Summer Hols Tokyo:Asakusa

asakusa, place with lotsa temples and shrines. the pic below is kaminari mon(thunder's gate) leading to the main temple(sensoji) the street down is filled with sbops and quite affordable i must say. found me daruma there for 300yen!


the huge huge lanternn..

sensoji, the main temple. it's summer so its pretty crowded with both japs n tourists

inside it.. the ceiling paintings are nice.. one of it illustrates kyuubi(nine-tailed fox) popularly known in naruto

outside the temple.. people breatthing in the smoke.. supposedly brings good luck i think.. i think...

interacial marriage! at asakusa shrine.. so damn cool. summore they let us snap at them as much as we wanted. really nice couple. i hope they'll do well..(where's my jap chick?????)




i'm off to kyoto n osaka n hiroshima n kobe again.. my posts will be slow n lagging heavily

cheers,
Cl3m`

Summer Hols: Ochanomizu,Tokyo Dome & Ueno Koen

i went to ochanomizu to look for joshie's guitar. the place is really a guitar mecca. almost everywhere is guitar shops.too bad i couldnt find the price he wanted for his j-custom ibanez..

ochanomizu station

pictures from tokyo dome
the ferri's wheel. pretty big but i din ride on this one
the roller coaster seems pretty cool. but i still like the one at cosmo world, yokohama. pic for that will be in another post.
this is tokyo dome.. home to tonnes of baseball games n concerts..
random pic taken there of hearts..
homeless people sleeping in ueno koen(park). the amount of homeless people in japan is alarmingly scary..

Summer H0ls:Tsukiji Fish Market & Yasukuni Jinja

my 1st part of my summer hols. i'm one week into it , yet these are pics of the 1st 2 days only i think.. this is tsukiji fish market in tokyo.It's the world's biggest fish market. yet it doesnt smell like rotten fish. somewhat, it's fresh and nice. the maguro(tuna)..HUGE HUGE and lots...

the market.. ppl use this funny machine to move the fish around and transport it to nearby shops.

guy slicing fish for sashimi i think..

packing it all up..

inspection.. inspection..

scrapping the ice(of issit the skin?)

yasukuni jinja, place where they supposedly worship war criminals. i did have a small hope tht i could see koizumi but that wasnt meant to be.. this shrine is nationalistic, tht is without a doubt. it has a museum describing japan's ww2 from its own point of view.. i won't say that they're proud of the war but they're trying to say it's not their fault that it happened in the 1st place.. this fact i agree..:P


very nice shrine.. gold n black..

the zero fighter on display..

trains used in the WWII

that's it for now but more still to come..

Kobe Trip PArt4:Kobe Port & Mt.Rokko

My last part of the Kobe series. i'll start off with Kitano-cho, very european designed area where the french and german settled. didn't get the see much as we were they in wee hours of d morning before we went back.this is the weathercock house.german influenced architecture.
mt rokko/mt maya. supposedly to have one of the best views of kobe city from up here but the fog killed any hope of me enjoying it.see how thick d bloody fog is. imagine that i was on a cable car where all you could see were the two ropes in front of u(the ropes didnt seem to be leading anyway)it was almost like the cable car was a one way trip to heaven..
couple shot. i think they were on the same train as us. i guess they're trying to make d best out of the fog.kinda romantic eh?no city view but what d heck? who gives a damn when i got spider webs! really hard to find good shots of this stuff. usually found only early in the morning when d dew sets in. i guess i was just lucky..
the train back down(or the train down to hell as u'll c in the next pic)

the journey to hell:P
kobe tower.. really could have done a better shot on this subject...
chinatown.. nth much here except overly priced food..
meriken park. the remains of the kobe earthquake.
kobe harbour...
kobe harbour from the opposite side.
i guess that's it. my next post will be on gifu kousen's baseball match! don expect anythin good,i dont have a telephoto with me.. kinda hard..

cheers

Kobe Trip Part 3:Himeji Castle And Shrine

This is Himeji Castle, a Unesco Heritage Site.It's one of the only standing castles left in japan in it's original form. Most of the other castles are replicas when it was burned down or destroyed in WW2.


The wall there is the West Bailey , can go in there. pretty cool. apparently some hot chick princess stayed there.

i saw a pic just like this but it was in winter (or was it autumn)was at night too and there was a moon on top of it.nice effect. i guess the castle would be a better view at nice cause it's white d and doesnt produce any contrast with the sky.

this coffin is part of the wall of the castle. pretty neat eh?

Himeji Shrine, a 5 min walk from the castle. nothing great here...

remember a couple of posts before where i took pics of the water thingy,this one is just the same but the water's coming out from d dragon!

hehe, abit short here.. next stop:Kobe!!

Kobe Trip Part 2: Kokoen Garden

I wanred to include Himeji Castle in this post but there seems to be a limit to how many pics that can be posted in a post.so here are the pics for kokoen garden in himeji.. one of the best gardens.. would be nicer in autumn or winter.. but worth d 300 yen

this was taken outside the garden. i got there early so it wasn't open yet:P

pics of the garden. i like the 1st one and the last. this fish pic is pretty cool.


bamboo shots.my 1st try, should have done better with d depth of field i think..
why are there red leaves in summer????


i like this shot, i don't know why. the flower behind it gives a whole new perspective..






the usual flower shots, this time on a lotus. it was prolly one of the best subjects ever. even an old lady who was there to snap spent more time than me there( i think she's better than me:P she helped me with the shot below.. she arranged it.. minolta user.. both on film and digital meaning her age is with experience:P)
i like this..

my next part is himeji castle!