東京タワーがまだ倒れなかった

A number of places were visited in this past week and a half!

First was the Akihabara district of downtown Tokyo. Some know Akiba as one of the best places in Japan to buy electronics, like cameras or computers. Others know it as the Mecca of the geek universe.

I can't really describe Akihabara very well in a blog. It's kind of a surreal place. One of the first things I saw upon entering was a man in a business suit, with a horse head mask. Nobody seemed to find this out of places. There were a LOT of girls dressed as maids. The ones that weren't serving tea to people in insanely overpriced cafes were handing out pamphlets and coupons. I don't have any pictures, since most of the interesting stuff was 1) probably more interesting to me than it would be to most of you, and 2) indoors, where you aren't allowed to take pictures of it.

Next on the list was the heart of downtown Tokyo, this last weekend. The first place I went was a park right on the edge of the Imperial Palace grounds - as close as I could legally get to the palace itself.


That wall marks the edge of where the castle ended back in the Edo period, I think. Now it encompasses the kosher-to-go-into park area!



There was some kind of event going on. Lots of kids on bicycles. Don't know the details on that one, it didn't seem to be a race.


There was an endless expanse of perfect picnic spots! I wish I had brought lunch.


Awesome tree!


I wasn't the only tourist here, naturally. There's one of the few visible buildings on the actual Palace grounds.





Here's another one! Nijubashi bridge, the main entrance the grounds. I hear it's open one day out of the year!


This guy is Kusunoki Masahige, famous samurai from the 14th century. Fought for Emperor Go-Daigo to wrest Japan away from the Kamakura shogunate, then died in a hopeless battle of drama and samurai glory. He got a statue for it, and is also something like the patron saint of kamikaze pilots!



And now we have moved on to my next destination of this outing: Hibiya Park. Ain't it pretty?

However, not all was simple pretty trees in Hibiya park today. Something much more unexpected was going on:


OKTOBERFEST.
In Tokyo. I'm just as surprised as you are! I thought Oktoberfest was in October!

Not wanting to miss out on this opportunity, I had the pure, traditional Oktoberfest lunch of a massive frankfurter and a healthy serving of yakisoba. Just like the Germans do, right? Right?

Here it is from a distance, behind the classy clock sculpture. Bye, Oktoberfest!


Next on the list: NHK Broadcasting Museum!
NHK is a bit broadcasting company in Japan. Kind of like their equivalent of NBC or something.

The route I took to get there was kind of interesting, though. Lots of meandering catwalks through dense forest.
There are a lot of trees in downtown Tokyo.


Seriously, I felt like I was playing Myst.


Here we go! Old-timey stuff!


Giant animal mascots!


A cool room where you could play with cameras and stuff!


Bush and Kerry!

And next to the Museum was... wait for it...


Another shrine!
These things are friggin' everywhere!


It had these scary guys in it. They are probably Gods or something, but all I know for sure is that they mean business.

BUSINESS. Jesus. Look at that guy.

And with that, we have come to the last and possibly most iconic site of this particular adventure:

Tokyo Tower!


It's tall! Taller than the Eiffel Tower, just barely.


There is a gorgeous park near the base!


And once again, I find myself taking a plethora of photos from a really tall building. There are a lot of graveyards in Tokyo!

And a lot of trees!









Aaand that's enough pictures from me for today. To round it off, here's a video I took to try and convey Tokyo Tower's tallness:



In the week between these two trips downtown, I had JAPANESE MIDTERMS. Good gravy the last one was hard, but I pulled about an 85% on it, so that's pretty good. Especially considering that when I get back to the States, it just comes in as Pass or Fail.

I'm not sure what my next trip will be. I might not go anywhere CraaAAaazy this weekend, I've been doing that a lot lately. Two weeks from Saturday is the first real meet of my Field Work class - I'll be visiting an elementary school class along with some other exchange students, to do such exciting things as teaching them the names of colors in English.

Off I go!