Normally, I’d post a bunch of photos about Japan, and make commentary, but honestly my brain be fried. So this Monday like this Monday is gonna be my day off. More Japan tomorrow. Thanks for reading.
Tag Japan
Day 4: A Rainy Day in Kyoto
With some difficulty, I managed to get to my hotel. My room was near the top, and the whole hotel had a 1970’s-80’s feel to it. The whole of it felt like it was stuck in a different Era, much like the city it resided in. 
My hotel had one distinct advantage, it was directly across from the Shogun’s palace. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Shogun was the military leader of Japan, who held the royal family hostage, and ruled by proxy. This was one of his Palaces.
Despite the rain or maybe because of it, I felt I was passing through time. The whole of Kyoto had that feel. It felt like a place lost in time, steeped in honor and shrouded in myth. The whole of the place felt imposing as if the whole of it was pressing the weight of authority upon you.
Though I didn’t capture any photos of it I was able to score a few bottles of premium Sake from a local vendor who’d set up shop in the park. So slightly inebriated I left and crossed the old moat back into the modern world.
Night 3 and Morning 4: Adios Tokyo
My stay in Tokyo was growing near its close and I felt a bit sad, as I realized that I could spend a year in the city and never delve even a small portion of it’s secrets. Being the massive geek I am, I decided to spend the last few hours I had in the Akihabara district.
This was a retro gamer’s paradise. I found but didn’t want to shell out 5000 Yen for an unopened copy of Pokemon Red. High school me was pleased enough.
My final meal in Tokyo was this Kebab shop. It was run by a man from Turkey who knew only a little anguish, and I knew broken Japanese, it was bizarre, and wonderful all at once. 
Gundam Cafe, yup… gotta love Japan.
My last venture into Shibuya at night!
A bit more western style food. 
Frankly this Hot Gingerale is amazing. It comes out of the machine warm, and it is an experience. These heated drink machines need to come out in the States. 
One of many Onigiri I ate in Japan, they 100 yen buys you a heck of a lot of calories. 
Japanese children’s show…no words. 
I was excited to head to Kyoto. Japan’s ancestral capital. I was even more excited to ride the legendary Japanese Bullet Train!
This picture accurately captures how fast we were going, my camera slanted the picture simply because it couldn’t shutter fast enough.
The Japanese countryside from what I saw consisted of extremely populated townships, and then vast empty farmlands and lonely mountains. I like small town architecture quite a bit as much of it captures the ancient Japanese style while being modern still. There is something nostalgic from these places, they remind me of anime, and my youth, of wishes, long since forgotten.
And with only 2 hours taken out of my day I traveled nearly 500km! Fantastic! More of Kyoto tomorrow!!
Japan Day 3 : A day at the Museum
Ueno Park is home to a lovely museum and being so close I decided to soak up a little history of the slightly more curated variety. 
Alas, one of the Shogun’s old house was in no real condition to be visited.
What is this? What a curious looking little marker. I wonder what it is?
It’s the what?? This tiny burning flame is known locally as the Atomic flame. A man survived one of the atomic bombings and found his family dead and his house on fire. For years, he kept the fire burning as a symbol of revenge, but somewhere along the line he realized that his hatred couldn’t prevent the same horrors from happening again. And so the flame was brought here to Ueno park where it stands as a symbol of peace, and a reminder of what we all have to lose in a nuclear disaster.
After that deep moment, I was seeking a little relief in a fanboy way, so I sped into the museum, and like the 16-year-old boy I am inside began to coo over the various swords. 
This one, in particular, held my attention for some reason, and when I looked down I realized why it had. 
It was one of Masamune’s Katana, a master swordsmith of Legendary prowess. 
Many of these artifacts are from the Early Japanese tribal period. There were several groups of native Japanese on the island before it was colonized by the Chinese.
This was the seal of the Shogun! It’s quite impressive. 
It was a rush hour when I got out of the museum, and it’s started raining.
I was tired and slightly hungover as I walked the streets of Shibuya, and seeing a McDonalds, I broke a little.
I just had to have a little taste of home. Something I noticed, Japanese Mcdonalds Fries were much less Salty than their American counterparts.
See you tomorrow dear readers!
Japan Morning 3: Ueno Park Part 1
Today I felt exhausted so I am going to let my photos speak for themselves. 
Japanese crows have a very distinctive caw; it sounds like a cartoon parody of a crow. In Tokyo, the birds grow huge. 
Another picture of me with the Shiba.
The one time I saw a police officer in Tokyo.
Not all of Japan is clean. Interestingly enough this was an area devoid of homeless people; I mention this because the homeless in Japan always seemed to be cleaning, sweeping, or doing something constructive. 
This was probably a prewar station. I wasn’t able to walk under this underpass without ducking. That being said most Japanese people I met were about my height or taller, with the older generation being shorter. (I am 5’10).
