Selected Cityscapes

The main rail-line around Tokyo is the JR Yamanote line, on maps a circle that you could travel around the heart of the city in 60 minutes or so. The line is not actually a circle, but it does help to think of the Yamanote line as a clockface. On the video map below, which is mounted over every train door, the various stops are posted in Japanese and English, with bilingual announcements as well. A red dot shows you where you are, and times to other stations are given, with transfer information. We've done most of our exploring on this line, starting at Shinagawa (6:00 on the clockface).


Akihabara, Ginza, Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro are some of the big commercial hubs, with massive multi-floor stations (sometimes 8-story department stores rising above, around, or next to the station) with numerous levels below. So much of Tokyo life is in the stations as transit points, and many people do much of their eating and shopping at stations or within blocks of the major stations. One could easily live for days without leaving the trainlines or the station areas, and they redefine your sense of being in a city. Below, shops outside Akihabara:

...a residential area in Nippori (with old architecture mixing with new)....
A residential street about 20 minutes from the big Shibuya station (typical in showing lots of care for plants outside buildings, and the smaller streets that break off the larger ones)...
It's easy to forget you're in a port city, but we did go back to Odaiba a few days ago, and took a waterbus from a pier to the Odaiba island, passing along old waterfront warehouses.