Category: photo things!

Some night shots along the Sumidagawa, bridges and birds and boats, oh my…

So, I set out on a chilly day that wasn’t raining much, intending to go to Sumida Park, up near Sky Tree Tower, but when I got to Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station, I discovered that I had left my Suica fare card back at the apartment. I didn’t want to make the mile or so walk back just to get the card and walk the mile or so to the station again, so I decided to just roam around the Kiyosumi area, to see what I could see. I ended up going further north, up to Morishita, almost halfway to Sky Tree, but it was getting late and I figured I’d better head back south toward Monzennakacho and my nice warm, dry apartment!

So, I made my way back to the river, because I knew there was a park and walking path pretty much all the way down, on both sides of the river. I got to see part of the city skyline, and Sky Tree of course. There was also this huge bird, I think it was a heron, perched on the railing, casually walking down the rail, I got within 5 feet of it, and it just looked at me! I’ve noticed the birds are all remarkably calm around people here!

I got a bit turned around a couple of times, because I thought for some reason I was south of Kiyosumi, but I was actually north. Once I got my bearings, I got to catch them lighting up the bridges, some of which were historic!

At the end, I decided to try to see some more of the illuminated cherry trees along the canal in Monzennakacho, before retiring for the night.

Sneak peek at some upcoming pics from Thursday and Friday

Hey, all, I thought I’d just put up a few uncleaned-up shots from Thursday and Friday. I’m off to get more, and I’ll post more later, including any I take today!

A bit of illumination, in the cold and dark

So, Monday evening after sunset I decided to go down to the middle of Monzennakacho, down by one of the canal/rivers that run through town, to see what the illuminated cherry trees looked like. It was really cold, about 42 degrees with a steady wind making it feel like the 30s, but I layered up and walked down. For a stretch of one of the rivers, there were lanterns hung in the trees on both sides of the river, and a dock where brave evening tourists could ride an open tour boat along the shore. I took the landlubber route, and just walked the 3 or so blocks that were lit. The trees were still not 100% full, in fact there were quite a few that were still in the bud stage, so there’s still time once it warms up to go see them later this week or maybe the weekend. I also plan to go to the more touristy places over the weekend and early next week, if the blossoms hold up. I may have to head to other places as well, where blooming is taking longer.

At any rate, I saw these Monday evening.

A nice Sunday in the park

So Sunday was a nice day, relatively speaking, as it wasn’t bad temperature-wise, it almost made it to 60 degrees, and the sun was shining. Towards the afternoon, though, the wind picked up and started to have a wind chill, a prelude to an ugly week. But I did manage to see a few cherry trees blooming, and found a neat little thing for kids along the way.

So, the cherry trees I found in Etchujima Park, along the bank of the Sumida river south of my apartment were mostly full.

There was a short section of the trail along the river where they had an area set aside for kids. What was neat about it was that it was a place where kids could learn street and traffic signals, safely and without interfering with actual traffic! The section had painted crosswalks, and working, timed stop lights and walk-don’t walk signals, but smaller than the real thing, and made lower to the ground so little kids could see them. I thought that was a really neat idea, I think it would be good for kids in the US to learn on! It was also helpful that kids were learning how to ride their bikes on the same trail, and they could learn to be responsible drivers, too!

I didn’t get many more pictures, as I met a couple and their son, tourists from California, and talked with them for a while. We talked about what they planned on the trip, and I gave them some (hopefully) helpful things that I’ve learned about being a tourist in Japan. It started to get cold, and I didn’t want to keep them, they weren’t really dressed for it, and I needed to get to the drug store to get some soap and laundry detergent. I did manage to see a few more neat things before it got too cold to hold a camera for long. In hindsight I wish I’d gotten an earlier start.

Lazy-ish Friday and lazy Saturday

So, Friday I finally got tired of using the trackpad on my Macbook, and decided to scope out an electronics store nearby to buy a mouse. I debated about going all the way to Akihabara just to get a mouse, but it seemed like overkill, plus I wanted to spend a long time at Akihabara. What I did was find a smaller electronics chain called “Yamada” which happened to have a store in a shopping mall not too far away. So, I set out on a short(?) 2 mile walk to an area called Toyosu, which is on some reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay.

