Japan Sept/Oct 2010 - Pics & HD Vids

[inefekt]

Been meaning to make a thread of my trip for quite some time now. I've really enjoyed the various threads from other SSC members so hopefully you guys enjoy this one.

I spent 29 fantastic days in the country, mostly based in Tokyo with a week-long sojourn on the Shinkansen to Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Himeji and Hiroshima.

I'm certainly a very amateur photographer so don't expect great pics. I used a cheap point-and-shoot Sony Cybershot DSC-W150 for the still pics and I think a Panasonic HDC-SD90 for the videos, not entirely sure as I borrowed it from a mate. Unfortunately the photo's are down-sampled somewhat during the upload process so they aren't quite as sharp as my originals.

Enjoy.........

Day 1 - Narita Airport & Nakameguro

Narita Airport


I arrived quite late into Japan so I stayed overnight at the Port Hotel close to the airport. I was dropped off at the departure gate of Terminal 2 to catch the Narita Express into the city










A few vids.......






Coming into Tokyo my first impression was of the overwhelming impact the Sky Tree has on the Sumida skyline. Amazing structure and it wasn't nearly finished (440m at the time)

Nakameguro


Dormy Inn Meguro. Nice little hotel, stayed here 16 nights. Right in the heart of Nakameguro


Every hotel I stayed at had a nice yukata for guests


Yamate Dori - the main road running through Nakameguro.












Free dinner at the hotel. Tasty.


Plenty of restaurants in the area which is popular with the younger crowds........and the odd salary man

[inefekt]

Shibuya
















This place is really an assault to your senses

[Kimiwind1184]

Good stuff. Ill be following your thread. Keep it going.
On a side note, how much costed you the port hotel for one night?

[quashlo]

Thanks... I love street pics.
I want to go back already...

[Aerithia]

Amazing, especially the videos, thanks alot for posting them

Although, i got to say one thing:

WTF DID I JUST WITNESS!

[inefekt]

Originally Posted by Kimiwind1184

Good stuff. Ill be following your thread. Keep it going.
On a side note, how much costed you the port hotel for one night?

Thanks mate. I can't recall exactly how much it cost but it was between $60 - $70 (Australian $) for the night. The airport hotels were a little more expensive than the city hotels I stayed at, Dormy Inn for example was less than $60 a night and included breakfast and dinner. The airport hotels of course have free shuttle buses to and from the airport terminals.

[inefekt]

Originally Posted by quashlo

Thanks... I love street pics.
I want to go back already...

Thanks Quashlo, I was certainly inspired by your great thread though I've never been one to take photo's of people like you, as you rightly noted I prefer cityscapes/streetscape photo's

[inefekt]

Originally Posted by Aerithia

Amazing, especially the videos, thanks alot for posting them

Although, i got to say one thing:

WTF DID I JUST WITNESS!

Cheers
I could really do with a lesson on taking good videos LOL
panning is way too fast in retrospect but I'm glad you enjoy them, plenty more to come though I have to be a bit more selective I think.......

[inefekt]

Day 2 - Shibuya & Shinjuku

Getting the more touristy spots out of the way first

Shibuya








Not sure what the purpose of this was exactly











Taiko drum game. Video game arcades are still fairly popular in Japan, which was surprising given the rise of home entertainment.

[inefekt]

Shinjuku - Skyscraper District

This is the SkyscraperCity forum after all



Shinjuku I-Land Tower 189m


Shinjuku Mitsui Building 225m


Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower 204m


Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building 243m




TMGB Assembly Hall


For some reason this place reminded me of a futuristic, utopian, ancient Greek inspired city you'd see on an episode of Star Trek





Headed up to the observatory on top of the TMGB......




The brown building in the middle is the Shinjuku Center Building 223m. The white building behind it is the Sompo Japan Building 200m. Not sure what the white building in the foreground is though.




NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building 240m










Shinjuku Park Tower 235m


Shinjuku Washington Hotel 96m


Vids.....

