I took this trip nearly a year and a half ago, but I figured that I might as well show off some of the thousands of photos I took while I was in Japan.

 

It was around 5 in the morning when we took the train from Haneda to Shinagawa Station. The flight from Cincinnati to Tokyo is LONG.

 

So this was on the train...

 

 

Even the Japanese want crappy American food from time to time. Near Shinagawa station.

 

 

日本かわいいな〜

 

 

Tokyo is home of the Epic Commute. I was staying about 45 minutes outside of the "core" by train, and even that far out the trains were standing room only each morning. Anyway, August is Festival Season in Japan, and this was a random festival in the town I was in.

 

 

 

 

Yoshinoya (and beef bowls in general) are delicious. I could see this type of restaurant doing very well near a college campus in the States.

 

Never an empty train platform in Tokyo.

 

 

 

 

 

Harajuku Station.

 

 

The architecture in Japan is... weird. Very concrete-y. Most of it is ugly. But Japan is more about the people and the culture than it is about the architecture, especially the postwar stuff.

 

Lots of pedestrian streets.

 

Walked this arcade every day.

 

It's perfectly normal to have a 250-foot tall roller coaster next to your baseball stadium in the middle of the city.

 

Second tallest thing that mankind can currently go to the top of.

 

Tokyo Station is buried between those skyscrapers somewhere.

 

 

 

 

No idea who that kid is. I just wanted a picture of the Hachiko statue but he insisted on being in the photo, so I obliged.

 

Japan.

 

 

 

3,000 people cross through here every time the light changes.

 

 

Rush Hour at Shinjuku Station, the world's busiest rail station.

 

 

Japan loves Pikachu and the rest.

 

I still find it incredible how efficient the rail system is there. The commuter rail lines (like this one) run as frequently as most subway systems.

 

Bento on the bullet train to Kyoto.

 

Somehow they figured out how to make water into shapes as it falls.

 

Kyoto Station is massive.

 

 

 

 

The convenience stores over there blow the pants off anything here. This is a pancake filled with butter and syrup, and it came with a little packet that would warm up the pancake when you took it out of the wrapper.

 

 

 

 

 

If you read the Plain Dealer's Travel section with any regularity, you might recognize this picture from last April.

 

 

Beautiful.

 

 

 

Tokyo Station is the only train station that actually looks as such. The rest are essentially giant mazes buried under even bigger department stores. Think Penn Station but with about 300,000 more people at any given moment.

 

 

It's that tall thing again.

 

Okonomiyaki is pretty great. Sorry, Quan Hapa, yours isn't as good as the actual Japanese one.

 

 

Density. As seen from the top of Toyko Metropolitan Government Center.

 

A street in the town I was staying in. I use the term "town" lightly, as this particular town is home to 180,000 people. Everything is so easy to walk to in Japan, it's incredible. Although even the newer suburbs like this one are built without any grid system so the streets wind around haphazardly, but it makes walking places much more interesting.

 

The Chiba Monorail, and my first suspended monorail ride.

 

 

Japan was the only country to figure out monorails. I took this bad boy back to Haneda on my last day.

 

Nicest airport ever. Clean, functional, modern.

 

Plus it has an observation deck.

 

Los Angeles, I think.

 

St. Louis, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

That's about it. I've got tons and tons more if there is any interest in seeing a little bit more by anyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome and more awesome!

Looks like unisex clothing hasn't caught on there yet like it has here.

Yoshinoya is here in the States...just not here in the east.

I would love to visit japan someday. Thanks for sharing!

there was a yoshinoya here in ny for years but it closed recently. i dk why, but the japanese ramen chains came to town and are the craze.

There's a Yoshinoya game for the PS2 that lets you experience what it's like to work there.

^ lol that is hilarious!

 

this is a fantastic thread -- love it

^^My first thought was "no way", but that quickly gave way to "well, it is Japan we're talking about" and a quick Youtube search put that to bed. It looks even weirder than its already-odd premise lets on to. I'd probably try it out though!

 

 

Would love to visit!  If you have more, please post.  Interested in seeing the people and not just the buildings.