Narita - Ueno - Minami-senju: took e 08:52am Keisei tokkyu train from Narita airport to Tokyo, passing through a grey & rainy Narita & other cities in Chiba prefecture along e way. train was packed by e time it reached Funabashi, & had a live demo of how Japanese can sleep standing up. had to transfer to e subway on reaching Ueno, & this 'mountain tortoise' stood aside to watch a local purchasing a SF Metro card from e pasunetto vending machine before realising how it worked. chose e design featuring a kitten (obviously =P), & boarded e Hibiya line train bound for Tobu-dobutsukoen only to find a cat in tears on every door....

subway from Ueno to Minami-senju, Tokyo: beware of closing doors!!	Nijubashi bridge, Imperial Palace, Tokyo

Minami-senju - Hibiya: pulling my trolley bag along e underpasses & streets created quite a din cos of e raised markings on e ground that seem to be everywhere. rectangular bumps indicate passageways, & circular bumps warn of stairs or traffic junctions. they serve to guide e visually-impaired & are found not just within train stations, but even on road kerbs at pedestrian crossings. years later Singapore would finally adopt this, albeit only in NEL train stations. had photocopied a few pages of e Tokyo street directory in e NUS Japanese library, so had no problem finding my way to Juyoh Hotel, though stopped by one of e 2 koban along e way just to make sure. e old man at e Juyoh reception could speak as much English as I could Japanese i.e. zero. our entire conversation consisted of just a number (e reservation confirmation number), but he was kind enough to let me check in early =) first encounter with a Japanese keyboard when sending e usual 'arrived alive' email home from e PC in e lobby: all e 'y's that I typed appeared as some punctuation mark instead.

headed to Hibiya station by subway & managed to find my way underground to exit A4B of Yurakucho station. there are exits numbered A0 to A14 & B1 to B-dunno-what in Hibiya station, which is linked underground to Ginza station (with its own set of A1 to A13, B1 to B10 & C1 to C9 exits) & Yurakucho station (A1 to A9). & that is just e subway stations & not counting e links to stations belonging to other private railway lines or e JR train stations above ground. negotiating e countless exits of Tokyo subway stations makes you feel like a rabbit or a mole, walking quite a distance underground past links to other tunnels or holes until you get to e right one & pop up onto e surface for sunlight & fresh air.

Hibiya - Tokyo International Forum: emerged into e basement of e Tokyo International Forum (TIF), a building that I've wanted to visit ever since I read an article about its design. standing in e Glass Hall with its 60m-high ceiling gives you a tremendous feeling of space, something that I've never felt in any building in Singapore. TIF houses exhibition halls, a visitor information centre & e nakata.net cafe, but seems like an under-utilised piece of architecture. right smack in e middle of Tokyo & linked directly to e subway, yet ghostly empty.

Tokyo International Forum - Tokyo Station - Imperial Palace - Kitanomaru National Garden: walked roughly parallel to e elevated train tracks to e Marunouchi entrace of Tokyo Station. there was heavy security at e station, & dark-suited security guys & police were stationed at every 30-50m interval along Miyuki-dori leading from e train station to e Imperial Palace. at Kokyo-Gaien (Imperial Palace Outer Garden), saw a long line of black limousines driving out under police escort & with 3 helicopters hovering high above. according to e news on TV that night, e whole fuss (e motorcade of around 10-15 cars travelled something like less than 1.0km between e palace & e train station) was cos baby Princess Aiko & her parents went to visit some farm in some other part of Japan.

trudged across a thick layer of loose gravel to a far corner of Kokyo-Gaien just to see e Nijubashi bridge of e Imperial Palace. isn't much of e palace proper that can be seen. pink azaleas bursting in full bloom in e Ninomaru garden of Higashi Gyoen (East Garden of e Imperial Palace) reminded me that I had come far too late for e cherry blossom season cos of honours exams, & too early for e irises that bloom only later in May =| Nippon Budokan was far more interesting than e 'off-season' gardens. e hall is used for all sorts of Japanese martial arts trainings, with different days for e different '-do's i.e. kendo, judo, aikido & also karate, Shorinji kempo, & naginata - e latter looks something like a Japanese version of e Chinese pudao. e Budokan is also a venue for rock concerts, & e place was full of teenage fans hanging around, sharing cigarettes, beer, concert goodie bags, fan club souvenirs & stickers, make-up, keitai (handphone) icons, etc, waiting for e 2nd night of e 3-night Pierrot Live at Budokan 2002 concert to start. http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~syogo.kirito/all04.jpg might give you an idea of how some of e fans were dressed; e rest were dressed in skimpy nurse 'uniforms' or as Victorian-era parlour maids with frilly aprons & caps. exasperated security guards tried & failed to keep them to e side of e road so that cars could drive through. spent some time sitting on e pavement by e road surrounded by all e fans, people-watching & taking photos. highlight of e day: found pineapple flavoured Qoo in e Kitanomaru Park cafeteria =)

roof of Glass Hall from 3 angles, Tokyo International Forum Building: the glass ceiling is supposedly earthquake-proof [ architect: Rafael Vinoly ]

Nippon Budokan - Yasukuni-jinja - Kudanshita - Minami-senju: crossed e road for a peek at e infamous Yasukuni shrine. e shrine is where e remains of Japan's war 'heros' are interred, & has a museum that supposedly glorifies kamikaze pilots & WW2 war criminals. it was closed by e time I got there, but not as if I wanted to enter e place. bought a bento from e ampm konbini near Kudanshita station & back to Minami-senju, past e cat sitting outside e station's newsagent kiosk, across e blue overhead bridge over e freight railway tracks, past e corner eatery with e aroma of tempura being fried, e koban, coffee vending machines, Nihonzutsumi intersection, potted plants along e sidewalk, e closed bento shop, e desolate bus stop & finally Juyoh. this rundown neighbourhood was starting to feel like a straycat's home =)

Minami-senju - Sendagi - Yanaka

Myoo-in Temple, Yanaka-5-chome, Tokyo: not clients of some hair loss treatment center, but jizo statues - the hand gestures, objects held in hand & ruffles on the robes are unique to each individual
Choanji Temple, Suwadai-dori, Yanaka-5-chome: each of these statues are only about a foot high

Yanaka - Tokyo National Museum - Ueno Park

3 views of Horyuji Homotsukan (Gallery of Horyuji Treasures), Tokyo National Museum, Ueno Park [ architect: Taniguchi Yoshio ]

standing at the Gates of Hell (sculpture by Rodin), National Museum of Western Art, Ueno Park

detail of temple roof: Benten-do, Shinobazu Pond, Ueno Park

Ueno Park - Yushima Tenjinsha

Yushima-tenjin shrine dedicated to the God of Scholarship, Tokyo [L-R] paper lanterns: not a new addition to YONEX's line of sports equipment; shrine attendant dusting windows at the end of the day; ema wooden plaques with prayers for success left by students facing university entrance exams

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