Nikko

Changing atmosphere today with some pictures of temples and forests from Nikko.

Located in the mountains at about 140km north of Tokyo, Nikko was in the VIIIe century a powerful religious (Buddhist then Shintoist) center. Today, the site has been classified as part of the Unesco World Heritage program and is a very popular destination for Japanese and international tourists.

Tokyo from above

Today, I had the opportunity to take some pictures of Tokyo from the top of the Mori Tower (238,1 m / 54 floors) in Roppongi Hills. The weather was very nice, too bad the pollution spoils a bit the picture...
I strongly recommend to go up there to see the city by night. The view is much better than from the Tokyo Tower!

Sunset on Mt. Fuji

As the sun...

goes...

down.

Shibuya

The skyscrapers of Shinjuku

To the sky

Minato-Mirai (Yokohama Bay)

Little night session today in Minato-Mirai.

The name Minato-Mirai means "Harbor Future". This seashore place next to Yokohama City was constructed very recently (1984). It is very wide, open-spaced, and not very crowded. I like to go there from time to time, it feels a lot better than the crowded Tokyo districts like Shibuya.

You can find the Landmark Tower there, the tallest skyscraper in Japan (70 floors - 295,8m) and the Yokohama Museum of Art.
Minato-Mirai is also a nice place for shopping. There are some big shopping centers where you can find casual clothes and gadgets as well as brand marks and luxury.

Kamakura

The fallowing pictures were taken during a day trip in Kamakura (here written in Kanji), a small town in the south of Yokohama. Kamakura used to be the capital of Japan (and the 4th largest city in the world in 1250 with 200,000 people!!!), because of the surrounding mountains and sea that protected it from eventual enemies.