Tokyobling's Blog

The Streets Of Kichijoji

tokyobling — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:06:39 +0000

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

tokyobling — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:45:26 +0000

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

tokyobling — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:48:27 +0000

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?

The House of Ogai Mori And Soseki Natsume

tokyobling — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:14:12 +0000

At the Meijimura near Nagoya I found this beautiful little villa that has the distinction of being the former home of two of Japan’s greatest literary minds, the Army Surgeon General Ogai Mori (1862-1922) and Professor Soseki Natsume (1867-1916). Mori spent a few years in Germany while Natsume spent years in England, two very international persons for their day. This house was originally in Tokyo, in Bunkyo ward, but was moved in the 1960′s to its present location. It was first constructed in 1890 and is a typical small Japanese house. Built for summer it must have been bitingly cold in the winters! Can you see the cat? It was placed there in memory of Natsume’s most famous novel, “I am a Cat”.