This is where the whole journey started. I spent the first year and a
half in this city. As I was unaware of photography then (or much else,
for that matter), there is no picture available in this section.
This bicycle isn't mine. I don't own a bicycle in Japan. Although
some people ride on their bicycles on their ways to the train
stations or for shopping, a road wouldn't be filled with moving
bicycles in Japan1. If you thought it
would, you were probably thinking about China.
Here is another tradition that remains, but this is not the standard
way to put carps up in the sky in May. Probably they had a limited
resource in this elementary school. The carps I saw in
Portugal was more compliant to the
traditional style.
Families with male children would do this in May for reasons I don't know exactly. I believe it has to do with the well-being of the children.
Other things can be seen in the sky of Tokyo include cranes, and I
don't mean birds. Construction works are always going on in Tokyo,
but not as quite heavy as in Taipei.
Taipei and Tokyo look so much alike, but one of the differences is
that Tokyo has more soba (Japanese noodle) shops than Chinese
restaurants. The soba shop in the picture on the right looks very
authentic.
Other differences may include religions. I don't believe in
Shintoism, but my belief is that Shintoism is the basis of Japanese
psyche instead of widely accepted speculation that Buddhism is.
The picture on the left is a small shrine found in a space between
buildings in Tokyo. There are lots of shrines like this in many areas
of Japan.
"Tonkatsu" is what's written on this flag thing, and it means a fried
pork cutlet. This shop is near my apartment where I'm writing this
right now. I have never been to this shop as I try not to eat many
mammals.
The picture on the right shows something I would prefer eating
instead. Actually, I didn't have a chance to eat this particular
squid.
This is what we tried to eat when I went to a barbecue on a shore
in Yokohama area with my friends (it was probably too southern to
be called Yokohama but I don't remember where it was). The squid was
given to us by a person having a party nearby, who also helped us
with the fuels (what a nice guy). But as we became busy in our
activities (such as looking for a toilet), the squid got forgotten
and turned completely into carbon.
1 A road can be filled with parked bicycles in Japan.
The pictures in this page were taken with a Canon EOS 1000FN and ISO
100 colour transparency films. Click on them to obtain full size JPEG
pictures.
