Monday, January 24, 2011

Christmas/New Years in Tokyo

This post is a collection of photos from when my parents came to visit and meet me in Tokyo at the end of December (Dec 27th-Jan 2nd). All the locations will be linked to a wikipedia page for easy reference :)

Unfortunately when you have random people take pictures for you with a DSLR there are sometimes issues. A little out of focus here :-/
Fuji-san from the Shinkansen on my way to Tokyo from Nishi-Akashi




Interesting statue in Asakusa
Red bean paste filled pastries being made in Asakusa
Tokyo Sky Tree from a boat from Asakusa to Odaiba
Fuji Television building in Odaiba

Train leaving Odaiba, which goes under the Rainbow Bridge

Day trip to Fuji-san

View of Fuji-san from the visitor center (stop 1 on the bus tour)

Skyline driver unhappy that the Fuji Subaru Line (road) was closed due to snow
Fuji-san from the entrance to the Fuji Subaru Line (2nd stop on tour)

Family on the ferry on Lake Ashi, heading to the Hakone Ropeway
At the base of the Komagatake Ropeway

At the top of the ropeway
(more pictures of Fuji-san will be added at the bottom from the top of the ropeway, however since they are panoramic images the EXIF data was incorrect and therefore not placed in chronological order)

Kamakura:

Tori gate to the main shopping street in Kamakura
Crowded main shopping street in Kamakura
At one of the many temples/shrines in Kamakura



Then we went to Odaiba again, hoping to go to the Panasonic Showroom, however it was during the New Years holiday, so we were unable to go. We did happen to wander into something interesting at the Tokyo Big Sight

:) hint
Thats right, we wandered into an anime convention of some sort!

After leaving the Tokyo Big Sight, we headed to the other side of the Rainbow Bridge where a large clock caught my father's eye. So we got off there and went to go check it out



Luckily we arrive right around noon, so we caught the show of all the moving parts at noon
then we went on to Ginza, an expensive/famous shopping district in Tokyo
Saw a few high end Italian sports cars in Ginza


Next day we hopped on the Yamanote Line and stopped at various stations around Tokyo

Harajuku
Interesting advertising at Shibuya Station
From Tokyo station we went to see the Imperial Palace


1981 Corvette Convertible and 1980 Corvette on the main road outside the Palace
(years guessed from license plates)



New construction near the historic palace

Once again thwarted by the New Years holidays
Pink Alfa Romeo
New and Old GT-Rs
Hard Rock Cafe in Roppongi Hills

Off we go by subway to Akihabara
Few cars on our way to Akihabara Electric Town:





Finally at Akihabara Electric Town

Gundam Cafe near the station

and now for a few of the panoramas/composites:

Fuji-san from the top of the ropeway
Shibuya crossing
Fuji-san from the welcome center
Imperial Palace

Took me over an hour to make this post, so I hope you enjoyed it. All the locations and area names were from memory so if something seems off feel free to e-mail me and I'll change it :).

I should have a few pictures from Kyoto soon, a few friends from Houston were in Japan visiting so I took the train to Kyoto to meet them.