It took me about an hour at a leisurely pace, I had the option of taking the Metro but figured I need the exercise. When I got there, after roaming around trying to find the front door 🙂 I went in to go to the 2nd floor. I was amazed to ride up on, not an escalator, but an angled moving walkway, like a moving ramp! I’ve never seen or heard of such a thing, but there it was! It felt weird standing on it, as my feet weren’t flat on a step.

It worked okay, and I got to the top and into the mall proper. It only took a few minutes to find the store, and I got my mouse. On my way out I stopped at a small French bakery, called “Boulanger VAGUE”. At least I think I did… 🙂

After I left the mall I debated about walking back, but foolishly decided to take the Metro, at the tail end of rush hour! It wasn’t as crowded as you may have seen, but it was pretty packed in the station. I only rode one stop, then changed trains and rode another stop to my station. That was the only thing I really did on Friday, so I was kind of lazy, until I did my walking.

Saturday started cold and rainy, and hasn’t improved at all except to stop actually raining, and only threatening. I thought about doing my laundry (I only brought a few shirts and things, enough for 5 or 6 days depending on how offensive I want to smell 🙂 and realized I don’t have any laundry detergent! So, now I have to go to either the grocery store or one of the drugstores near me to pick some up. Also have to get some bars of soap (I’m old-fashioned, never got the hang of the “body wash” stuff) and probably grab something to eat. All in all, a very low-energy, lazy Saturday.

Some pictures on my first walkabout.

So, Wednesday morning broke nice and clear, except for the dust blowing over Tokyo from China, but otherwise the day started nice. I decided I would walk around the neighborhood a bit, to see if I could see any cherry trees blooming along the Sumida River, which is about a quarter-mile from my apartment. I made my way down to the riverbank, which has a park and walkway all along the river on both sides, and started north.

After walking for a while, I found that I was very close to one of the city’s parks, Kiyosumi Gardens. I decided to go ahead and check out the park, which is a nice, well laid-out Japanese garden, with hundreds of interesting rocks from all over Japan, and some wildlife in the form of birds and turtles, as well as hungry koi fish in the large pond/small lake. They charge a small admission fee, and I was able to finagle the senior rate, which was 70 yen, or about 45 cents! Who says Japan is expensive! 🙂 Sadly there were no cherry blossoms, but there were some flowering bushes, not sure what kind though.

After strolling through the park for a while, making a full circuit of the paths, I decided to get some lunch, and on my way out the gate I saw a Denny’s down the block! Unfortunately, at 1:30 PM they had a lot of people waiting, especially families, so I changed my plans and started walking down the street. I ended up going into this little ramen shop and having a big bowl with a side of rice and pickled cabbage. The ramen had a piece of pork so well cooked it practically fell apart in my chopsticks, and the noodles were cooked just firm enough, and the broth was really really good and salty.

Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures of the shop or the food, I didn’t ask permission and I didn’t want to be one of “those” tourists and act like I owned the place, so you’ll have to use your imagination. It was a whole universe better than any cup ramen you might have had, though!

From there, my trek took me on a subway ride to Shinjuku to the apartment office to tell them of a maintenance issue I had, and then back to Monzennakacho on a different train line. When I got back to the apartment I checked my health app on my phone and found that I had walked over 5 miles! I hadn’t intended to walk quite that far on my first day, but thankfully I have been working up to it over the past year or so.

Anyway, that’s all for Wednesday! I took Thursday off so I could get these pictures ready!

Nerdtour 2018 Japan – Evening on the Sumidagawa

Just a few pics I took wandering up the Sumidagawa Monday evening:

Nerdtour Japan 2018 – Birthday washout…

Well, I was here in Tokyo for fireworks on my birthday, but Nature conspired to send a typhoon my way, which forced Tokyo to delay the fireworks.  It wasn’t a total washout, I did manage to celebrate by going to Akihabara, which turned out to be much closer to my apartment than I originally thought, only a couple of stops on the subway.  The fireworks will go off today, Sunday, but I had already made other plans for this evening, so I’ll end up going to one of the other Tokyo fireworks displays they have over the next couple of weeks.

Some pics from the last few days:

Kamakura fireworks Tuesday

Kiyosumi garden:

Akihabara on my birthday: