April 26-30, 2008 - Around The World, The people of Tokyo

Girls of Harajuju... This is why we hung out here for a couple of hours on the first day, then again on the third day.

Not exactly as dressed up as the younger girls, this Harajuku cougar struts her stuff.

Just felt like taking this one...

At the Meiji shrine, we saw two wedding parties.
Guessing this is the groom and the mothers.

Bridesmaids.

The bride of a different wedding.
They seriously spent about 20 minutes on her tiara and hair, then without taking a single picture, covered it up with this veil(?). They finished taking pictures without a single one of her hair and tiara.

Schoolgirls walk past the fish market.

Many women want to remain as pale as possible and walk under umbrellas.
Biking under umbrellas was a little less prevalent.

Adorable.
(The baby is kinda cute, too.)

Takashita Dori (from the street sign on the first Tokyo page).

We thought the kimonos and obis were just for special occasions, but then we saw several women wearing them around town.
This was right outside our hotel.

Hopping with a bucket at Ueno Park.

Eating ice cream at the Ueno Park zoo.

Vendor at Ueno Park.

Random alley as we got a little lost trying to find our hotel.
Many signs (airport, subway, etc) are in Japanese and English. Maybe 25% of street signs are, too, but only 25% of roads have street signs. So, you have a 1:16 shot in being able to figure out what street you're on at any point in time.

Typical fast-casual restaurant.

Girls definitely have better fashion senses than the guys.
Also notable was that most Japanese take pictures with their phones. It was strange to see so few cameras. Their phones must have better cameras and more space than ours.

Carnival-style food court outside Sensoji Temple.
This is where that squid-on-a-stick shot was taken.

How cool is it to see ladies dressed like this, just out shopping...?

...or strolling through a park.

The children were precious.

Back on the city streets, this it is a good illustration businessmen fashion. Half of the people in this picture have suits on.
Around 8am and 5pm, this number probably went up to 80% of people on the streets being men in suits.

The bustle at Narita airport.

The people of Japan drive on the left and all stand on the left of escalators, even when no one is walking. Very orderly and impressive!
As far as we can tell, there weren't even signs telling them to do so.
This defines our image of Tokyo - clean and orderly. We won't see civilization like this again for days...