Tokyo

Some random shots from the greater Tokyo area.

	This is found all over Tokyo -- the little building that wouldn't sell out, so the big building had to be built around it.
		A busy street scene a block or two from Shinjuku station.
		Yes, it means just what you think it does. But why does it say so in English?	You can't make this stuff up. This is a real recruiting poster for the Tokyo Police Department I saw in Akihabara. The text at the upper right reads, "towards tomorrow's you."

This was my friend Scott, who I stayed with most of my time in Tokyo, in his 'spacious' and 'well-kept' office. Well, the office is well-kept in computers, anyway -- he's got 5 PCs in that overloaded rack to his left. At right is a picture of Scott hanging out in the nightlife district near Kokubunji station on the Chuo line, which is his neighborhood (and thanks to his generous loan of his guest room, was my neighborhood while there!).

	This is one of the streets near Kokubunji station. The streets there are always jammed with bicycles, even though there's multi-story bicycle parking garage just to one corner of the station. At right is a quick sketch of a different approach path to the station.
One night Scott and his wife Eko took me to Noborito. We checked out the nightlife district and hung out on the banks of the Tama gawa. Scott waxed rhapsodic about hanging out around here when he first came to Japan and had no money and no acquaintances. You know how people are that way.
	This is a nighttime shot of Roppongi. The last time I was in Japan, I was entirely on business, stayed at the Hotel Okura, and hung out in Roppongi a good bit. This time, staying out in the Tokyo suburbs with Scott, traveling by subway, and speaking Japanese a fair percentage of the time, I found Roppongi, with its highly westernized culture, large percentage of foreigners, and general conspicuous consumption, kind of disturbing.

The rest of these are some of my quick sketches from the trip -- as you can see, the subway figures prominently.

	A subway exit -- from the side.	And from head-on. The lower picture is a detail from the upper one.
	No matter how many of you there are on the subway, you never look directly into anyone's face.	The ubiquitous Japanese vending machine, drinks on display.