Posts Tagged: japan
Around Asakusa: Senso-ji Temple and Sumida River
Senso-ji Temple
Senso-ji Temple is a short walk from our house. Masses of worshipers among clouds of aloes wood gather at the huge site. Lots of tourists in cute kimonos and cool little shops are all around. I bought some knit gloves here. It is cold and windy in Tokyo! Especially at night.
Here is a link to the official website where you can find more information including history and special events.
Sumida River Bank
Along the Sumida River: Tokyo Sky Tree and Asahi Breweries headquarters. This famous Tokyo building designed by Philippe Starck, is topped by the “Asahi Flame” (aka the Golden Poop). The main building is meant to resemble a tall glass of beer complete with foam head on top.
Everyday here is bright sun and blue skies so far…but chilly!
The Skytree is tall and imposing. From a distance, because of all the outer skeleton, it almost looks like it is made out of wood. Every city seems to have it pointy tower somewhere in the skyline and this is Tokyo’s most famous. It kind of resembles our CN Tower in Toronto but with more prominent bones! Here is a link to information in English for Skytree visits.
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Tokyo House in Taito City
Some months before we left, we had a look at the Airbnb website for places to stay. The main criteria was to be near a subway line and to have a comfortable place to call home. We didn’t really know what a “good” neighbourhood would be so we just chose something more or less central with subway access. This Taito City airbnb was exactly what we were hoping for. I would definitely stay here again. In case you are interested, here is the listing.
This is our home base in Tokyo. It is small but has everything you could possibly need including a bathtub and laundry machine. My camera doesn’t have a wide angle lens so it is a little tight to photograph. Two of us fit comfortably in here. It is clean and bright and well organized. Anytime I return after living in one of these compact places, I wonder why we seem to need so much space. This is also my first experience with a tatami room and futons like this. But they are comfortable and warm, better than any hotel bed where the sheets are screwed down under the mattress. Lots of windows make it bright and cheerful so it is a nice place to wake up in. I think enough natural light can make any small space liveable for me. I like it here. Iriya is a few minutes walk and has lots of good food, grocery stores and coffee. High quality inexpensive sushi and sashimi is available everywhere. I am eating it everyday, sometimes twice!
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Tokyo Subway Sounds
Today was our first day out in Tokyo and I was excited to ride the subway and make a test recording of some of the station sounds along the way. I wired up my backpack and we went out to explore.
It seems like every station has it’s own music..listen with headphones or earbuds if you can.
I was inspired to try “field recording” city sounds when I saw Hou Hsiao Hsien’s film Cafe Lumiere. The famous Taiwanese director made this film in Japan. The main character is Yoko. Her close friend Hajime runs a bookstore and is also working on a sound based art project. He travels all over Tokyo collecting train station sounds with a field recorder. Hajime uses the sounds to make an interactive computer map of the Tokyo subway system and links the sound of each station to its location. It is a quiet and relaxed film with beautiful photography of Tokyo.
This one:
For anyone traveling to Tokyo, here is a good website about the metro system . Google/Apple maps also seem to be a pretty reliable source of information for getting around Tokyo. In contrast, Google is much less useful in Korea..as you will see later.