Tokyo Pt. 1

First off, an apology to everyone for this being so late in coming. Three separate problems with the tablet I took along to copy across my photos and do my blog meant that I was already halfway through my trip before I managed to get everything sorted out, and then there wasn't much chance to catch up!

Tokyo: rainy with a chance of near-gale force winds

The flight over was uneventful, and I touched down in Tokyo at about 9:30 pm. I always love seeing cities from above in planes at night, and this was definitely no exception: it was very pretty.

As mentioned in the title, the forecast was apparently rainy with a chance of near-gale force winds, because that's what it did for the next two days. (Scratch one umbrella.) This didn't dampen my spirits though, and I got in some good cherry blossom viewing at a couple of parks that still had some trees with plenty of petals, as well as the streets of the Shinjuku district where I was staying.

It's easy to see why the Japanese people go so nuts for cherry blossom season: they really are nice to look at. Here are a few photos out of many!

This is as good a time as any to include a couple pictures of the vending machines that you'll find anywhere and everywhere in Japan, including trains and the temple I stayed overnight at. Wherever and whenever you are, you can always be assured that a drink of some sort won't be far away!

The only food ones I ever saw were for ice creams:

Having now had enough of walking through the rain huddled under my umbrella clutching my camera and trying not to be blown away, I headed off to see some museums, indoors. It was at this point that I discovered I'd somehow managed to crack my camera screen, probably by clutching it up against my umbrella stem too hard at some point near the end. The following photos involved more than a little guesswork, with a screen that was half working at best.

Armour

Armour, complete with shovel

A clearly ornamental helmet

An obviously much more practical one (ouch)

In older times Japanese clothing didn't have pockets, so small toggles called Netsuke were used to attach small containers and tobacco pouches to people's sashes. Once clothing styles changed they were no longer needed, but pressure from Western art aficionados and collectors in the 70s resulted in "contemporary" Netsuke being made. Some of these came out a bit blurry, but they're too cute not to include:

At this point I had to cut the museum viewing a bit short and make an earlier than expected visit to Akihabara, Tokyo's famous electronics district, to do something about my camera. There was lane after lane of little shops and  plenty of high rises too, with each floor devoted to something different. Cameras,  computers,  mobiles,  tablets, lights and bling went on and on, along with toy figures and the occasional hobby shop. I managed to find the same camera model and got to see the district during the day as well as when it got dark. I figure it looks best at night; it's rather cool all lit up:

And finally, for all the people I know who are familiar with the zombie shooting game called House of the Dead, you probably would have been as amused/bemused as I was to see this in a game arcade I went into:

The words just above the screen say "TYPE or DIE !!" and yes, the game characters you can see on the screen are holding keyboards instead of guns.

Instead of using a gun, the zombies came at you with Japanese words written on them (using English letters, or Romaji, if you prefer) and you had to type the words before they got too close. Naturally I had to try it.