Tokyo–March 24, 2016

It was cold and rainy, so I decided to go to a co-working space in the Ginza district and catch up on some work for a few hours. Ginza Hub is small, but quite nice. The internet connectivity is very fast, and the price is excellent; ¥500 for an hour or ¥2000 for the day. The people there were quite helpful as well.

The rain stopped later in the day, so about 1 PM I went out to the nearby Tsukiji fish market, looked around a bit, and had some sushi for lunch. Here are a couple of photos from the market area. (Sorry, no pictures of dead fish.)

large fish atop tsukiji building billboard for 24 hr sushi place

Hongwanji Temple

Near the market is a very large Buddhist temple, Hongwanji:

hongwanji long view roof hongwanji hongwanji lion hongwanji front steps

Ginza Area

From there, I walked to the Ginza metro station.

modernistic yellow building honeycomb pattern storefront cartoon ricebowls on restaurant window triangular faced building store sign in shape of large red paper clip modern architecture building police station with odd dome old bridge pillar building with circular arcs

Kabukiza

Along the way I saw the Kabukiza, the premier Kabuki theater in Japan. When I was here 35 years ago, I went with a Japanese friend to see kabuki. It is definitely an acquired taste, and not something I was eager to see again. There were, however, lots of people waiting outside for the theater to open at 4 PM, so it must be very popular.

front kabukiza showing gold leaf and purpe curtains kabukiza kabuki poster kabuki posters in old japanese style

Pen Station

No, that’s not a misspelling of New York’s famous Penn Station. It’s a museum and café run by the Pilot Pen company. Clever name, interesting exhibit:

pen station museum giant fountain pen pens and ink bottles diagram showing how fountain pen works fountain pen nibs old pilot ink bottles

Kite Museum

Unlike the grand, elegantly curated museums I have been to in the past few days, this is a small space on the 5th floor of a building on a side street. It is barely curated,which adds to its considerable charm. Well worth the ¥200 admission price! The last picture is a photo of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake; the picture was taken from a “captive airship 600 feet above Folsom between 10th and 11th.”

kite with cats kite museum display japanese kites japanese kites in shape of birds photo of sf after 1906

Miscellanea

Some artwork on construction fences. I like the last one the best.

construction artwork construction artwork construction artwork construction artwork construction artwork construction artwork cartoon beagles wearing hard hats

An interesting set of bridge girders and a curved street:

bridge girders curved wall

Close-up of design on a wall

0289a japanese flower print on wall 0289b japanese flower print on wall

Sidewalk Tiles

These were interesting; the design of the first one is made of identical tiles, cleverly arranged. The second one has tiles with the same pattern as the first, only octagonal.

circular tile pattern tiled sidewalk

Sewer Grates

On the way back to the hotel, I glanced down and saw these small metal plaques on the sewer grates.

hippo grate zebra grate lion grate

Today’s Signage

You don’t need to read Japanese to understand this one: “Don’t run for the train as the doors are closing.”

dont run for the train

Most unhelpful metro sign ever. Great; it’s a subway entrance—but which station?

unhelpful metro sign

A very elegant stylized letter K.

stylized K at kose building

Great advert for Tokyo Denki University (an engineering school); the main image is Astro Boy, one of the original and most famous Japanese manga.

signage astro boy

Uncle Sam the Clown makes another appearance, with Miss America at his side!

uncle sam clown with blonde woman