A place to reflect, ramble, and rofl at adventures from my study abroad in Nihon...
Honestly, there could be shenanigans.

11.5.10

Oh the world is in tune on a spring afternoon...

(No pidgeons to poison here, really.)

We took a break from the urban view heading down towards the Meiji Jinguu area by taking a detour through a Shinjuku Chou, a beautiful little park (even with the small groups of homeless men in the corners.)


 A couple of good portraits, I think...(First is Sabrina, second is Margot.)
Guillaume, Maxim, Momo-chan, Sun Young, and So Rim
(Maxim, I believe, took this shot with my camera for me)
 
Elliot getting a nice shot of the practicing stunt-bicyclists...
 
And eventually we left the park and found the road again...
 
Itty bitty turtles at a pet shop we passed by

All quiet in Shinjuku? What the...

We woke up bright and early Sunday morning at 9 am--well, some of us woke up brighter and earlier than others, namely the Korean girls. They always woke up hours before the rest of us, to complete their morning rituals of applying multiple lotions and make up to their faces. Me, I just rolled out of bed, washed my face, got dressed and made sure my camera bag was packed. See, we had to be out of the hostel from 11 am until 4 pm. It was weird; kind of like a reverse curfew.

We first walked around in Shinjuku, the epitome of "modern" Tokyo: business, government, commercial and entertainment center all in one. First we saw the endless camera shops, then wandered through skyscrapers and skyscrapers. Some very interesting architecture to be found here.
 
And here is where they keep the nuclear wessels
After a while, people started showing up, but before then...pretty quiet Sunday morning on the streets of Shinjuku, Tokyo



A very convenient maneki neko. Usually they're actual paper mache, ceramic, or plastic statuettes...

 Here is Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building #1. I think. In any case, we took the elevator up to the 40-something-th floor to the observatory in the left tower. Very nice round view of the city--the only obstruction being the other tower.
 
The wooded area is Meiji Jinguu shrine and Yoyogi-kouen park are--we shall see in closer detail soon
On really clear days it's said that you can see Mt. Fuji from this view.
This is where it was supposed to be, but...too smoggy, so I had to draw it in.