Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
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Harajuku is known as a center of teen culture and fashion of Japan. Takeshita Street is the exact center. It is lined by many stores retailing kawaii or cute stuff and full of teenagers and tourists on weekends. However, there were not as many people as usual when I pedaled there on Sunday although the state of emergency on COVID-19 was lifted. It would take a while to get back to normal.
Here is a video I took in Harajuku in the middle of the state of emergency. Check it out too.
youtu.be/IK9mQxlM_QE
Music: J.S. Bach - Suite No.4 in E flat - II. Allemande by European Archive (ED)
#tokyo #japan #cycling
Instagram: instagram.com/koji_planet_tokyo
Twitter: twitter.com/kj_planet_tokyo
Harajuku is known as a center of teen culture and fashion of Japan. Takeshita Street is the exact center. It is lined by many stores retailing kawaii or cute stuff and full of teenagers and tourists on weekends. However, there were not as many people as usual when I pedaled there on Sunday although the state of emergency on COVID-19 was lifted. It would take a while to get back to normal.
Here is a video I took in Harajuku in the middle of the state of emergency. Check it out too.
youtu.be/IK9mQxlM_QE
Music: J.S. Bach - Suite No.4 in E flat - II. Allemande by European Archive (ED)
#tokyo #japan #cycling
![The Tokyo Skytree [iPhone 4S/HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/K1ZDXD66yjo/mqdefault.jpg "The Tokyo Skytree [iPhone 4S/HD]
The Tokyo Skytree, 634m high and the worlds tallest TV tower, has been completed finally. The Tokyo Tower, built in 1958 and 333m high, is no longer tall enough to cover all the broadcasting area and a new 600-meter-class tower is needed for the city filled with skyscrapers.
- Shot in 1080p full HD with an iPhone 4S on Mar. 27th, 2012")
![Shoguns Procession in Kawaguchi, Japan [iPhone 4S/HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Kjl7yNw0CIA/mqdefault.jpg "Shoguns Procession in Kawaguchi, Japan [iPhone 4S/HD]
Route 122, which connects central Tokyo and Iwatsuki, Saitama and is also known as Iwatsuki Road, was once called as Nikko Onari-Michi that literally means Nikko Shogunate Road. During the Edo Period ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate, the successive shoguns made processions along the road. It was to visit Nikko, where Ieyasu Tokugawa, the first shogun of the shogunate, is enshrined. The procession took place 17 times from 1617 to 1843. Although it was initially frugal, it increasingly became glamorous to show citizens their dignity. The procession held in 1728 by Yoshimune Tokugawa, the eighth shogun, was made up of 133 thousand people consisting of the shogunate family and their retinue. Some of shoguns were not able to cope with the cost of making a procession and had to give it up.
The road passes through my city Kawaguchi, located in just north of Tokyo. There were once two inn towns in the section where now the city is; Kawaguchi Inn Town and Hatogaya Inn Town. The first several processions went along Nikko Road, a more easterly route. However, Iemitsu Tokugawa, the third shogun who was known as a gourmet, changed the route to have his first days lunch of the four day trip to Nikko, at a temple in Kawaguchi Inn Town. The temple might have served good lunch.
Nikko Onari-Michi Festival was held on an autumn Sunday in Kawaguchi City, to re-enact the historical parade. The festival had two sites; Kawaguchi Inn site and Hatogaya Inn site, and the parade moved the one to the other by subway. It was probably the first shoguns procession in the history which took a train. A few big names, including Ken Matsudaira, a famous period drama actor, and Rino Sashihara, who was once a member of the pop group AKB48 and is now a member of HKT48, also joined the parade and excited the crowd. Although the number of the people making the procession was quite smaller than the ones which took place several hundred years ago, 180 thousand spectators gathered at the sites to see the old but new procession, that was more friendly than before. They did not have to kneel but cheered when the procession passed by.
