Japan Photos 3

For some time now the Japanese have been taking things that other people make and doing it better. I guess you could argue if this is better or not, but this is the Tokyo Tower. It is a Japanese knock-off of the Eiffel Tower.
It was completed in 1958 and with the television antenna on top is slightly taller that the Eiffel Tower.
They were filming a television show or movie in the little park next to the tower.
Nothing says Japanese cuisine like Denny's.
This is the gate that leads to...
...Nakamise-dori. Located in the Asakusa section of Tokyo, it is one of the oldest shopping centers in Japan. The pedestrian street is lined with stalls selling everything from cheap souvenirs to food to cameras.
At the end of the street is this main gate leading to the Sensoji Buddhist temple.
There is a five-storied pagoda on the grounds.
I'm no expert on Buddhism, but I noticed that people walked up to this smoking caldron and waved the smoke into their faces. I guess that means something.
The original temple was completed in 645, making it the oldest in Tokyo. The current buildings, however, are post-war construction.
There's all the stuff inside the temple. Right in front of the screen is a large offering box into which people threw coins and then did some bowing. Do Buddhists have to pay to pray?
I'm beginning to wonder if taking a photo inside a temple is unlucky. Right after the previous picture was taken, this is what my camera looked like. I think Buddha crippled my camera in retaliation.
The broken camera really threw a spanner into the works of my day. I abandoned my plans for a walking tour of Asakusa and had to venture out to find a new camera. Unable to find what I wanted in the area around the Nakamise (there was a stall that had cameras, but they seemed a little over priced and not what I wanted), I ventured to a section of town that the guidebook mentioned was a shopping area, Ginza. Once I got there it was a blind hunt for a camera store. I saw this sign for Bic Camera, but I didn't know if it was an advertisement for a store or a brand of camera.
Then before I knew it I had stumbled upon the Bic Camera store. It is an electronics superstore with a lot more than cameras for sale. On the down side I had to take time out of my day to have to shop for a new camera, but on the up side I got a better one than what I already had. I wanted something similar to the one I had, a Canon PowerShot A70 with 3.2 megapixels and 3x optical zoom. I ended up buying a PowerShot 720IS with 8.0 megapixels and 6x optical zoom. The fact that it was the same make came in handy since I already knew most of the controls. This photo was the first with my new camera.
I was planning to go to the Edo-Tokyo Museum later in the day anyway, so I headed over to that part of town and got there at about 5:00 p.m. Unfortunately, despite the fact that my guidebook said that the museum was open until 8:00 on Thursdays and Fridays, the woman at the ticket counter said they were closing at 5:30. That really wasn't enough time, so I decided to come back on Saturday. So I just wandered around the neighborhood.
I had discovered before I left that they have a burger chain called MOS Burger. Since I have a rule about not eating in places that I can at home, I gave MOS Burger a try.
There's not a lot of English there. The only English to be found is on that sign in the back that says "Hamburger is my life". I pointed to the pictures on the menu to order what I wanted.
I did a decent job of pointing. I got a MOS burger and fries. I went a little wrong with the beverage though. They didn't have pictures of beverages, so I ended up getting a coffee. They sure like their coffee over there. Anyway, a MOS burger is a regular burger with a kind of a BBQ/chili kind of sauce on it. It was messy to eat, but pretty good.
The Japanese version of a dollar store is the 100 yen shop.
Once night fell, I headed out to some parts of town where things happen after dark, Shibuya and Shinjuku. This is Shibuya. There is a part of the area on a hill where there is a concentration of love hotels. I think you can figure out what people do in love hotels. You can usually get rooms at a one or two hour kyūkei (rest) or a tomari (overnight) rate. This one looks like it has a kyūkei rate that is a little cheaper between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., so if you like a little afternoon delight, you can save yourself a few yen.
On the street in Shibuya.
Rots and rots of rights.
Shinjuku at night really resembles Manhattan.
A section in Shinjuku called Kabukicho is a red-light district, although you really wouldn't know it if you don't know Japanese. Apparently the streets are lined with strip clubs, love hotels, massage parlors and like businesses, but when all the signs are written in Japanese it's not that obvious. There was a black guy (a rarity in Japan) who came up to me, shook my hand and asked if I wanted to go into one of these establishments. He asked me if I wanted a massage and sex. I assume he meant in one of the massage parlors and not with him. He was probably hired by one of the places to hunt down Americans looking for that type of thing.
They say the neon lights are bright in Shinjuku. It's not quite the same as the old song by The Drifters.
I guess this is what Manhattan would look like to a tourist who didn't know English. A lot of bright signs with gibberish on them.
The LOVE sculpture I am familiar with is in Love Park in Philadelphia. As it turns out, there is one in Shinjuku as well as other places around the world.
Atop the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office buildings are observation decks. They offer quite a view of the city.
One of the advantages of the new camera I had to buy was a feature called image stabilization. I usually have a problem with blurry photos as I cannot seem to keep my hands still, but the PowerShot 720IS somehow maintains stability. These pictures from the observation deck were taken with the nighttime setting, meaning longer exposure. It was hard to keep still with my old camera while the shutter was open and get a clear picture. With the image stabilizer, it is easier to do.
The train back to the hotel was a bit on the empty side.

TO TOKYO DISNEY RESORT