Tokyo Weekend Part One (lots of ships)

This past weekend was a busy one as we made back-to-back trips to Tokyo for the day. I decided I would transform into tourist mode and capture some non car shots for a change. I ended up shooting a ton of pictures over the weekend so I will divide this up into two posts. Anyways, let’s start with Saturday.

First up was a trip on the Tokyo Metro Ginza line from Ueno to Asakusa. Above Tokyo is a maze of railroad lines and under Tokyo is a maze of subway lines.

Cabs lined up in Asakusa.

Our destination was the Tokyo Big Sight down in the harbor area, but instead of taking the train all the way we hooked a ride on the “water bus” for a cruise down the Sumida river and into Tokyo bay.

The Asahi building. If you can’t tell by looking at their building, Asahi is one of the biggest names in Japanese beer.

Cool scene along the Sumida riverfront.

Here we are passing under one of the many bridges along the way. Most of them are low enough where they will tell you to “watch your head” as the boat passes under them. Being 6′2″ makes it even more exciting.

Even though it was a Saturday, there was plenty of commercial traffic on the river.

Another day on the job.

Ferry heading back up the river towards Asakusa.

Playing in the wake of the ferry.

Fishermen gathering under a bridge.

Hustle and bustle.

Stacked.

It was a pretty windy day, and you could tell by looking at the water.

ANA 747 on final to Haneda Airport through the haze.

Tokyo.

Cool “bow art”.

Private boats tied up near Hamarikyu Gardens.

Tokyo Maritime University ship with Fuji TV and the Rainbow Bridge in the background.

Stopped at Hinode Pier where we transferred to another boat bound for the Tokyo Big Sight.

Pretty ugly day, but there is just something I like about the Tokyo harbor area.

Coast guard ship in Odaiba. There is a pretty cool movie and TV series about the coast guard in Japan called “Umizaru” (Sea Monkeys).

High rises in Odaiba.

Another crazy looking building in Ariake.

We finally reached our destination at the Tokyo Big Sight, which is an impressive looking structure in itself.

I wanted to check out the Tokyo “Garaging Expo”, which is basically a gathering of custom garage and home companies that can build you the garage of your dreams.

Maybe some day when we are filthy rich I can come to this event and say, “OK build me that one”.

After wandering around the Garaging Expo event a little, we headed out to Shinjuku to hang out with Joey from Wrecked Magazine who was in Japan for D1 at Fuji Speedway. We had some dinner and then hit up a nearby arcade for some racing action.

By then the weather had gotten kind of cold and rainy so I didn’t bother to take any more pics. It’s OK though because we would be heading back to Odaiba on Sunday for the Mooneyes event and I would be dragging the camera along again.

Look for another update tomorrow some time. For now, you can see some of the other Tokyo pics from Saturday right here.