Tokyo - Here and There: 2014

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

2014年1月と5月 - 高尾山, 銀座, 有楽町など / January と May 2014 Takao, Ginza, Yurakucho, Etc.

This is a mix of photos I took in January and May. They kind of fell together by chance, but I like the combination, so....

City side-street in the magic zone between the mundane daylight of a workday and the deserted, desolate, lonely streets of the middle of the night. People are (largely) off work, happy to be through another day, and enjoying seeing friends for dinner, etc. before heading home on the trains.

Mountain Twilight

Typical platform scenes while waiting for a train in central Tokyo.

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The combination of electric lights and twilight is always interesting in the city.

夜の高尾山辺り / Mt. Takao Area

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Ginza side street - much more atmospheric than the main streets.

Historic and atmospheric izakaya place in Ginza... unfortunately forced to close for some mysterious new development (Tokyo is perpetually under reconstruction).

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Yurakucho / 有楽町

Osaki / 大崎

銀座１丁目 / Ginza 1-Chome

高田馬場駅 / Takadanobaba Station.

Lonely station out in suburbia late at night. I kind of envy the old pre-florescent light tube days when a lonely suburban station like this would have only had a couple of dim light bulbs providing just enough illumination for navigation while walking. You'd have enough light not to be in the dark, but there would also be a connection with the night. With florescent tubes, the illumination is so strong/harsh, the atmosphere of the night is destroyed and - when you're the only one there - the atmosphere is kind of desolate.

高尾山辺り / Mt. Takao Area

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://youtube.com/lylehsaxon
http://lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/
http://lookback1997.blogspot.jp/
http://tokyoht.blogspot.jp/

Monday, August 11, 2014

2014年1月の大東京 - 博物館, 新宿, 浜松町, 大塚, 山など / Museum, Shinjuku, Hamamatsucho, Otsuka, Mountains, Tokyo Tower, Etc. - January 2014

Jumping back just a half year to January of this year. Hard to imagine as I write this in 31C heat that I was cold in January and looking forward to warmer weather....

Looking up at an observation tower at a museum in Saitama.

This construction site in Shinjuku right next to the Saikyo Line platform looks very different now - with the lower structural part of a new high-rise building already in place.

View from a platform at Hamamatsucho Station. 浜松町駅

Waiting for a train at night.

Near Kawagoe-shi Station on the Tobu-Tojo Line in Kawagoe.

A 20th century computer. Booting it up quickly demonstrates how much more powerful modern computers are. It has many of the same type of applications I use now, but each one is slowly and (seemingly) painfully loaded, and you can't have too many things loaded at once - 32MB (or is it 40MB? - I'll have to boot it up again to check) only goes so far....

..... I've never bought one of these cards... I guess this is becoming a standard way to pay for things bought via computer cell phones?

Part of a row of public telephones in Shinjuku Station. This section of the row has since been removed and there are just four or five left on the other end. Likely the decision to remove many of the phones was prompted by people using them as tables to have a drink before going home....

Evening platform view.

At a park in the mountains in Saitama.

Stairs to the bridge of a starship... ;)

Looking up at/under an observation tower.

Small movie theater in a museum.

Part of a park in Saitama.

Buildings near Otsuka Station / 大塚駅近く - This type of collection of medium-sized buildings used to be representative of most of central Tokyo, but more and more of the city is being rebuilt with larger and taller structures.