The first stop on my Tokyo tour was Akihabara, or Electric Town.
This area is so named because this is where all the big electronics
stores are. If you need a digital camera, walkman, mp3 player, computer
or whatever, then here's a good place to find it.
Akihabara has lots of big building covered
with ads. Another thing they have is duty free electronics stores
and also stores that sell special international models that are made
to work with different electrical currents and languages.
The car navigation systems in Japan are great! Check out the detail
of the map!
And get a load of the 3D street as you
drive through it, complete with buildings!
Here's a nice Panasonic MP3 player. Less than 2 inches square,
it uses Panasonic SD cards, which means your memory can be up to
1GB (or whatever the latest size is) in a tiny package.
Since Japan is so crowded, it make sense
to stack things up and make the most of your vertical space. Some
car ports do this by lifting cars up and out of the way like this
one. This one looks like it holds 6 cars that rotate around inside
the building. In addition, at the bottom of the picture you can see
a round metal plate. When a car is backed onto the plate, the entire
car is rotated (ala Batman's Batmobile turn table in the Batcave)
so it can drive out forward.
Part of the moat around the Imperial Palace.
A scenic path in one of the temple areas.
Another scenic path.
A sushi kaiten (conveyor belt) restaurant.
Next we went to Asaksuka to visit a temple. Here is the main gate
to the temple with a huge lantern in the middle.
Here is the seal on the bottom of that
huge lantern.
This picture is from a friend. I think
this is the Asaksuka temple,
Next we took a boat from Asaksuka to Odaiba where we had dinner.
On the way we passed this beautiful bridge.
Here's another view as we passed it.
And yet another.
The bridge with Tokyo Tower behind it.
The bridge with a replica of the Statue
of Liberty
Here is another bridge we passed.
And another.
And the tower of another.
Here is a huge ferris wheel they have.
The next day was our last day and here
you can see what happens when 45 Americans and all their luggage take
over a Japanese train.