This is a really cool memorial. This is where the final battle between the Meiji government and the Shogunate occurred. (A quick history lesson, the Emperor ruled Japan for only a short time before he was ousted by the Shogun, a military leader who kept the imperial family hostage, and ruled using the Emporer as a proxy. During the Meiji Restoration, the Emporer seized power away from the shogunate and ruled until the end of WW2. ) ((PS: Edo = Tokyo))
This was a homeless camp in the park. From what I can tell Japanese culture tolerates homeless but pretty much ignores them. Here in the States homeless aren’t tolerated and are ignored.
This is the closest I could get to the Padagoa without paying for a Zoo pass. 
More photos tomorrow.
Japan Night 2: Two bars and a crossing
When I was a kid I wondered why fantastical realism was so popular in the anime I watched. Every anime hero found some lost shrine or hidden place and I having grown up in a population dense but geographically spacious area could not truly appreciate the mysticism of having things packed so tightly next to one another. Most of the buildings I encountered were multilevel and filled to capacity with every type of shop imaginable. I recall quite on accident pressing the third-floor button on an elevator and having it open directly into a restaurant. No foyer, no hallway, and no host stand, just a table with two people eating, maybe 3 feet from the doors. Tokyo is a place bisected by time, with the very old clinging to the edges of where the very new is not.
I returned from my first trip into Akihabara tired, as I was still sick. and I slept for a few more hours before I decided to head out. The sun was setting as I trecked along.
It was odd, and many people questioned why photograph this man’s converse, but it reminded me a lot of home, and despite being gone for only a day or two international travel tends to summon up homesickness readily.
One of the few one on one interactions I had with someone who was japanese. Harajuku is very close to Shibuya, and there was actually a photo op location near my hotel, so I ran into these lovely ladies. Not pictured is the part where they took about 20 photos of themselves with me.
after narrowly escaping the lovely ladies above, I read online (read 7-11 WiFi) about a bar that was also a collectables store, and so I headed out in search of it, and despite Tokyo’s incredibly hard to navigate address system, I found it!
the stock , and On the second floor of a (relatively) small building was a little shop called mint. From the outside, it looked like a card and comic shop. I ventured in browsed the stacks, found some deals, and then found the bar. 
The bar is ingenious. The tables had play area below a glass sheet which covered the playing field, meaning you could drink and even spill on accident without having to worry about getting your game of choice dirty. The bar also featured sports betting from what I could tell.
When I finally pulled my jaw off the floor and got back to Shibuya crossing it was in full swing. I have never seen so many people all walking all at once, except maybe at Comicon, but instead of being overweight pop culture aficionados, they were all well-dressed Asians. (quick note, I saw only 2 people in my entire time in Japan who didn’t look like they’d spent considerable time in front of a mirror. Both of those 2 people were old ladies, who had a look of IDGAF about them.)
Sorry for the blur, I took these while moving through the crowd.
As I walked along I found this wonderfully beautiful dress. It was in a bridal shop and the color and cut really caught my eye.
This is something we need here in the States. It’s a smoking room. Japan is very strict about where you can smoke, and this is one of the area’s designated for smoking. I can see this being really useful when it rains or snows. 
BEHOLD THE BEHEMOTH That is Starbucks. I actually never tried Japanese Starbucks. A 12-ounce coffee was 5 USD and I decided to stick to canned coffee.
So to be completely off kilter I decided to visit a bar in Shibuya. I settled on one right up the street from my hotel, a British-themed underground pub. (for a country that has earthquakes the Japanese seem to be enamored with being below ground). Within I drank the best damned Rum and Coke I’ve ever had. They added a fresh lime, and it was glorious. Even at the time the comedy of the situation was palpable, as I was sitting in Tokyo, in a Brittish Pub, Drinking and American soft drink mixed with a Puerto Rican Spirit.
I’d like to say I went galavanting into the night and that I was too drunk to take pictures, but I did not. I had three drinks, and then stumbled back to my hotel, and passed out. (pardon me for being a light weight!)
Day three-tomorrow dear readers! Thanks for reading!
Day 2.95: A first look at Akihabara
I know I know, these decimals are getting a little abusive. I am sorry I just have so many photos. (I actually made an effort to not take so many photos, and I still ended up with over 1000)
S
Yes that is Tommy Lee Jones. 
Maid cafe’s are basically places where men go to be fawned over. Many people in the west are boggled by such things, but I can only think of them as classier hooters. This one is vampire themed.
Breakfast in Japan is quite interesting. This is a breakfast hot dog. Nuff said.
Japanese Dr. Pepper is much different than DP in the states. I really liked it. It was spicier and less sweet. Also, it is also contained in really sweet steel cans.
It was really surreal going through an entire portion of the city where anime was plastered everywhere. For the most part anime is not present in other parts of the city, and so this area of Japan is what 14-year old me thought all of japan looked like.
Yeah, That is a Coco’s. No, I didn’t go in. Apparently I missed out though. My friend Cody, who has been to Japan many times, told me they serve some amazing Japanese fare.
The Colonel was after me. Luckily I avoided his Wrath.
I am not ashamed to say I drank like 12 of these while I was in Japan.
I much preferred light railways to Subways as they were above ground, and often times much nicer to look at. The longer and longer I stayed in Japan the more I realized how scary accurate anime background and detail work is. 