[inefekt]

Shinjuku Chuo Park

It's amazing that within this (wonderful) chaotic urban madness you can find these almost serene Shinto shrines. You'd hardly know you were in the middle of the largest metropolitan area on the planet.












Kumano Shrine...














Incredibly detailed interior






Temizuya - ritual cleansing station

Vids.....

[inefekt]

Shinjuku













Some of these shots are from different nights, I loved Shinjuku at night so much I had to visit as much as I could. It really does feel like you're on the set of a sci-fi film






































Some night vids.....

[inefekt]

Shinjuku - Omoide Yokocho

The following pics are of Omoide Yokocho aka Memory Lane. If you don't already know, it's a series of smoky, narrow pedestrian lanes lined with izakaya (Japanese pubs) that almost exclusively sell beer and yakitori to hungry (and thirsty) salarymen. Legend has it that the area inspired Ridley Scott with his set design for the classic sci-fi movie Blade Runner















Vids....

[inefekt]

Day 3 - Tokyo Sky Tree (day) & Akihabara (night)


Tokyo Sky Tree - Sumida Ward

Tokyo Sky Tree was near the top of the list of things to see. It was at 448m on the day I visited. Plenty of locals were admiring the construction site and taking plenty of photo's














Took a quick walk around the area.......

[inefekt]

Akihabara at night




To get to Akihabara from Nakameguro Station I had to transfer at Hibiya Station and walk to Yurakucho Station. This huge pachinko parlour was right between the two stations.


































The smoke filled pachinko parlours are almost unbearable, I could only last a few minutes before heading for the exit!

[inefekt]

Day 5 - Ueno Park

What happened to day 4?
Well it literally rained buckets all day, all I managed to get done was to make my way to the tourist information center at Tokyo Station and organize my trip to Nikko. Went back to Shibuya that night just to walk around and take it all in without worrying about taking pictures or video......the worst thing you can do is to live your whole holiday through your camera lens
Anyway, it was a magnificent sunny day to be walking through a park.......








































I debated whether to include pictures of inside the museum but I figured, why not?




























































Vids....

[Kimiwind1184]

Too bad for you day 4 was raining. I hate it actually. On the other hand, I just try to live with it and explore whenever it's possible.
You visited only Ueno park in Day 5? Or there is more to come on the same day?

[inefekt]

Originally Posted by Kimiwind1184

Too bad for you day 4 was raining. I hate it actually. On the other hand, I just try to live with it and explore whenever it's possible.
You visited only Ueno park in Day 5? Or there is more to come on the same day?

My problem when I go overseas is that, even though I envisage myself getting up early and exploring when I'm home planning everything, I always end up sleeping in and then procrastinating over my day's itinerary.........so it's 10-11am before I finally step out of my hotel room

The only photo's I took on day 5 were of Ueno and to be honest I can't remember what else I did???

[inefekt]

Day 6 - Nikko

I'm going to try and shorten the posts as this first page is getting ridiculously long
But that doesn't mean I'm going to post less stuff! I'll just split each day up into several shorter posts.........
Anyway, day 6 was my birthday so I treated myself to a day in Nikko. I didn't really know what to expect, I just knew my ticket got me entry into Edo Wonderland, Tobu World Square and Futarasan Shrine. The day turned out great, perfect weather and really interesting attractions in and around the town. If I were to do it over again I'd take the Shinkansen rather than the JR local line, the trip there was fine, the magnificent scenery made the trip go fairly quickly but the trip back was painful, it had gotten dark by then so the only thing I could see was the black night. The 3 hour ride felt like 8 hours.....it was like the train ride scene from the anime '5 centimeters per second'

Onto the pics.........

Nikko Town










































Vids....

[inefekt]

Edo Wonderland

Edo Wonderland is a replica of an Edo period Japanese village. Staff dress in period attire and go about their days as if they were living life in the Edo period. There are daily shows, ninja displays and you can even hire period costumes to dress up in for the day!






































The couple on the right were dressed up in period attire, probably the only people I saw who did dress up

Vids....