A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far Far Away...

I've been too lazy/busy, and have got some catching up to do. A montha ago, when my friend Paul was visiting, we spent some time in Tokyo with him before seeing him off. Of course one of the places we had to show him was Harajuku, the mecca for all things strangely attired. We came across Gothic-lolitas, Goth-punks, Punk-Nurses, and Goth-Nurses, all of them too fast for my camera. And then I saw this advert with the ultimate goth of them all - Lord Vader. It was also interesting to see smoker's corners set away from the crowds.

Apart from all the costumed people walking around (some of them seemingly walking in cirlces around the central area just to get noticed), there was a place on a bridge where a few people had set up camp, posing for photographers. There was actually a line of people waiting to take photos of the first two, but I couldn't be bothered waiting and just snapped a photo from the side. There were even some Europeans, but they looked a little fierce rather than cute, and didn't have anyone lining up to photograph them. We did some shopping and I picked up some new glasses (spectacles) for $60. They did the eye-test on the spot with a machine that somehow automatically detected my prescription. Then the sales lady then got me to try a few different lense variations, and said I could pick up my glasses in half an hour. Pretty incredible compared to the $400 I pay for glasses in Australia.

Right next to the busy main street in Harajuku is a very large forested park with an impressive gateway leading to an even more impressive temple hidden in the middle.

The next stop was Shinjuku - city of concrete and glass. The Tokyo City Offices are massive, consisting of a large courtyard complex with forbidding towers rising from the corners of the building. We could go up a glass elevator of a nearby building, and could look out over the endless sea of humanity that is Tokyo. The greenery in the photo is the park with the temple that we had visited. We then went to Ueno Park, which was also big, but the lack of grass was surprising. We had to take a rest on some rocks instead, but I guess with so many people in Tokyo visiting the park any grass would soon disappear anyway. Another surprise was how well encamped the homeless people were. There were several parts of the park that looked like camping grounds with semi-permanent structures nestled in under the trees.