Something cute I found near my home.

I arrived Japan on September 5, 2001, after living in the US for 12 years. I would be living with my parents until I decide what to do.

I walked around my home. When I was a small child, this place had a lot of open spaces and large old houses. Most of them are gone. Today, the houses are small and tiny. I remember when an old house was sold, they divided the land into 3 tiny spaces. I saw an apartment complex built on 30 square-m area (about 300 square-feet). Land has become so scarce even last 20 years that everthing looked miniturized here compared to when I was a small child.

Day time of Shibuya. The scramble intersection is always a mess of people.

Another scramble intersection near Shibuya station (in front of 109 shopping center).

The scramble intersection in front of the station is one of the most interesting scenes in Tokyo; flood of people crosses the large intersection. At night, the illumination and couple of huge TV screens lights up the intersection. There seemed to be less people on the street that night. Still, everytime the signal changed its color, waves of people flooded the intersection. At first, it looks like chaos.

The people and the scramble intersection at night.

A few years ago, there were some typical styles dominates the young Japanese. Gan-guro were popular among girls in Shibuya, who paint face with black. There were groups of college students who dye their hair with silver. There was a high school students with neon-colored clothes.

Tendon comes with Miso Soup. Pretty good lunch for 490 Yen.

Starbucks are getting popular in Japan as well.

Japan is facing a defration spiral; the prices are getting cheaper but the sales do not increase. That is a serious problem from Macro-Economy. As for day-to-day life, it means easier living than 10 years ago.

What's popular is a cheap food chains in Tokyo. The Tendon (Tempura on rice with sweet sauce) is a very popular dish for 490 Yen. That is about US$4.50 including tips. The taste is not bad at all. There are not many US restaurants that can match the price/quality. For people in desperate in saving more money, there is a Gyudon (beef sukiyaki on rice) is even cheaper at 280 Yen, about US$2.50 including tips.

UNIQLO became a symbol of the price-meltdown; they offered a good-quality, nicely designed clothes for a record-breaking price. Other popular stores were 100-yen shop, which sells everything for 100 yen. I found there are a lot more stores for used books and CDs all over Tokyo.

A war on coffee started in Japan. Starbucks Cafe is everywhere in Tokyo, and they are growing fast. But the very first coffee price melt-down started by Doutor chain, which offered a cup of good coffee for 150 yen (about US$1.20). Starbucks offers regular coffee for about 280 Yen, and a Latte for 320 Yen (both are tall size).

Imperial Palace
What's famous in Tokyo? Paris has Eiffel Tower, New York has Statue of Liberty, and London has ... London Bridge. For Tokyo, it must be the Imperial Palace located at the heart of the city.

The Niju-Bashi gate.

Sunset contrasted the white feudal castle and modern office building in Maruno-uchi.

Night time lights reflected by the pools around the Imperial Palace. The workaholic Japanese salary-man must be working under these lights.

The Imperial Palace is an old castle built by Tokugawa Shogun about 400? years ago. The Shogun governed Japan for 250 years with peace and prosperity. When a Meiji revolution thrown away the Shogun at the middle of 19th century, the Emperor has moved into the castle from Kyoto. Today, about 1/3 of the castle is opened for public.

Map of open space in the Imperial Palace.

It takes only 5 minutes of walking from the Tokyo Station. The area between the station and the palace is known as Maruno-uchi, an office town that engined the growth of Japan for 50 years. Many of the big and old names have their headquaters in this town. Gradualy the feudal era replaces the modern buildings. Stone walls and pools surrounding the castle is the first thing I saw. Then, an open space spread in front of me, with no buildings that block the big blue sky.

I chatted with a friendly policeman guarding the Niju-bashi gate. A peaceful time despite the terror in New York. we enjoyed talking about cameras and beautiful sunset at the Imperial Palace.

The public space in the Palace is a garden famous for flowers in June, the rainy season of Japan. There were not much flowers when I visited, but there were a lot of visitors in the Palace.

Panoramic view of the fishing village, Kuruwa.

Sunset and Mt. Fuji seen from my grand-parents house.

The name of the town is Kuruwa. There is another name; Ko-Umi-Ishi, a child-bearing-stone. There are stones which has near-perfect round stone within. It used to be a peaceful fishing village long time ago. During the 70s and 80s, the town has become popular as a "secret" beach-town. Recently, the town build a big concrete block to protect the fishing boat, resulting in losing sands from the beaches. The reefs also affected by the construction. There used to be abundant of life in the ocean. Now it looks like a dead sea.

Still our family loves this place, the clean air, and the beautiful ocean. We watched sunset which we cannot see in Tokyo. Only if there aren't so much mosquitos, this would be the perfect place.