OMG today was meant to be a quiet day. But it didn't work out that way.
We left the hotel at approx 8.30 for breakfast and returned at 6.30pm with only a stop for breakfast & lunch. We needed to sort out the rail passes for the bullet train tomorrow and I forgot my passport so that meant a walk back to the hotel but in doing so we saw the arrival of some bigwig or other in a carriage of the sort the British Royals ride around in.
We spent the whole day walking around photographing anything that took our interest, usually unusual buildings, which Tokyo is full of. Funnily enough I have been photographing all day but don't seem to have much to show for it. Some equipment malfunction I think as I know I photographed the De Beers building with William's wide angle lens but I cannot see any photos using that lens. Not even travel brain can stuff that up!
We also took in 2 photographic exhibitions. One in which we found an interesting printing technique that we have not seen used in NZ. The other was Called Follow Me and was about Ezo - the Red Fox. We grew rather fond of foxes in Hokkaido. The author was Hiroki Inoue and I've included some of his images to give you an appreciation of his work. Please forgive the rubbish reproduction. These photographs were at least 1 metre wide & stunning in their detail, expression & beauty.
Something else we did today was visit a stationery store called Itoya (pronounced E-toh) & has been in business for 113 years. This was impressive, 12 floors of stationery and next door another 6 floors. One whole floor was devoted to letters; the most beautiful stationery you have ever seen. Another was just full of cards; another of pens/pencils (some of those pens you'd need to take out a mortgage for); another devoted to travel; another to diaries, you get the idea.
It's another early start tomorrow as we are taking the bullet train to Nagano to see the snow monkeys. I hope there is actually some snow given the recent warm spell. The forecast there tomorrow is 6 degrees.
We left the hotel at approx 8.30 for breakfast and returned at 6.30pm with only a stop for breakfast & lunch. We needed to sort out the rail passes for the bullet train tomorrow and I forgot my passport so that meant a walk back to the hotel but in doing so we saw the arrival of some bigwig or other in a carriage of the sort the British Royals ride around in.
We spent the whole day walking around photographing anything that took our interest, usually unusual buildings, which Tokyo is full of. Funnily enough I have been photographing all day but don't seem to have much to show for it. Some equipment malfunction I think as I know I photographed the De Beers building with William's wide angle lens but I cannot see any photos using that lens. Not even travel brain can stuff that up!
We also took in 2 photographic exhibitions. One in which we found an interesting printing technique that we have not seen used in NZ. The other was Called Follow Me and was about Ezo - the Red Fox. We grew rather fond of foxes in Hokkaido. The author was Hiroki Inoue and I've included some of his images to give you an appreciation of his work. Please forgive the rubbish reproduction. These photographs were at least 1 metre wide & stunning in their detail, expression & beauty.
Something else we did today was visit a stationery store called Itoya (pronounced E-toh) & has been in business for 113 years. This was impressive, 12 floors of stationery and next door another 6 floors. One whole floor was devoted to letters; the most beautiful stationery you have ever seen. Another was just full of cards; another of pens/pencils (some of those pens you'd need to take out a mortgage for); another devoted to travel; another to diaries, you get the idea.
It's another early start tomorrow as we are taking the bullet train to Nagano to see the snow monkeys. I hope there is actually some snow given the recent warm spell. The forecast there tomorrow is 6 degrees.
   |    Hiroki Inoue's beautiful work |
 |  |
RSS Feed