Tokyo

On the Tuesday we visited the Imperial Palace, the electronics distict, and one of the market style areas, and managed to fit in a visit to a temple as well. I was fairy trigger happy with my camera, shooting from the hip at times.

The electronics shops are amazing. From tiny stores with a floor area of about 1 by 2m selling only one type of component through to multi-floor computer shops, it seemed you could buy just about any gadget or electronic part here. A couple of years ago I built my own computer, which still runs like a dream. But I had to order almost all the parts over the internet and it took several weeks to sort it all out. Right here I could get everything I want all in one go. A geek's dream shop really! I bought a remote control for the camera, so no more timer countdowns for the Christmas family shot.

Tokyo is impressively big, of course. But the the buildings themselves don't stand out as very big or impressive compared to other large cities in the world. However the sheer number and sprawl of buildings made a very strong impression. I enjoy looking for patterns in city scapes, so following on some earlier practise in Auckland I put together a rather hasty collection of photos I call "Patterns in Tokyo".

In one of the parks in Tokyo.

The temple I visited.

Traditional Japanese architecture - a Pagoda

The crowded market alleys.

The large gardens at the Imperial Palace are mostly just lawn with sculptured pine trees. Only the gardener is allowed on the lawn.

I succumbed to the call for western food and enjoyed a MacDonalds burger. That night it was Spanish tappas for dinner, followed by a trip up a 50-odd story building to a pub with a view at the top. This was very impressive. I was even more impressed to find the cost of two beers at NZ$80 when the bill came. I missed the bit about the "house charge". The view however was totally worth it.

Kyoko and I presiding over the Tokyo city-scape at a super expensive bar. It was worth it.