Richard in Tokyo - Part 1

My favorite airports in the world are in Asia. The workers are polite, the facilities are clean, and things run at an efficient pace. The backrooms are sparkling are even clearly labeled. Have a child with you? Not a problem.

I met with my friend and her mother and we headed for a large building with an observation deck. I enjoy the clock on this building. This was such a new building that it was not on the maps yet. This huge green area is actually the grounds of a temple. It reminds me of Central Park. Something with the glass and/or my lens, possibly the sun, tweaked the colors in this shot. These two are connected and the closer building shows the track on the top me thinks to clean the windows. A lot of Japanese buildings show the struggle with traditional and futuristic. I never expected to see six huge fans on top of a building in downtown Tokyo. Mt. Fuji was a big hard to see but the clouds actually pointed directly towards it. I'm used to seeing 25+ story apartments in Seoul so I was rather surprised to see such few skyscrapers here. Construction. Cute little river. Even my friend was surprised to see it. The observation deck was covered with different sporting posters for the Olympics to possibly return to Tokyo in 2016.

The Imperial Palace covered a large area with a steep wall and truly deep moat surrounding it. This was the bridge in the country of it's style for quite some time. To access the palace you must cross the bridge and enter the gate. My favorite picture. Unlike the equivalent in Seoul, this is only open to the public on New Years and maybe once or twice more per year. But just like the palace in Seoul, the Imperial Palace (traditional) it located right next to skyscrapers (modern). I had to get a picture of my friend ^^ Check out the sun coming through the clouds into the city. I wouldn't see surprised to see this in a Korean TV drama.

If you look closely you can see a sign saying Cow Parade. These are internationally traveling cows that I previously saw in Amsterdam several years ago. And if you look in the distance you can see another. I think these are #38 and #39.

I couldn't get the focus right in time but I still like the shots.