tokyo wonderland 01 sengakuji

a month and half has passed since the quake hit in northeast part of japan. seemingly besides the lack of electricity, most of the things are back to normal in tokyo. milks back, no crazy purchasing habits anymore. still we cannot be completely carefree about the situation, i guess we really have to move on. so i for now write about a cool thing about tokyo this time.  

regardless of rumors (or some believe its the fact, hopefully not) that tokyo is getting affected by radiation, its not deniable that tokyo is one of my favorite cities around the world still. there are so many beautiful, weird, or cool people, places or things everywhere in this massive city. its balanced with chaos and contradictions. the city has been developed with the most advanced technology and economy yet there are so many downshifters living as they like at the same time. everything is in a package in this city. especially minatoku has an edge of it.

minatoku is the very central ward of tokyo. super rich people are living, super high-tech buildings are uprising, and million of business people are making massive amount of money everyday and night. what people usually imagine from minatoku should be something fancy, like those skyscrapers in roppongi and shiodome or funny designed stuffs in odaiba or elsewhere. yet there are always exceptions even in minatoku. this area is near sengakuji in minatoku. 

to tell the truth, this area is quite famous for its restaurants. ive been willing to go one of them for a long time but unsuccessful yet unfortunately. surrounded by modern built environment, this area looks as if its totally abandoned from development. or maybe its been successfully escaping from development. anyways its awesome that it has completely different and unique character comparing to other parts of minatoku. 

there is a funky tunnel some hundreds meters away from this area which seems to be forgotten as well. as i described sometimes ago, public transportation system is really advanced in tokyo. yet some parts of infrastructure related public transportation system seems to be really rough. this tunnel under the railway has a ceiling of only 1.5 meter height. apparently this tunnel is no use for most of trucks and van type automobiles. 

when ordinary people walk in this tunnel, they can look like giant with ease. 

i think what people tend to imagine from TOKYO should be something fancy, cool, high-tech, and some other stuffs like that, but obviously there are always exceptions. id try to discover these sorts of interesting exceptions in this city and try to spread them to the world in order to contribute to tokyo to re-attract more positive global attentions.

tokyo after quake 3

many labor forces in tokyo got affected by the quake. some have relocated their labors to osaka or hongkong or shanghai or wherever temporary (hopefully), some have changed their working hour in order to (try to) avoid the planned blackouts, and some have been forced to stop operating. my cousin, for instance, works at Tokyo Disney Land and she cannot work for a while as its in a break until... who knows. 

as for my work life, there are/were 4 things changed at least. a forum i was organizing for a municipality was canceled, a survey i was supposed to make was canceled as well, and one of my clients has been facing a huge problem and it has turned out that it cannot pay for a project i am supposed to work for any more, so there is a need to find other sponsors to sustain this project. these three are quite direct influences from the quake. and the other thing hasnt really affected my work itself but my motivation quite badly. its all about the Tokyo Tower.

its always great to see tokyo tower with lights on on the way home after hard days. maybe because im not originally from tokyo and having a strong aspiration for tokyo, what the tower represents (probably ambition that ill achieve something special in tokyo) always cheers me up and recharge my battery for a new hard day. "every dog has its day."    

yet because of after quake electricity shortages, now lights are gone

whats worse, the tower got a direct impact from the quake. because of the quake, the edge got somehow bent a bit. (its not that obvious from the photo tho)

i think there are many people getting cheered up by seeing tokyo tower with full of lights in the darkness after their hard days. its a real unfortunate that at the moment theres no other choice but to accept this dark tower, yet from the bottom of my heart, i want tokyo to be fine to relight the tower to cheer us up:)

and btw, i really should buy a new camera. somehow i cant get rid of this stain any more.