stations in Tokyo. From there we took a local subway to our hotel.