For The Love of Travel

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.

Made my booking for the Narita Express this morning, for next Sun @ 15.00, to travel to the airport for my flight home. Blimey, glad I got online, seats are getting snapped up. Went to Tokyo station to download my ticket (you need a physical ticket! to hand to conductor) and sussed out where in the vast complex, you go to catch this particular train. All good and prepared for Sunday.

First visit, the Midtown Yaesu building with its public sculpture, ‘the Shining Star’ by Tokujin Yoshioka, who created the piece, wishing for peace. It’s made of 2,000 octagonal and mirrored stainless steel rods – when sunlight hits the sculpture, the beam bounces off, creating luminous light.

Then to teamLab Planets, a museum where you walk through water and a garden, where you become one with the flowers. People go barefoot and immerse themselves in the artworks – yes I was worried about the possible public health implications of walking through water with a few thousand today :), hope disinfectant was applied to that water!

The entrance was pretty speccy, first going down a darkish path with a blue leading light, turning the corner and whoa!….’Waterfall of Light Particles at the Top of an Incline’.

Walking down pathways that shimmer and shine, and where large balls bounce and change colour when you touch them…

I particularly liked ‘Floating in the the Falling Universe of Flowers’ immersive – the cycle of birth and death continues – flowers grow, bud, bloom, wither, die.

An impressive immersive, sensory experience over an hour.

It was an 8am start to make sure I could make Tokyo by 16.00 to hand over the car. Leaving myself ample time for whatever exigencies arose of course. A few kms down the road, an interesting road sign that didn’t make sense to me…why was a fish talking to me about an earthquake?

Drove through the Keihin Industrial Zone. The heart of the zone is the Kawasaki and Yokohama harbour area, a large industrial belt along the northwestern shore of Tokyo Bay! Never seen quite as much heavy metal concentration as there – shipbuilding and the production of chemicals, machinery, primary metals, petroleum products, automobiles, and fabricated metal goods. Kilometres of it, looking exactly like this pic:

I saw a strange structure with sail-like towers in the middle of Tokyo Bay. Its called the ‘Tower of Wind’, a ventilation shaft supplying air to the tunnel section of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, a bridge-tunnel combination that crosses Tokyo Bay. It consists of two bridges at either end, connected by a six-mile-long tunnel underneath the bay. The tunnel currently ranks as the fourth-longest underwater tunnel in the world, and the longest undersea tunnel for cars (the three longer tunnels all carry trains).

The Tower of Wind sits above the midpoint of the tunnel, which lies about 131 feet below the surface. Designed by the acclaimed Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Toyo Ito, the two elegant towers look like domes from some angles and wind-filled sails from others. Each tower captures the almost constant winds that blow across the bay, supplying the tunnel below with fresh air.

Just one venue visit today, the Hoki Museum of Art in Chiba City, which opened in 2010 as a rare art museum in the world, specialising in ‘Realistic’ paintings, collected by the late Masao Hoki, founder of a major medical supply company. It currently boasts 480 works by some 60 artists – nearly all Japanese and nearly all oil painters (the one outlier works in tempera). An added attraction was the museum itself, a prize-winning structure with a reputation as an architectural marvel. Consisting of several long, gently curving, overlapping tubes over 500m, it resembles a double helix resting on its side. Though it has three stories, two are on or below ground level, while the top cantilevered section thrusts dramatically out into empty space. It’s a stunning sight, particularly when viewed from the lush green Showa Forest, Chiba City’s largest park. The paintings inside, are lit by arrays of LEDs at varying wavelengths embedded in the ceiling, and the walls are free of rails. It’s one of the nicest museum interiors I’ve ever seen.

Emi Hiroto was one of my fave exhibition artists and his ‘My Baby Blue’ looked like a photo…extraordinary to see up close, the teeniest tiny brush strokes that create the image!

In Fumihiko Gomi’s ‘Still Life with Lemon’, a partially peeled lemon, a pear, and a chunk of French bread glow against a black background.

Masayuki Hara’s ‘Sheep Pastures in Hartsop’ (English Lake District), is a beautiful rich landscape image.

Driving into Tokyo, which was surprisingly easy, this image made me laugh…an ‘elderly freedom ride on the freeway’ …..later discovered its a very stable 3 wheel delivery scooter, they are everywhere!!

Handed over my ‘Roomy’ (Nissan cube car), back to Hertz after doing 4,500 kms over 3 weeks through Honshu and Hokkaido islands. $500 AUS paid in toll fees!

I’m celebrating with a tiny glass of premium sake. It’s made from gently polished and carefully selected Yamada Nishiki rice from the Akita Prefecture, and carefully grown under a thorough temperature control. With a slightly buttery flavour and mellow taste, it goes well with dishes such as soup and white fish.