Recently I had a rare day with no teaching, so I took a quick trip to Tokyo. The first stop was Omotesando, which has one of the two Wendy's restaurants that have re-opened in Japan. (The new franchise owner says his goal is to have 200 Wendy's in Japan within 5 years, but with only 2 open in the whole country after one year in operation, I'm not holding my breath...) Anyway, the bacon cheeseburger was delicious!
I walked from there to Shibuya, and in one of the pictures, you can see the famous "busiest pedestrian intersection in the world" spot when there AREN'T so many people crossing the street. (Later in the afternoon, I crossed the street there and got a strange "swimming in a sea of people" feeling.)
My final desination was Shinjuku, which is where I took the rest of the pictures I'm sharing. As I was walking toward the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and Shinjuku Chuo Koen, I saw a man on the street with nine cats. All on leashes. And a sort of rolling cat hotel. Difficult to describe, so take a look at the pics. I stopped in my tracks as I was walking down the street, and decided it would be polite to ask the man if it was okay to take pictures before I just stated snapping photos. I asked him "shashin daijoubu?" and he said okay. After a couple of minutes, he said in English, "100 yen, cat food please!" Since I'm such a cat-lover, I couldn't say no, so I gave him a handful of change from my pocket. He counted it (about 300 yen) and said, "Oh! Thank you!" Then he bent down and said (in Japanese) to the three cats that were closest to him, "tell him thank you!" I have started to say recently, "you never know what you'll see in Tokyo..."
In the nearby park (which is probably where cat-man lives) the sun was setting, and the light made an unusual reflection on a building that is covered in what usually looks like black glass. In the late afternoon light, it made the building look almost transparent. There were still trees with beautiful fall colors, so I took a couple more photos of the building from another angle in the park.
After that, I went up to the observation deck (45th floor) of the Tokyo Metropolitan Office. You can see what the "transparent building" looks like from a completely different perspective.
I got home rather late with sore feet, but recharged creative energy...
I walked from there to Shibuya, and in one of the pictures, you can see the famous "busiest pedestrian intersection in the world" spot when there AREN'T so many people crossing the street. (Later in the afternoon, I crossed the street there and got a strange "swimming in a sea of people" feeling.)
My final desination was Shinjuku, which is where I took the rest of the pictures I'm sharing. As I was walking toward the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and Shinjuku Chuo Koen, I saw a man on the street with nine cats. All on leashes. And a sort of rolling cat hotel. Difficult to describe, so take a look at the pics. I stopped in my tracks as I was walking down the street, and decided it would be polite to ask the man if it was okay to take pictures before I just stated snapping photos. I asked him "shashin daijoubu?" and he said okay. After a couple of minutes, he said in English, "100 yen, cat food please!" Since I'm such a cat-lover, I couldn't say no, so I gave him a handful of change from my pocket. He counted it (about 300 yen) and said, "Oh! Thank you!" Then he bent down and said (in Japanese) to the three cats that were closest to him, "tell him thank you!" I have started to say recently, "you never know what you'll see in Tokyo..."
In the nearby park (which is probably where cat-man lives) the sun was setting, and the light made an unusual reflection on a building that is covered in what usually looks like black glass. In the late afternoon light, it made the building look almost transparent. There were still trees with beautiful fall colors, so I took a couple more photos of the building from another angle in the park.
After that, I went up to the observation deck (45th floor) of the Tokyo Metropolitan Office. You can see what the "transparent building" looks like from a completely different perspective.
I got home rather late with sore feet, but recharged creative energy...
