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Tokyo, Japan Section of Year 2000 Trip(with a few Japan Rail photos)Travel and Tourism, Vacation Guide
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| I spent the first two Tokyo nights at the Hotel New Koyo in Tokyo. It might be the cheapest hotel in Japan and has extremely small rooms but is reasonably well located. I walked about 10 Km on Saturday -- all the way to Ueno Park and through the National Museums that are found there. | |
| On this page I include some of the people I met and saw on my train trips. I find the Japanese to be quite friendly. It just takes some effort on my part to break through their initial privacy space. | |
This shows a train station vendor and her sample of
strawberry specialities. Japan Rail seems to keep more food sellers and Kiosk
operators employed than rail employees -- and there are certainly a lot of
those. | |
Next I show some of teenagers that I met in Nara and
Nikko. (Check out the socks. Very high platform shoes are also in vogue).
 | |
The woman dressed in purple was delivering the newspaper
in Kakunodate. The other shows a mother and daughter who ran a great little
restaurant in Nikko.
 |
| In between my people watching I did see a few sights in
Tokyo. After my Japan Rail Pass travel I had several days in the western
suburbs near the Keio train line. Some of the most interesting Japanese sites and contrasts are in the common street scenes. The following group of photos are all taken within a hundred meters along the street near where I was staying. This include a surfing shop, a Lawson Station Convenience Store (like the ones that fed me during my Rail Pass Trip), a yakitori restaurant, a gas station and a thatched roof farm house. 
 |
I made a visit to the local Metropolitan Jindai
Botanical Gardens and the Jindai temple. It is not in my guide books but is
well worth a quiet afternoon.
 |
| More temples were seen in a later visit to the Sengakuji
temple complex. This is the graveyard of the 47 Ronin that feature in so many
Japanese epic stories. There was a statue of a famous Buddhist Zen master.  |
A short distance away I got interested in the scene
through the window of a hair cutting salon. I convinced a few of the staff to pose for
me.
|
| I spent a day at the Kabuki theatre in Tokyo (no photos
allowed) followed by an evening in Shibuya area checking out the young fashion
scene. The second photo shows a woman giving out beer samples on the street corner! 
 |
In the vast stretches of Shinjuku station I discovered
this group of hard core "Maple Team" soccer fans.
 |
On my last afternoon wandering Tokyo, I visited the vast
electronic bazaar near Akihabara station.
 |
Outside the station there was a group using cuteness to
sell ISDN computer connections.
 |
| The last day was spent getting to Narita Skyport Hostel -- which is actually just another Business Hotel -- to spend my final night in Japan. After doing so well on my long distant travel I managed to make several mistakes in train and station selection as I left Tokyo. The transportation system there is very confusing and very expensive. |