4 photo ideas for Tokyo

I am back as an adventurous foreigner.

Even though I live in Tokyo, I strongly believe in holding my tourist enthusiasm alive. Just like staying connected to the inner child of ourselves. So, I grasp every free flyer on sight. Some of them have really cool ideas. 

It also helps me to understand myself. What mood I am in? What kind of tourist I am today?

Somedays I am a shopper, Somedays I live to finish some tourist check lists, Somedays all I want   is to eat some Japanese style foods.

And Somedays I just want to take photos of remarkable places just to capture the moment. There are a lot of funny stories about millions of people taking the same photo at the same place. Even there are millions of the same photo, it is important and monumental every single time.

The list/suggestion from a free flyer cites 4 beautiful, accessible landscape photo-taking spots.

And I am glad to say that I have 4 of them. A completed checklist for me… Hurray... :)

1)      Rainbow Bridge, It is a beautiful perspective to look from a man-made island to Tokyo. It is also a wonderful sunset.

2)      Sumida River, the big river in the middle of two very touristic spots: Asakusa, Senso-ji Temple and Tokyo Skytree

3)      Ueno Toshogu Shrine, A beautiful shrine in the depth of majestic Ueno Park.

4)      Tokyo Station, famous for its red brick building picturesque day and night.

The best part of this quick and easy list is that, when you visit big spots in Tokyo these places are included as major sightseeing places... It is all about noticing them.

Cheers, click

Ece

Best Gift for a traveler in Japan

Remember, I told you about a dear friend of mine coming to visit us, and sightseeing around Tokyo? A long time ago, sorry

Remember, that I try to make our friend comfortable.

I have been thinking about a gift for my friend which is useful in travel, which is specific to Japan, and which is easy to buy.

I found it.

It is an IC card. Suica to be specific…

 

It is a card for transportation. You can charge those cards, and you don’t need to buy tickets for trains, buses and so on…

I just spare my time and energy, and use my Suica. It makes all the calculations, all the thinking that I must do when buying a ticket. And I just recharge the Suica. 

Before I didn’t have a Suica. I used to buy tickets every day. Sometimes I did buy wrong tickets, especially if there are multiples lines at the same station. Some machines may not have tickets available for all of the lines. I have faced that problem mostly at Shibuya station, Shinjuku Station, Shinagawa station and so on…  Station stuff is always polite and helpful, even if I bought the wrong ticket, when I explained they refunded my money and helped me to buy the correct line tickets.

I, as a social monkey, couldn’t help realizing the fact that most of the people are just passing within stations with a click sound coming from their pockets, or phone cases or wallets…

I wanted that, the easy pass. So I learned about the IC cards. You can buy it with contracts, such as from school to home, or from home to work, with 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months durations of contracts.

I felt sad because I don’t have such a commitment, or such a long time, so I can’t have the helpful Suica.

Wrong wrong, me, wrong.

It is possible to buy IC card without any contract, it is just for 500yen, and 500yen for first time charging. So you can buy a Suica charged with 500yen, at the ticket machines, fast and easy.

Once you have bought it you are free to travel. And, of course, IC card is a wonderful invention, which offers many more helps in daily life.

The most important one, it can be used as a cash card at convenient stores and vending machines. You don’t have to worry about coins. You wouldn’t have a wallet full of coins. And you don’t have to worry about the left over amount, you can easily buy something and ask to pay with Suica and cash together, if your Suica card has not enough yen in and it is possible to complete rest of the payment by giving in cash.

And another surprising thing, IC card system is connected in the whole country. Once you have an IC card you can use it everywhere, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Sapporo… I used it many times without worry.

So my advice is that when you land in Japan, first buy an IC card at a station. It will make your life super easy. This is going to be my gift to our friend. We are going to greet our friend at the airport, and I am going to give a Suica.

 Here is another article by me about IC Cards In Japan. 

Cheers,

Ece 

Snow and Chocolate

Today, I woke up with snow covered Tokyo. It is cold and white and busy and beautiful. Today, the best contrast with snow is chocolate.

This winter I have been to Sapporo city, the biggest city of the north island of Japan, Hokkaido. And, I used New Chitose Airport.  Until now, this is an intro but it seems just suited to write about on a snowy day Tokyo.

As many airports, there are shops, restaurants, entertainments and so on…

There is also a chocolate factory with a small chocolate museum and dreamy chocolate shops.

 

Cheers, chocolate,

Ece

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!
I made new year resolutions, one of which is about my blog. :)

In Japan, people celebrate New Year's Eve in temples or have a custom to visit temples on first day January.

I ran into this temple when I was going somewhere else, but it made me happy to notice the smell of the incenses burn for good fortune and other 2016 wishes.

 

 One sign that I have for 2016, is that the whether on 1st of January which was realy nice, sunny and warm-ish winter, with beautiful views. 

Cheers,2016,

Ece