Heads Up (haha no pun intended to coincide with the post title) – Photos from the day are loaded at the end of the post.
Tokyo is in a word, massive. If I understood Professor Ryan correctly, the population of Tokyo is equal to Philadelphia, NY, Boston, Chicago, maybe also DC…combined! (Don’t quote me on this as I’m operating on diminished sleep). And this population is spread out for miles and miles. To go from one side of the city to the other is relatively easy as the subway is incredibly efficient, but the other side of the city could be the equivlent of Philadelphia City Hall out to the suburbs, think Downingtown, not Narberth. One of the ways to give perspective to what “massive” looks is to view the city from TMGO – the Metropolitan Governmant Office Observatory. So I’ll take you there..
(Escaping our hotel on “the peninsula” requires one to cross The Rainbow Bridge. I opted to walk just to get some perspective and take some pics.)
The Observatory at the TMGO is on the 45th Floor. It is free to visit and like all things I have observed thus far, there is an orderly system to access and exit the elevator up. I took a bunch of photos, none are duplicate views, to give a sense of the size of the city.
From the TMGO I headed farther west to Mt Takao National Park. Not sure how this popped on my radar as something to see, but it was very well worth it. It was about a 45 minute train ride (above ground as opposed to the subway) so I was able to see life in the suburbs from the train window. Would love to ask the question as to what is more desirable living, city or suburbs, but I’m not sure if that is appropriate. Also wanted to take pictures but felt I may be the “stupid American” taking pictures of people’s laundry drying outside. House after house had an elaborate set up for laundry drying in a very small area. Needless to say there is no big Sears Washer/Dryer set up happening in this country.
Up Mt Takao I went on a chair lift to the equivalent of a base camp, from which you walk almost 2 miles farther to the top. Besides the mountain itself, I marveled at the ages of walkers – very young to very old, and the shoe selection. Yes there were the perfectly equipped true hikers but predominantly the people were dressed in sandals, heels, flats, carrying umbrellas in the up position. Just another day. The pics are pretty self explanatory. Not sure that Joe Ryan could have handled the heights from the chair lift or the guardless trail.
Ended the day eating Korean barbeque with Joe’s Open Table team, bowling, and then wandering through one of the gagillion arcades. We all stopped and cheered on a young guy using the dance machine…and a few of Joe’s co-workers jumped in from the sidelines. Where was my camera??!! Wonderful group of co-workers.
Still have not mastered how to insert photos in a more efficient way so I just load them all in at the end of the post. If anyone has a tip, I’m all ears.
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