Tokyo Conference/Holiday

Bre had a conference in Tokyo at the University of Tokyo this week.  I tagged along to have a Tokyo Holiday.  It was warm and sunny in Tokyo.  A welcome change from the cold reality of Sapporo.  We were in Tokyo from Wednesday through Friday.  The sakura (sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossoms) are starting.  We were there just before full bloom.  It was fun to see how each day there would be more blossoms.

We stayed near Ueno Park which is well known for its' sakura.  The photo above is of a temple gate leading to one of the many shrines in the park.  I think it is the Gojoten Shrine.

Bre's head enjoyed the spring sunshine.

We found an amphitheater at one corner of the park.  There is a stream that ran from a waterfall at one side of the amphitheater into two separate streams that went around and rejoined at the other side.

On Wednesday night Bre stayed late at her conference and I went out to dinner with our friend Anton, who was also in Tokyo for a conference.  We walked around looking for a restaurant for dinner.  We were approached by not one, but two pimps.   I was totally shocked the first time.  Not only have I not encountered any other pimps or prostitutes in Japan, but I didn't even realize they existed until that moment.  If you are wondering what a Japanese pimp is like they wear nice suits and at least one of them spoke perfect English.  Apparently Ueno has a red light district between the park and our hotel.

On Thursday I rented a bike from our hotel.  It was only 200 yen for the day, what a bargain!  I biked down to the Imperial Palace in the center of the city.  It was a windy day.  I was wearing a baseball hat which kept getting blown off.  I had my photo taken in at the gatehouse to the Imperial Palace East Gardens because my hat flew off.  It sounds like a funny story, but there is not much more too it.  When my hat blew off there was a Japanese gentleman who felt so sorry for me that he offered to take my photo.  This was before he realized that my camera has the 50mm fixed length lens with no zoom.  He had a hard time taking the photo, but it came out pretty well anyway.  Domo arigato Gozaimasu!

The East Imperial Gardens are beautiful and immaculate.  Most of the buildings have great tile roofs.  There are also lots of giant stone walls and a moat.  Being here lead me to imagine how you would have to be a ninja to be able to sneak in.

There are not that many parks in Tokyo, and this is one of the largest green spaces in Tokyo.  It was nice to have the break from the concrete jungle that is Tokyo.

The photo above is of one of the lakes at Ueno park near the hotel where we stayed.

We went to Shibuya to meet our friend Eric.  In the photo above Bre is waiting in front of the mural of Hatchiko the dog outside Shibuya station.  Shibuya crossing is known as the busiest intersection in the world.  There are about 300 people who cross the intersection every 1.5 minutes.  Fortunately Eric was able to find us in the crush.  It was fun to visit Eric, like a little trip to America.  We had Mexican food and went to Baskin Robbins for ice-cream afterward. 

 

It was fun to see Eric and we found more sakura in the Shibuya district.  I especially like the photo above of Bre and Eric walking past the lanterns.

On Friday we went for a boat-ride in one of the Swan paddle-boats with Bre's colleague Adit.  In this photo (above) you can see one of the other swan paddle boats.  In the background is the new Tokyo Sky Tree.

While we were paddling around in the swan boat a seagull landed on the head of the plastic swan.  It made a funny contrast.

Here is Adit having a good time boating.

The thing to do when the sakura are blooming is to have a sakura party under the blossoms.  Just about everywhere there are sakura there are Japanese people having picnics.  Usually this involves a tarp, some food and drinks.  This place actually had a Japanese style table set up on the tarp.

We visited the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art.  In the plaza before the entrance there was this great shiny reflective sculpture.

Our last stop in Tokyo was at the Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens.  They are a nice gardens with many visitors.  There was a Japanese woman who asked me to take a photo of her and her husband, and then offered to take our photo as well.  This is the thing to do in Japan, have your photo taken at all the important places that you go.  There is something to be said for this, it is nice to have so many photos of Bre and I together.  Thanks to everyone who took our photo.

I took a break from photographing the park to photograph one of the photographers.  Tokyo fashion is much more adventurous than Sapporo fashion. 

Koi (an ornamental type of carp) are ever present in Japanese gardens.  This photo has some distortions from the water making the Koi look strange and misshapen.  It was actually a normal Koi.

I am ready for sakura/spring to come to Sapporo, it should arrive in about one month!

When we got back in Sapporo I saw this funny sign in the Subway.  I don't know what it says.  Just based on the picture it looks like your cell phone will throw you in front of the subway train.  Beware giant cell phones!

That's all for now.

-Kyle (and Bre)