Konnichiwa Tokyo!

Konnichiwa!  I just came back from my trip to Tokyo and it was absolutely amazing.  The Japanese culture and the people are very different from those back home; they are very polite and traditional.  Everyone seems to know their role in society and takes pride in their work.  People working at stores will thank you about a million times from the moment you step into their store until you leave, whether you make a purchase or not and everyone seems to be smiling and enjoying themselves all the time.  The people that I found most amusing were the airport staff working on the tarmac.  As your plane leaves the gate, they wave and smile and bow to send you off on your flight.  You will never see anyone in any other airport that is that cheerful working in those conditions.  Anyway, the weather wasn't great so some of my pictures look gloomy, but nonetheless, here they are.

This is the Kaminarimon, the gate with the lantern that leads to the Sensō-ji, the Buddhist temple in Asakusa.  It's a popular tourist area with lots of shops that lead up to the temple, selling food and authentic Japanese items like kimonos and samurai swords.  

Shibuya probably has the most crowded intersection in all of Japan.  This crossing goes in about 8 or 9 directions, and at rush hour (when I took this picture), it gets really busy.  It may not look too bad here, but if you were to see the intersection from a bird's eye view, it's pretty crazy.

Tokyo Sky Tree is Tokyo's newest and tallest landmark.  It's a broadcasting and observation tower that measures 634m, making it the second tallest building in the world!  Having been to the CN tower many times, I thought this tower would be quite similar, but I was thoroughly impressed when I saw it.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to the observation deck.  Perhaps next time.

This is Harajuku, well known for all the fashion stores in the area.  I went to the old Harajuku street and saw a lot of vintage looking stores like this one.  I also went to a cafe there called "Justin" that was very vintage looking, and pretty much hipster's paradise.  

After extensive research, I finally found a tele-photo lens at a great price and bought it, so here's a picture at 300mm from my hotel room of the sunset over Tokyo.  

This is Tsukiji Fish Market, the busiest and largest wholesale fish markets in the world.  Fish are brought in early morning for inspection and then auctioned off to buyers, then delivered to various restaurants and sellers, all before 9am.  They sell all kinds of seafood including crabs, various shell fish, and of course, massive tunas.  I went to one of the small restaurants early in the market and had really fresh sashimi on rice.  It's probably the only place where you can get fish that fresh.

Yokohama is about an hour train ride south of Tokyo.  It's a major port for cruises and also has the largest Chinatown in Asia, of course excluding China itself.  I was lucky to have gone on a day with such good weather.  The harbour was beautiful, and there were many families having picnics and just enjoying the sun.  The Red Brick Warehouse in the last picture was used as a customs house in the early 20th century, and now contains many restaurants and a collection of small unique stores.

I don't usually take photos of food, but the food in Japan was too good to not photograph.  The sashimi rice is full of colour and tasted just as good as it looks.  And of course, how could you go to Japan and not try Kobe beef?  The beef looks amazing, and after light flame grilling, it literally melts in your mouth.  This was my second trip to Tokyo, and it was much more memorable than my first.  The food, sights, shopping, and most importantly, the people makes Tokyo a great place to visit!