- Shot in 1080p full HD with an iPhone 4S on Nov. 11th, 2012")
![Kotatsu ~Japanese Heating Table~ [iPhone 4S/HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LDDkAMKG5wk/mqdefault.jpg "Kotatsu ~Japanese Heating Table~ [iPhone 4S/HD]
Kotatsu, a low table with an electric heater underneath, is one of the typical Japanese heating devices. You cover it by a quilt and get your legs into it to get warmed. It is a kind of a heating devices for a very small space. It is a good idea to heat up a small space when you live in a Japanese wooden house. Japanese houses are usually designed to be drafty in order to make the life comfortable during the very humid summer. However, in winter, it is inefficient to heat up the whole house. It takes a lot of energy. Kotatsu is a reasonable solution to the problem. That is why we usually dont have a central heating system at home. (In the northern island Hokkaido, it is very common to have one)
On a cold winter day, once you are in it, I bet you would never like to move out of it. If tea, snacks or winter fruits and remotes were prepared on the table, it would be almost impossible to escape from the enchanted table till the winter ends.
- Shot in 1080p full HD with an iPhone 4S")
![Twilight View from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building [iPhone 4S/HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LDLXVJXBm00/mqdefault.jpg "Twilight View from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building [iPhone 4S/HD]
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, or Tokyo City Hall, has two panoramic observation decks. You can enjoy the panoramic view of Tokyo without paying any admission there. I have to say the views from other popular observation decks, like the ones at Roppongi Hills, the Tokyo Tower or the Tokyo Sky Tree, are more glorious, but you have to pay admission to climb them. It is worth visiting this public facility especially at dusk to enjoy Tokyo economically.
- Shot in 1080p full HD with an iPhone 4S on May 14th, 2012")
![Gundam Illumination Show at Odaiba, Tokyo [iPhone 4S/HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LVLhSwgjVbA/mqdefault.jpg "Gundam Illumination Show at Odaiba, Tokyo [iPhone 4S/HD]
There are many hot spots in Odaiba, a massive artificial island floating in the Tokyo Bay. This full-length Gundam is one of them. You can see it in front of Diver City Tokyo Plaza, a commercial complex which opened this spring.
The 18 meters tall Mobile Suit is lit up by the illumination shows that take place a few times a night. Looking up at the Gundam in the lights and the night sky above it, people may dream about a future in which numerous people live in space colonies.
- Shot in 1080p full HD with an iPhone 4S on Jul. 26th, 2012")
![Gingko Avenue at Meiji-Jingu Gaien, Tokyo [iPhone 4S/HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LfUqB-dCDJc/mqdefault.jpg "Gingko Avenue at Meiji-Jingu Gaien, Tokyo [iPhone 4S/HD]
Meiji-Jingu Gaien, or Meiji Shrine Outer Precinct, is a massive garden including a gallery, a hall and a variety of sports facilities such as National Olympic Stadium and Jingu Baseball Stadium. It was built to honor the Meiji Emperors deed after his demise and has been run by Meiji Shrine.
The main approach of the garden, that leads you to the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery, is outlined with gingko trees. The entrance of the avenue is one meter higher than the end of it. Moreover, it is designed that the trees at the entrance side grow taller than the ones at the end side do. They are to make the avenue and the gallery look more beautiful in perspective.
The trees are gloriously ablaze in late autumn. The warm scenery, in the season in which you feel the advent of winter, is a delight for people walking by.
- Shot in 1080p full HD with an iPhone 4S on Nov. 27th, 2012")
![Odaiba Area, Tokyo ~Gundam Returning~ [iPhone 4S/HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LqXD3YJpZGo/mqdefault.jpg "Odaiba Area, Tokyo ~Gundam Returning~ [iPhone 4S/HD]
In 1850s, the US demanded the opening of Japan and starting trades to Western countries to the Shogunate of Japan, which basically did not allow commerce and traveling between Japan and other countries at that time under the policy called Sakoku. Seeing the US militarys ships coming to negotiate, the Shogunate saw a threat and decided to build an artificial island to put gun batteries in for the purpose of defense in the bay what we call Tokyo Bay today. The island was named Daiba, which means Battery place, and is now often called Odaiba with the honorific prefix o.
Eventually the batteries were never used and the Shogunate opened up the country. The island was expanded in the last half century. It has developed dramatically since 1990s and now is a massive island known as a major tourist attraction with a lot of commercial and leisure facilities.
The newest hot spot in the area is Diver City Tokyo Plaza, a commercial complex opened on April 19th. You can see a full-length Gundam in front of the brand new facility. It was initially placed at Odaiba and had been taken away for a while, returning to his hometown only recently. I wonder how they ended up calling it full-length when it is originally two dimentional. Or has it really been made into real?
- Shot in 1080p full HD with an iPhone 4S on Apr. 25th, 2012")
