This is still day 2

More photos of the amusement park and around Asakusa. Above is a beheaded samurai in the animatronic Ghost Mansion at the amusement park, which was actually rather terrifying.

This was in the tourist info in Asakusa. It's a model of Tokyo.

So I took this picture of the odd sculpture on the building. Apparently it is the subject of some ridicule.

However, upon further inspection, there is all sorts of Japanese goodness in this photo. That small building on the left, with the nice colors and mousey cartoon characters, is actually some sort of police hut.

Also, look at that blue sign...

Loved this intersection.
Some streets with Izakaya restaurants.
This is Tokyo Skytree that just opened and is pretty amazing looking.

Still Lost

Second day in Tokyo. This is mostly Asakusa and a small, kind of decrepit amusement park near Asakusa.
Definitely felt like Japan here.
This is the amusement park, I think it was the one shown briefly in Enter the Void. I would recommend a visit here while in Tokyo. There are these weird animatronic pandas you can ride, a surprisingly scary Ghost Mansion, and let me just say the Surprise House is indeed, very surprising.

Super Frog Saves Tokyo

Pedestrian overpasses seem to be quite popular in Tokyo. Makes for good centered photos of the streets, which I was really attracted to. For whatever reason, the first thing that really made me feel like I was in Tokyo were the characters painted on the street.

Our first day consisted of wandering around a neighborhood Meguro near where my sister teaches. We went to a few temples and shrines, unfortunately, I have no idea what any of them were called. At that point, I was still in shocked and awed mode.

This guy I believe is named Daruma. I believe he is a Shinto god of some sorts, but I am really not sure about that.

These are prayer cards you can buy at a lot of temples. You write your prayers on the back side of them and then hang them up for the gods to read. Very beautiful. I brought a few home.

A lot of the shrines and temples had these beautiful strings of origami hanging behind statues. Really amazing.

This is a massive wedding chapel. It had a beautiful outdoor area with waterfalls and coy fish. Also, hands down the nicest bathroom I've been in. It was like Disney world in there.

Scenes from around Meguro/Nakameguro.

Title: Haruki Murakami short story

Dreaming and Drifting Through Tokyo

Hot on the heels of Iceland posts, now we journey to Tokyo. It's been a crazy year, no doubt a back log of photos for the rest of my life.
This is in a Pachinko arcade. These places literally sound like the apocalypse happening. It is one of the loudest environments I've been in. There is no coordination to the sound. Just full on aural assault.
Snuck this one of Cakeman in Shibuya.
Shibuya Crossing at night. Absolutely amazing. Every five minutes literally thousands of people cross this intersection from five different directions. So cool.
Approaching Shibuya Crossing.
At some point in Shibuya, there was a line on the ground. On one side of the line, you are not in Sexy Zone. On the other side of the line, there is no question about the fact that you are all up in Sexy Zone.
This is a side street off Shibuya. It's about two or three streets all lined with tiny bars. And by tiny, I mean they seat about 4 people.