Japanese Smoking Station

Here is a smoking station on a Tokyo street, these things are all over the place:




These are the messages inscribed on both sides, I like the one about the 'cool cowboy':

Wakabayashi

Today I went to see the house that my Great-Grandmother lived in, which is located at 2 Chome 18-3 in Wakabayashi. The Japanese addressing system is quite unusual, they do not name minor streets, the addresses are broken up by districts. This address can essentially be translated to 2nd District, 18th block, 3rd house. Below is the address and name placard (which reads 'Akaogi') of the current resident:




Here is the town-block marker that indicates this is the 2nd district (chome) of Wakabayashi:




Below is Wakabayashi Station, which is part of one of the few remaining street car systems left in Tokyo. To get here from the center of Tokyo, you need to take the Tokyo Den-en-toshi Line from the Shibuya Station to the Sangen-Jaya Station where you can transfer to the Tokyu Setagaya Line. Wakabayashi Station is the second stop:








Here is a view from inside the street car:




Here is the entrance to the street:




Here are the pictures of the actual house:












Next door there is a shrine:

Meet & Delikatessen

Nice:

Edo-Tokyo Museum

I went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum yesterday. The building it is housed in, which is huge, was set on stilts. I tried to get a good picture of it but due to it's size and height that proved to be very difficult. Here is a view of the building's fifth through seventh floors from the metro platform:




Every exhibit in this museum was translated into English except for this one:

日本

The title of this post is the Japanese word for Japan (Nippon). This word loosely translates into 'Land of the Rising Sun'. The photograph below is from my hotel room's window:



Once the sun got higher in the sky it was too bright to photograph, so I got quite lucky with this shot.

Big America Hawaiian Burger

There is lots of interesting looking food here, I believe that is part of an Egg McMuffin on top of a hamburger:

Hello from Tokyo

I am currently sitting in Tokyo. Besides the long flight from hotel and the two hour bus ride to the hotel, everything has been nice. Last night it started snowing here, but outside of that, it has been warm. Here is the view from my hotel room:

Seafood Selection in Japanese Grocery Store

While in Thailand, I stopped by the Isetan superstore and found an interesting selection of fish available for purchase:




Fish heads: