With a 700m long tunnel of cherry trees, the Edo Castle’s Chidorigafuchi moat pathway is spectacular in Spring…and just a very pleasant view, when you arrive when the blossoms have almost disappeared 🙂

To capitalise on the great weather, made my way to ‘Scramble Crossing’ in the Shibuya district, widely regarded as the busiest pedestrian crossing globally, with 2.4 million people crossing the intersection daily, an average of up to 2,500 people per crossing.  Pedestrians are allowed to cross in all directions, including diagonally, once the traffic lights halt vehicles in all directions. It took me an hour to find the photo access point in the ginormous Shibuya station for this shot below (grrr, what a disappointment, hatched film on window! why??) and then from the opposite building (look at the red N, then take the eyes up to the platform encased in glass)…

Then off I went to explore an art village area in Shibuya I’d read about, and specifically the ‘Design Festa Gallery Harajuku’, an exhibition space for local artists with a bar and restaurant attached. These are a couple of interesting murals I loved from there.

Shibuya, whether by day or night, always give you something to look at, talk about, experience! Like Godzilla, staring down at you….prefer the night image taken with more foreground (off the web), but it was a giggle during the day too (had to come in closer to take the shot because of the delivery vehicles unloading).

Tokyo Skytree, opened in 2018 as the world’s tallest tower @ 634m, and beckoned me from my hotel…just a couple of kms away… I see its illumination every night. Quite magical. On the day of my timed 10 am visit, it was very grey to start, but perked up by the time I got to the Tembo Deck on the 350th floor. Quite a journey to get to that point…firstly to find the entrance at the base; then you queue to exchange your online ticket purchase for a physical ticket identifying if you are going to both the 450 and 350 floors; then queue to get to the lifts to take you up; you are segmented numbers-wise for each lift quantity; you enter your lift….and suddenly you are soaring…..whoa! Looked for Mt Fuji, shrouded of course! You get a 360 degree view of the world’s largest city, with an amazing population density, the incredible megapolis – 40.8 million in the City and surrounding metropolitan areas/prefectures. Coming out after experiencing the dizzy heights, loved this sibling interaction…check out the little guy’s product-filled, slicked back hair! And both, impeccable in manner and dress.

I experienced a new thing in Tokyo tonight, an ambulance vehicle trying to move through traffic, having turned on its sirens, then using a loud speaker to communicate their intended movements to help them orchestrate passage! Like… ‘ we’re passing through the red lights, so please wait a moment’. Apparently some pedestrians refuse to stop walking across crossings, even though an emergency vehicle is requesting to pass. Wowsers! Aussie emergency services’ slightly more ‘robust’ response style might be a learning for Japanese crews.