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Tokyo Tower through the trees

Oct 30, 2020

Last Christmas Eve I approached Tokyo Tower from a new angle for me and saw it rising as if from a forest. The Tower really is the centre about which Tokyo spins. So long a symbol of the city and still, even with the modern prevalence of high-rise buildings, visible all over the city.

Mori Tower

Oct 04, 2020

The Roppongi Hills Mori Tower is an amazing complex with one of the best observation decks in Tokyo. This photograph of the top dozen floors or so was taken from Tokyo Tower, and if you look at the full size image you can see people behind the windows of the 52nd floor looking back at you.

Tokyo Prince Hotel

Sep 22, 2020

This hotel, seen here from Tokyo Tower, has the feel of another era that appeals to me. Built in time for the olympics way back in 1964, it still exudes a restrained elegance echoed by what I have seen second hand of its interior. Whenever I have walked past it or looked down on it as here, I think to myself, “One day we will stay there”. Sadly too many such buildings are being razed and rebuilt, or renovated beyond recall.…

Meguro Housing Complex

Aug 25, 2020

There are a seemingly infinite variety of housing projects in Tokyo that are each fascinating and captivating in their design and detail. It would be nice to see some from the inside one day. This one, in Meguro Ward, is as seen from the Ebisu Garden Place, a landmark which has a great platform from which to view the four Wards of Minato, Shibuya, Shinagawa and Meguro.

Blue Horizons

Aug 11, 2020

Looking south over Sumida and Koto wards from the Skytree on an almost cloudless April morning over countless homes and businesses all the way to the Tokyo Gate Bridge and Haneda Airport and the highrise cluster of Chuo City. It looks vast, and yet is still only a small slice of the whole of Tokyo. Below, in the long thin Sumida River Park where I had just walked, are chaperoned tribes of colourfully hatted kindergarten classes playing, and old men quietly fishing in a fragment of an old canal.…

Urban Eels

Jul 01, 2020

It might just be me, but these Shinkansen, seen in Tokyo Station from a viewpoint on the Post Office viewing deck, look like giant futuristic eels lurking in an urban coral reef.

Towers of Glass

May 23, 2020

Tokyo has many stunning towers of glass, and this one, the newish Kitte building on the south side of Marunouchi Plaza, is one of my favourites. Here looking especially beautiful against a clear blue winter sky. The viewing platform from where this photograph was taken is the perfect location for looking out over the plaza and Tokyo Station too.

Marunouchi Plaza

Apr 29, 2020

Marunouchi Plaza is one of my favourite public spaces in Tokyo. There is an endless variety of contrasting architectures to look at and explore, not to mention some very fine vantage points for viewing the surrounding area. From the new post office building (where this photograph was taken from) to the wonderful Tokyo Station and even looking down Gyoko-dori towards the Imperial Palace there is so much to see and explore from this space.…

Tokyo Station

Jan 25, 2020

Tokyo Station is an immense building with an amazing history. Here is the south side of the station, and the central dome. It sits astride a massively complex transit system nexus and a vast underground shopping mall. With trains and metros, taxis, busses and coaches it truely is a location where journeys begin, end and transition.

Count the buildings

Jan 10, 2020

The variety in size, design, colour, texture and function of buildings in Tokyo never ceases to amaze and fascinate me. Looking east from the superb vantage point of the Skytree out over Kyojima and Yahiro, I wonder how many buildings there are in this one small area of the city. I wonder if any two are the same. The windows are like stars in the sky or grains of sand on a beach - uncountable.…