It is over four years since we moved out of Japan. Time flies depressingly fast. We made our annual trip back to the Land of the Rising Sun in September, and it was already our fourth journey. I'm not complaining though, I absolutely love going back. Tokyo is hands down my favourite city and it still is the home away from home. Since it was a vacation, I got to just kick back and relax. It's fun to see family and friends, and to eat in my old favourite places (I set myself objectives like "benchmarking Salvatore's pizza using genuine Neapolitan pizza as a reference point" - yes it still qualifies!). My wife went to work for a few days, so I wandered around the city and explored both old and new places, and took way too many photos while doing that. I didn't run into any dead ends, though.
Since our luggage was lost, I was hunting XL-sized summer clothes from all over Tokyo, including Shibuya. It is definitely not a trivial task in September when the autumn lines are already on sale.
Our trip didn't start on a high note. For some reason a connecting flight was much cheaper than a direct, so we flew from Zürich to Düsseldorf, Germany and from there to Japan. The flight to Düsseldorf was delayed and upon arrival we had only 20 minutes for changing planes. We made it but our luggage didn't. That wasn't a huge surprise, but the fact that our bags were completely missing was. ANA was not able to provide a tracking code or anything. It appears that Düsseldorf airport is run worse than your average banana republic. They had some kind of a failure with their baggage system again, and they were unable or unwilling to sort it out manually in a timely manner. After being in dark for four days, we finally got our bags back. It was a huge relief, otherwise I would've needed to purchase a new suit. Finding regular clothes that fit me is a challenge in Tokyo and a suit would have added a new level of difficulty. The lesson learned was to avoid Düsseldorf and choose someplace more reliable like Moscow or Pyongyang instead.
Autumn is fireworks season in Japan. Hanabi over somewhere in Saitama.
Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha was found in 1917, so the company now known as Nikon is celebrating their 100th anniversary. Nikon opened a museum in their headquarters in Shinagawa to showcase their centennial of innovation. Since the entrance is free (I'm not paying Nikon single a yen after the D600 "experience"), I decided to go. It's a very well done exhibition and worth a visit for any camera or tech enthusiast, regardless of your opinion about the company.
Certain things about Tokyo still keep surprising me. The sheer amount of people always comes as a shock. The morning trains are absolutely crazy, I had somehow forgotten that. The service level, if possible, has actually gotten even better; Tokyo is in my opinion more tourist friendly than ever. I got helpful and professional service in good English in my regular joints like Yodobashi and Bic Camera (language was definitely an issue when I moved there in 2005), and you get some sweet discounts when purchasing tax-free with a credit card. The best part is that people are genuinely delighted and treat me like a VIP when I speak Japanese, despite my language being on the level of a (very) small child. Perhaps some of the charm would be lost if they knew that I lived there for eight years, so I circle around telling unnecessary minor details like that.
During our stay in Japan we also did a family trip to the lovely prefecture of Kōchi - lots of beautiful landscapes and delicious food. There's something about the countryside of Japan: it is picturesque and peaceful and a complete opposite to the big cities. The main reason for our trip to Japan this year was that our Korean friends were finally tying the knot, so after departing Japan we spent a long weekend in Seoul – a comfortable 50 kilometers away from the Rocket Man's borders. I took almost 7000 photos in total (meaning: over 6000 crappy photos I had to filter and delete) during the two weeks. Because of the sheer amount of the content, I will be splitting it over a couple of blog postings so please bear with me.
I walked from Shinjuku to Shibuya, and Meiji Jingū was along the way. Unfortunately it was wrapped up for restoration.
It was the typhoon season but fortunately all we experienced was just regular rain.
Ikebukuro
I got a new prime lens as a souvenir, and I tried to catch "stereotypical Tokyo" with it. This is my entry.
Akihabara is one of my favourite spots on this planet! I'm not a big manga/anime consumer but I can easily spend days just aimlessly browsing the electronics stores.
It's a big city so you see all kinds of stuff. This gentleman used a wheelbarrow to take his huge turtle to the beach. He enjoyed a smoke and a coffee while the turtle strolled along the beach.
I've taken so many photos of the Rainbow Bridge that I'm starting to run out of creative ideas.
Odaiba is another one of my favourite places in Tokyo. You get to see wonders like the Statue of Liberty without having to endure through the US Border Control & Immigration - how convenient!
There was a life-size 18-meter tall RX-78-2 Gundam on Odaiba. It had stood there since 2012 but it was dismantled in early 2017 - what a disgrace! However, in September 2017 a new 20-meter tall RX-0 Unicorn Gundam was built in its place! How cool is that! Tokyo is possibly the only city in the world that totally understands why we need giant battle robots!
Odaiba's Diver City shopping mall has a huge "Gundam Base", which sells a wide selection of scale models including some limited editions.
As a diplomi-insinööri I appear to be fond of tassels.
Gado-shita between Yurakucho and Shimbashi stations has tons of izakayas and yakitori joints.
Gado-shita
A delicious way to finish a great trip.