More Of Kichijoji

As I promised, here’s more photos from my walk down one of Kichijoji’s many shopping street, or shoutengai. It is a strange feeling to walk down such a narrow intimate little shopping street and still have to share space with these huge city busses passing by more than once a minute during rush hour. I don’t know why exactly, but it’s really hard to get their digital sign properly with a short shutter, hence the strange looking sign at the front of the bus! Another thing I also have a hard time getting used to is the multitude of “help wanted” signs, such as by the door of this little cafes! I’ve never seen a help wanted sign in Europe, but the job market in Tokyo is as hot as ever, global economic downturn or no downturn. I also love the mix of old and new, like the traditional sweets shop in the third photo. As with most cities in Tokyo, smoking in public areas is strictly prohibited with steep fines especially for walking with a lit cigarette. This rule has become almost universal in Japan’s bigger cities in the last few years and I can compare with my experience of the streets here before the law, it is much cleaner, much better air since the laws were enacted. In the second to last picture you can see one of my favorite fast food joints here in Tokyo, the Chikara Meshi! Highly recommended! I also noted the kyabakura called UCLA, right next to a pub chain popular with foreigners in Japan called Hub. If you’re ever in Tokyo, Kichijoji is one of these classical neighborhoods that you just must visit!

The Streets Of Kichijoji

Earlier this month I was in Kichijoji, a neighborhood inside Tokyo Metropolitan area but in Musashino City, one of Tokyo’s western areas. For as long as I can remember people I meet, both foreigners and Japanese, claim that Kichijoji is one of the best places to live in Tokyo, especially among students and young families. The place is also famous for being the home of the Ghibli museum (the studio that creates the world famous anime movies) and Inokashira Park, a huge recreational area complete with a a zoo, boating and a shrine. Between the station area and the park itself I walked along this shoutengai, or shopping street, which while being closed to regular traffic remains open for buses. Even though it is a pretty crowded street, about once every 50 seconds everyone scoots over to the side to let a bus pass through, pretty scary at first! There’s tons of interesting cafes and restaurants, and even a funky looking book store, Basara Books with some very “un-bookish” book loving decorations! I took so many photo I’ll have to split this post into two, more photos coming tomorrow! Stay tuned.

More Imperial Grounds in Snow

Here’s a few more photos of the unusual snow in Tokyo the other morning. The first is a panorama of the moat near Sakuradamon, viewing north, and the following photos is a few that I snapped on the way from the “Cherry Field” gate to the front of the palace grounds. There’s a subway exit near the gate and city workers were busy shoveling away the snow and ice to make it easier for pedestrians to pass. There must have been a shortage of snow equipment because I saw some workers hacking away at the ice with crow bars! I still have some other photos to show, but I’ll post them some other day. I hope we can get one or two more days of snow like this before the winter is over!

The Imperial Palace in Snow

Yesterday I woke up to see even central Tokyo covered in snow! Snow like this doesn’t happen very often in the capital and it is usually all gone by noon. I went to the most photogenic place I could imagine, the Imperial Palace area to see what it would look like. Here’s a few pictures from yesterday morning. It’s the first snow photography I have done in more than a decade and it shows! I really need more practice with this subject.

As I was snapping away and stumbling around the palace grounds (it was really slippery) more and more tourists arrived to take pictures of this rare scene. Even a few News crews were unpacking their camera gear and in the afternoon most newspapers had a photo like this, of the palace in snow. Once in a life time, maybe?