Today I decided to get off my bum, break out my camera kit, and hit the streets of Tokyo on a random walk. My first stop was Roppongi Hills. I wanted to take a photo of that cool Spider outside the new office building. The complex has a lot of really cool attractions that I've yet to explore, even though it's only 10 minutes from the apartment. Not the least of these attractions is a natural history museum at the top of the Mori Tower. I must get to that someday. I've already experienced the movie theatre a couple times and the mall inside. Let's not forget the restaurants. It'll take some time before Roppongi hills gets old to me.
Once I was finished with that I decided to go generally north
since I almost always go south. I ended up heading towards Omote Sando which turned out to be a very high priced and trendy shopping district in Tokyo. The shopping district was filled with the usual high end brands, Gucci, Cartier, Omega, and a very cool looking Prada store to name a few. I didn't take a picture of the Prada store, doh, but I will next time.
OmotesandÅ is known as one of the foremost 'architectural showcase' streets in the world, fe
aturing a multitude of fashion flagship stores designed by internationally renowned architects within a short distance of each other. These include the Louis Vitton store (Jun
Aoki, 2002) Prada building (Herzog & de Meuron, 2003), Tod's (Toyo Ito, 2004), Dior (SANAA, 2004), OmotesandÅ
Hills (Tadao Ando, 2005) and Gyre (MVRDV, 2007), amongst others. Yay Wikipedia!
The area was a lot cooler than I thought it would be even though I knew it was a great shopping district. I stayed away from the stores however, as I didn't plan to upset my wallet today. Except for the occasional browsing of various watches, which I couldn't help, I came away with nothing in tow. There were a number of little side streets filled with boutiques of all kinds which I thought were cooler than the big name luxury brand stores. The food looked delicious as well with ample Japanese desserts to satisfy any sweet tooth. The picture to the left is of a cemetery which I wondered through and not Omote Sando.
I continued walking until I ended up at
Shibuya station conveniently, even though completelyby accident. From there it was an easy bus ride back to the apartment. But, before I called it a day I
stopped off at my favorite sushi spot to get my weekend fix. I think they've come to know and love me there. :-) Three hours after I left I was back in the apartment well fed and ready for the evening. Now it's time to practice some Japanese. Here are the shots that didn't make the blog post.
For those of you who're curious, I shoot with a variety of Canon cameras. I've tried other camera brands but I prefer the image reproduction of the Canon line of cameras. I must admit, however, that Nikkon does make some killer cameras as well. Also Sony seems to have some of the best colors I've every seen straight out of the camera, but everything else about Sony falls second to Canon. Oh, I also break out my iPhone when I have nothing else and it does a pretty good job in good light. The below shot of my kit was taken with my phone. While taking this shot I realized that I might have left a lens and some other pieces at home. Oh well..
