Roppongi Midtown After Dark
More city photos, this time from Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi which is Tokyo’s latest commercial complex, shops, restaurants, bars, offices, expensive apartments and a big hotel (Ritz-Carlton). At night the whole area turns into a sort of Science Fictionesque labyrinth of polished brass, steel and glass. It’s just like I imagined the future would be like as a kid, just better color coordinated, less rivets and no flying cars or jet packs. Well, we can’t have everything! It is the fourth tallest commercial building in Japan and the tallest in Tokyo. Before this place come up the whole 20 acres were occupied by the US Military but since they left central Tokyo the character of the whole area has really changed, some nights there were more soldiers out in the streets than civilians but these days Roppongi feels like a different town altogether. One remaining legacy is the relatively poor public transport in the area, unlike the other major districts in the city there’s fewer connections into and out off Roppongi than any where else in Tokyo. Well, that still means we are connected by about four different subway lines within a couple of square kilometers, just no trains, leaving us to rely on busses to connect Roppongi with nearby Shibuya. Midtown is another one of those “don’t miss” places for tourists coming to Tokyo, and is most easily done together with visiting Roppongi Hills. I have a personal trimmed to perfection mini tour of Tokyo that I give to foreign friends with a day or two to spare, and we usually end up just about here after a full day of sight seeing! Maybe I should write it up and post it someday?
Woah! the second one is amazing!!
Thanks Andy! (^-^)
You really see the world differently! I love your night shots!
Thank you! It’s not talent, it’s all about taking the time to see it! (^-^;)
Reminds me of some of the dreams I have…
Love the shots!
Thank you Timi! You must have interesting dreams…!
It feels like I get sucked in to the 2nd and the 3rd photos!
Thank you Emma! You should put Tokyo Midtown on your visit list! (^-^)
Dont mind if you write your perfect mini tour ^^
I like reading about it and once I`ve gather enough money I`ll definitely visit japan and follow your tour.
#2 is a fabulous photo. I keep imagine this photo on a huge screen above my workspace.
It would be fun to do a write up, a one page super route, from 0800-2300 doing Kamakura, Enoshima, The Pacific Ocean, Roppongi, Tokyo Midtown, Shinjuku, Tokyo Government Offices in one day! (^-^) Thank you for you kind comment!
Your childhood view of the future had a very steam-punkesque feel to it. I am still waiting for my jet packs, doggonit, I was promised a jet pack.
This reminds me of a New York high rise apartment one of my cousins lived in. It was so high and somewhat scary, I was five at the time. But the height did remind me of the Jetsons, you know how everyone lived in the sky. I remember one time I was there, there was lightening shooting through the sky. They were all different colors. It was beautiful and frightening at the same time. Maybe that’s the best way to describe the future, beautiful and frightening at the same time.
I think you are an optimist at heart! Beautiful and frightening doesn’t sound bad at all! (^-^;)
I think I like to hope for the best and feel compelled to prepare for the worst. It always turns out that it’s nothing that I thought of. So I guess beautiful and a bit frightening is about right.
(Looks behind the couch searching for D…)
Small hand waves, I’m still here Andy…
I can see the futuristic style you mention of. The second photo gives quite an impact with the perspective you shot it in. Makes me imagine of little flying cars zooming through it. Truly amazing ^_^
Would be great to read about one of your mini tours. I’m always interested by the history or story behind the places you mention of.
Thank you Sabine! I’ll think about writing it up…! (^-^)
I love the photos. Can I ask what you did to get such good night photos?
Thank you! Actually these photos are almost straight from camera, it just turned out that the balance between the cloudy sky and the low light on the buildings was absolutely perfect. This doesn’t happen too often. A few hours later there would be less city light reflecting on the clouds and on another day the clouds might be higher or lower, changing the scene completely. The only thing I do especially at night photography is underexpose, but some people swear by over exposing to get more information in the shadows. I think that would be fine for certain kinds of photography, personally I am not so interested, the photos are more a way of taking notes on my life and what I find around me.
My apologies for cutting in, if I may? what camera are you using? I’m on the market for a DSLR but can’t seem to know what to get
A DSLR is very expensive to buy and to keep. If you have limited funds I suggest first of all looking at second hand cameras. If you know you want to have several different lenses go for one of the major brands, Olympus, Pentax, Nikon, Canon etc. If you just want more freedom in shooting and don’t really worry about lenses so much (remember that most lenses are more expensive than the camera itself) go for a good compact such as a Canon G10 or a Ricoh. No need to get the newer more expensive models. If you want to have several different lenses, consider a used D90 or D700 if you can afford it! But basically any camera these days are good enough! (^-^) For my photos on this blog I have used a Ricoh compact, a D90, a D700 and a D3s.
You my friend, are awesome! everyone’s telling me to go get an expensive Nikon etc and I appreciate their opinions to get high end, but I’m just an amateur photographer with no advanced skills. Plus a tight budget, how do you take such amazing pictures carrying so many cameras?
Thank you so much for your reply, I super appreciate it
Haha… thank you! Photography has nothing to do with expensive cameras, many of my favorite photographers have very basic low level equipment! It’s the way you use them! I picked the cameras I use only because they help me do the kind of photography I need to do for this blog. If I didn’t blog I would use a very different camera (my 1956 Hasselbald 500C). I don’t carry all the cameras at once, I actually try to never own more than one camera body at once, so that list of cameras was just the list of the ones I had used on this blog! I even used a cell phone camera a couple of times but I took those posts down. (^-^;)
Scoot over a lil bit D.. I think he’s starting to post those slightly scary posts again
OK, the pizza I ordered should be here soon…hope you like sausage…
I sure do!
@Tokyobling: I had to come back here again my friend, I keep looking at the second picture. On one angle, I feel like I am looking UP a building and another angle I feel like I’m looking down a tunnel. So cool!
Thank you Andy! Yes, this building has great perspectives, it gets even better once you’re inside! (^-^)