Sunday, August 05, 2007

Views from Tokyo Part IV

On Saturday, I went for a stroll in the area around Ueno and Asakusa. It's quite an enjoyable part of Tokyo, with quite a few temples and a huge park, as well as more love hotels than you can shake a stick at (religion, nature and sex, huh? Only in Japan...). Here are a few pictures of it all, although I've got more views of the area in the form of footage. When (and if) I make it back to France, I'll compile all my Tokyo footage into one film, reduce it to a more server-friendly size, and upload it here. In the meantime, photos...

I love this building. It literally seems like they built the staircase and added the apartments as an afterthought.

A statue near Asakusa. Don't ask who it represents or why it has a red cloth... I'm not that interested in Buddhism, and couldn't really be asked to find out.

The main gate to the main shrine in Asakusa. Cultural, eh? I've been here before, about five years ago. Wow... time flies.

A tower-thingy in Asakusa. I'm going to refrain from further commentary until I have something vaguely interesting to say.

Aaah, your leafy escape from the hustle-and-bustle of the metropolis: Ueno-koen park.

Urban contrasts: a small shrine in Ueno-koen sits surrounded by an enormous lake, framed by the buildings and Tokyo University, seen in the distance.

A closer view at that shrine...

A salad field? No, that's actually one big-ass lake. Very refreshing, in the summer heat.

There's probably some story behind this stone, but I don't know it. Right next to the small shrine in the pictures above.

A more luminous shot of that stone.

The famous main auditorium of equally famous University of Tokyo. I'm not quite sure the whole place was open to visitors, so I sort of blagged my way in by simply entering through the main gate, looking like I knew what I was doing. Gaijin-license...

Another shot at this building. It's a shame that I didn't have time to take pictures of the other, more pleasantly designed (but less famous) buildings, but they're all on the video footage.

1 comment:

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