Just a bit of a photo dump today. Enjoy. See you tomorrow dear readers!
Day 2.75: The Imperial Palace
A little later I reached the Imperial palace which is near Tokyo’s financial district, and is the home of the current Emperor, who like the British Monarchs are figureheads of the country, and not true rulers. Nonetheless, thousands flock to visit the palace during the two days it’s open a year.
The Imperial Palace has quite the moat around it. While I don’t know enough Japanese to know the precise definition of the sign, I am getting the whole don’t swim in me vibe.
I don’t know if this tradition carries over, but in European statue making if you are pictured on a horse and it has both legs up you died in battle, if it has one leg up you died from wounds you took in battle, and if your horse has both legs on the ground you were a warrior but didn’t die relating to battle.
The park around the actual palace is quite picturesque.
Behold the mighty gatehouse! This is the main entrance to the Imperial estate. While this small gatehouse is the only visible guard station I wonder how many hidden security features are around. The ground is covered in rough stone gravel, and lend’s an alien vibe to the whole place.
This is as close as you can get as a visitor to the palace during the normal part of the year.
The gravel was for lack of a better word extremely cultivated. There were no patches around that weren’t smoothed out. I wonder if that is someone’s job.
Here is a panoramic view o the area. It is quite empty around the entrance.
Having visited the palace as best, I could I decided to explore the nearby region before I sought my next light rail.
I discovered a rather charming park. Tokyo despite its reputation as a paradise of concrete is actually quite full of vegetation, which along with strict pollution guidelines, might be one of the reasons the air felt so fresh most places.
I decided to leave the park via a different route than I came in and it was with some jubilation that I did. I found the most wonderful little western style house in the middle of the park.
The placard said that it had been a western diplomat’s residence up until WWII. It had somehow survived the war, (I doubt parks were prime targets) and now sits as the park office. A small cafe was nearby, but I didn’t stop. I was eager to scout out the district I’d only dreamed of. I left with my heart set on exploring the legendary Akihabara District, AKA 14year old me’s paradise.
Thanks for reading!
Japan Day 2.5: The Tsukiji fish market
While I was on my way to the fish market, I stumbled across these brilliant skateboard deterrents. While most of these kinds of things are horrifically ugly these were downright charming.
Quite by accident I stumbled upon another shrine, and without knowing it visited the same shrine that two of my good friends had gone to the year before I visited.
This view of one of Tokyo’s many harbors is really quite nice.
My quest to document the various vending machines continued. I love the fact that there are so many choices of coffee.
As I arrived at the market something seemed off. I’d heard the market was busy all morning so to arrive at an empty lot was to say the least surprising.
Empty, it was all empty.
At first i was a little disappointed I’d hoped to see the great fish market in action. As it turns out I’d visited on a national holiday, and there were no fish to be sold that day. That being said I got a rare look at the market empty!
Undeterred I went to a sushi place right on the wharf, and had some amazing Sushi. I have to say almost all of it tasted different than American sushi, but the quality was better than I’d ever had before. 
This sushi restaurant normally has a 1-4 hour wait! But lucky for me I was one of only two patrons! 
As I walked back to the train the streets had begun to stir awake.
Obligatory Selfie! 
Consulting my guide I walked towards the center of Tokyo. The imperial palace was supposively very close by. I thanked myself for buying a comfortable pair of shoes, and walked through a tunnel with traditional style shops and bars, and finally arrived at the Imperial Palace, which I will delve into tomorrow!
Japan Day 2: My First Subway Experience
One of the things I really wanted to do in Tokyo was see the Legendary Tsukiji fish market and eat Sushi for breakfast. I’d been told to really get a sense of the place you had to go early in the morning but as luck would have it, I was quite indisposed the day after my trip to the Meiji. So I awoke around 8 AM and headed to the train station.
Oh yes~ I forgot to mention. I make notebooks, and I’d made one for the Japan trip, ( Thinking about it I want to make another) and I found the a traditionally dyed, paperback book cover that fit perfectly. It is from this notebook that I am pulling back quite a few of my notes. 
worried that I wouldn’t be able to find my way, around especially since google maps would have used data. Luckily, I was able to mosquito off enough free WiFi to find my way around.
Excuse the poor quality, this was my first tentative shot of a subway station.
My jetlagged brain seemed to be intent on missing rush hour. (not that I minded). So about 90% of the subway cars I rode in were mostly empty, quiet, and clean.
The streets near the fish market were empty, and silent save the pass of the occasional car whizzing by or the caw of a crow.
Canned coffee is the greatest Japanese trend that needs to catch on in the states. It is the boss.
Early morning streets are beautiful in their own way. 
Vending machines in Japan are the coolest. I made it a habit to photograph them as I found them. By the way, Japanese sodas are way less sweet, and consequently less caloric. (but only a little).
A play house with casks of Sake outside. Not sure why, but heck it (like most of the country) was a visual feast.
More quiet streets. By the time I came back, these walkways would be filled with vendors.
I don’t want to overload anyone so I think I will continue on my quest for Sushi Breakfast tomorrow!
Max W Beaulieu 
