Tokyo: Arrival and City Walk

Street In the Book District... I'm sure it has a proper name...

Bottle collection... so many options for eating.

Tokyo's amusement park. Oh, and bikes. A very strong bike culture in Tokyo.

I had no idea Tokyo had a canal system. It;s mostly hidden under expressways, though

A group of citizens chanting at a shrine. A delightful sanctuary in the heat of the city. Not exactly serene, though...

This place is three dimensional...

Lunch... Greg bringing noodles to the table.

Me lounging on the Imperial Place.

This was anticipated, but still startling... the interplay of not just old and new, but so many sharp contrasts in style.

I really should have taken the name of this structure...

There is the human scale and then there is this. Note the smog: this hung around all day, gradually getting worse as the day went on.

But the human scale... so much space for just walking.

Obligatory shot of overloaded scooter. Sorry...

Some sort of festival was running all day. We kept bumping into throngs of these guys.

In a way... the whole place is just juxtaposition on juxtaposition...

I have a mere two days in Tokyo, and after a few short hours I am already feeling that this wonderful place deserves a longer look.

After arriving at the hotel and dropping off my bag, I had two hours to take a stroll before my old friend Greg turned up. Greg has live in Tokyo for years, but this is the first time we have ever managed to meet here.

It turns out that the hotel is in a bit of a bookshop district and is a bit of a maze of little alleys and streets. That's the thing that has struck me the most about the tiny fraction of the city I have seen so far; the human scale of the urban fabric, even if it has it's share of broad expressways and sterile international-style architecture.

Anyway... before I start to rant, let me just tick off the highlights in no particular order.

The Imperial Palace was a surprise. The place is huge on a scale I just did not appreciate and the buildings are gorgeous. Then, there were the maze-like streets off the main strips that close in around and create an environment you can touch, feel and smell. Streets present opportunities, rather than just being conduits to get from one place to another.

Then... there must've been some kind of festival on, because we kept crossing paths with bands of folk dressed in bright cloths and carrying large mobile shrines about (I am sure Greg can tell me what the proper noun for "large mobile shrines" is). These people were chanting and beating drums as they went, and whenever they crossed paths with another mobile shrine, a mock confrontation ensued.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. On a photography note, all of the images today were shot on the little Panasonic Lumix LX100. What a charming little piece of gear! It's great to carry my whole kit in the palm of one hand. though, I admit... if by some miracle I get up early enough to shoot the Imperial Palace again tomorrow... I'll be bringing the Pentax for just that little bit extra...

But it has been wonderful day and a great start to the trip. Thanks to Greg for his patiece with my photography. Again... I find I really enjoy these random walks on foot more than any guided tour or museum.