Sapporo Traffic Ballet

A few weeks ago I went up to Sapporo for a long weekend. You know, it's on the northern most island  Hokkaido. Yeah that's it, where the beer is from.

Getting there on my first domestic Japan flight was interesting. ANA alone has a dozen flights a day from Tokyo and nearly half of them are big 747 planes.  I'm sure JAL has just as many which is pretty amazing considering it's less than a 90 minute flight. There isn't bullet train (shinkansen) service up to there yet so on regular trains it can take over 12 hours. They are apparently building new tracks so the service should begin in a few years.

The art of traffic direction is alive and well in Sapporo. Check out this ballet I captured:

Is he a Jedi? Is that a lightsaber?

And how about this cute little inflated guy giving you warning about road construction. Ever see things like this back in USA ?

And I can't forget the great lamb "Ghengis Khan" dish we ate at the restaurant  Ram. That's lamb sashimi (yum) on the lower left.

And Sapporo has its own Eiffel-esque tower at the end of a nice park. Hey, it's 12:34!

And the famous old clock tower...

And the newest landmark in town is the Sapporo Apple Store.

Still to come - Owning a French car and driving in Tokyo....

Gotanda: Cats, Curry, Soaps, and Sand Storms

I need to get out more. Now that's not unusual coming from a technie type, but living in Japan has been a challenge and I need to put some more effort into enjoying it. I've decided to take the initiative and explore new areas of Tokyo each weekend. To start I'm going to focus on the train stops I pass during  my commute to work and then branch out to other areas.

My first destination is located on the Yamanote train line which as you know from my previous snow post is a circular line around Tokyo. The link to Wikipedia states that the first part of it was built in 1885 and the loop completed in 1925. Today it's about 1 hour to do the full loop and its 29 stations. And in 2005 it was carrying an amazing 3.55 million passengers a day to its 29 stations! (compared to the all NYC subway lines total of 5.08 million/day and 468 stations)

Gotanda (map) is one of 4 stops on the Yamanote line between Shibuya and Shinagwa. (station map) It's in Shinagawa-ku (ward) and I pass by it every day I go into the office. Usually I'm on a train via Shibuya, but there is also a bus I occasionally ride that takes me directly to Gotanda station.  A few weeks ago I stopped to pick up lunch at one of my favorite Japanese Curry resturaunts which has a store located just outside the station. CoCo Ichiban also has stores in Honolulu where  first discovered them. Their pork katsu curry is hard to beat. 

Wikipedia says that Gotanda is "a busy but unfashionable neighborhood".  Apparently that's got something to do with the legal/ignored prostitution via the "soap" businesses. This sign is advertising a bath/spa where you get soap'ed for 10,000 Yen (~$90) and they are looking for trainees. Sorry no photos from the inside.

Also located here is the theatre showing Cats. Sorry, no litter box shots.

It was pretty moderate on Saturday morning when we arrived, but things changed quickly and cold winds picked up and the clouds turned a bit yellow. Visibility dropped and we experienced what seemd like a dust storm. I thought it was just dust blowing because of the winds, but apparently it was actually yellow sand (asian dust) blown over from the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in China.  Not very happy to think we were breathing that stuff in.

We had a great lunch at Kua'Aina Sandwich, one of our favorites. They are a Tokyo/Hawaii burger chain and have great avacado cheeseburger sets (aka combos) and they add a Kona Pale Ale beer for only 300 yen more. That's Aloha!

In addition to the Meguro river at one end of the area (didn't make it there), there is a canal running through Gotanda. We saw several large residential towers being built. There were also some mallard looking ducks with brown heads swimming about.

We spotted one of Tokyo's big crows near some pigeons and the photo shows just how large those things are. 

Shinagawa-ku may also be one of the smoke-free sidewalk areas in Tokyo. We saw this official ward smoking area. Nothing worse than tailgating a smoker on a crowded sidewalk. Way to go Shinagwa.

Also near the canal was an old Ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn). Quite a contrast from the rest of the urban Gotanda landscape.

We warmed up looking at music CD's, DVD's, and video games in a big Tsutaya which is one of the large entertainment stores that also rents DVD's and CD's. Yes, rents CD's and has blank CD-R's next to the cash registers. No wonder music costs so much in Japan.

Next time we go to Meguro!

Snow in Tokyo

Snowy Backyard

Had a nice snow in Tokyo yesterday, Sunday February 3rd. I'm not sure what the official snowfall total was but I would say at least 4" fell. I think the temperature was above freezing for most of the day so quite a bit of it melted. 

We trekked up to our nearest shrine, Shoin Jinja, to take a few photos of the snow.

After a short visit to the Tipness gym we headed over to Shinjuku for lunch and some more snow photos. We rode the Yamanote JR train line which is a large circular route around central Tokyo. It's about 1 hour completely around the route. Near the end of the video below you see a train platform on the left that's reserved for use only by the Emperor. Not sure how much he travels by train these days...

 

The NTT DoCoMo tower is one of my favorite buildings in Tokyo. It looks straight out of Gotham City.

And yes even in the snow there is a queue for Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Overall there were many fewer people out and about in Shinjuku on Sunday so apparently the snow did have an effect.

Yamanote JR Train @ Shibuya Station

Video from the back of the Yamanote Train in the snow

Shinjuku Takashimaya Store "Times Square"

Shinjuku Train Station Tracks

NTT DoCoMo Tower in Shinjuku

Line at Krispy Kreme Dougnuts Shinjuku