Results tagged “architecture” from little lost tokyo :: travel blog

I know I haven't updated in a while, I've been out and about a lot just looking around and browsing the shops.

Returning to Tokyo after Fuji-san my first trip out into the metropolis was south on the Yamanote Loop Line from Tokyo. Not having read my guidebook I was at a loss as to which station I would need to jump off at to reach the famous Tokyo Tower, a red and white, miniature reproduction of the Eiffel Tower, but I did know it wasn't too far south of the Imperial Palace as I remembered seeing it last time I visited. So clockwise I went, looking out of the right-hand windows for a glimpse of the tower between the high office blocks that would give me an indication of where to hop off.

With the tower in sight, I walked through a temple park and a shopping district in the blazing sunshine. The tower was not particularly close to any train station or subway platform. As I approached the structure from around a tree-lined hill, it reached high above seemingly more impossible than any of the taller skyscrapers I had seen so far.


From the observation platform you could see a 360 view of Tokyo, from the bay in the south-east with it's Rainbow Bridge to the Shinjuku's TMGB in the north-west where I first got my glimpse of Fuji a month and a half earlier.

The following day I trekked out on the subway, still getting used to my newly purchased Suica Card (Oyster Card for anyone that's been to London), to Roppongi Hills. A modern development, the architecture was stunningly complex with the Mori Tower taking pride of place as the monolithic skyscraper - as always, with an observation deck this time located on the helipad platform at the very top of the building.



I visited the Museum in the tower that was doing a Turner Prize Retrospective in celebration of relations with the UK. There were plenty of high-end shops to wander around, all much too expensive.

Grabbing a subway, or rather two, I made my way to Omotesando, another fashionable shopping area, with plenty of western brands all vying for status and proclaiming their coolness. There was even a Topman.

Next door sits Shibuya with the crossing that must have been shown in every film and TV show on the city. The place was definitely different from most of the rest of Tokyo as the shear volume of young people trebled and the older generations just dropped right off of the map.

Hiroshima is a very beautiful city these days. In the reconstruction that followed the bombing in World War 2 there was a division amongst people as to whether or not surviving buildings should be removed because they were dangerous and a horrible memory, or preserved as a reminder and hope for the future. As more and more buildings were torn down the desire to retain such a reminder grew and thankfully, today, we are left with the A-Bomb Dome that was located almost directly underneath the exploding bomb and was saved the full force of the blast.

It's hollow structure and skeletal metal dome crowning the building is an eerie sight that becomes even more so at night when they light it up and the peace park that surrounds it is all but devoid of people. Scattered around the dome are numerous memorials including one specifically for the children that were drafted into the deconstruction of Hiroshima's wooden structures (in those days, a lot of buildings were made of wood and in the case of a bombing, fire would spread quickly across the city). There were tens of thousands working on the deconstruction when the bomb hit.

At the bottom end of the park is a museum housing exhibits and presentations. To begin with it has information on weapons atomic energy, letters from Einstein to the President and then later moves towards the after effects of the bombing; burn victims, radiation poisoning, black rain, cancer. They show clothing and pieces of preserved scarred flesh. Displays of people and children with skin peeling from their arms as fires blaze in the background. Some harrowing stuff indeed.

Here are a few photos from Osaka including the Guesthouse, random streets, and a graveyard. This was from the day I had to move to another hostel - Elaine and Carl were looking for somewhere as well for the one night before going to Kyoto so they booked into the same place too. I was allowed to leave my hulking great backpack at U-en since I was going back for the next night which was really nice of them. After Elaine and Carl dropped off their suitcases and I my little daypack at J-Hoppers Osaka we went on a wander around the streets and headed to the Sky Garden/Floating Observatory. Here are a few photos from that journey - the Sky Garden will come later as I'm low on battery power.