仙台 Sendai

A little over 900km (550+ miles) away from Osaka is Sendai. Yesterday, even the Shinkansen can fail and due to some >20 minute delays around Tokyo I missed a connector train. The normal connection time seems to be 6-15 minutes. Thankfully they got me booked on a train that left only a few minutes after I managed to get the ticket. Not counting the delay time this train was only a bit slower than the one I should have been on. It also separated into two trains partway through the trip so you had to be sure you were in the half you needed to be in (and you could not pass between them from inside).

Sendai station has multiple levels filled with おみやげ　shops and restaurants, even a grocery store. A good number of the restaurants served the local specialty, 牛タン, grilled cow tongue. There were over 75 taxis waiting outside in the evening but few people seem to use them. Also, the pillow at the hotel came with an instruction sheet which was kind of scary. They do provide wired and 64bit WEP wireless and a really good breakfast buffet though.

大阪 Osaka

Osaka's an interesting town. It's kind of like Tokyo, only a bit smaller, and if anything, even more people seem to smoke here. The food's been great, Dotombori (Bladerunner inspiration?) is kind of a crazy shopping mall/restaurant neighborhood. Osaka-jo has a great 360 degree view from the top of it. The outside of the castle is restored to something similar to the original but the inside is basically a small musem, stairwells, and even an elevator due to the complete(?) reconstruction of it in the 90s.

By the way, the matcha (green tea) softserve ice cream here is addictive. Some places have a ton of flavors and when you buy one they load in a softserve cartridge into the machine that then dispenses the ice cream.

都庁 Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

This building is the heart of Tokyo's government, and has free observation decks in each of the towers. The glass is super reflective and tripods wouldn't really help (if they are allowed, a monopod could help) so here are some ISO3200 1/30 shots with a bit of noise reduction, glass reflection, hand shake, etc. :) The view is pretty captivating and the subway line has an exit straight into the building which makes it hard to miss.

新宿

After getting some dinner it was time to head back and check out Shinjuku at night. I know I said earlier that Shinjuku station sees around 4M passengers daily but it's hard to describe just how big the place is underground and how many different exits and entrances there are. As Wikipedia says, there are over 200(!) exits to the station! My hotel's near the new south exit but last night after walking underground for probably 15 minutes inside the station trying to figure out where to go I ended up out the west exit. It probably took another 15 minutes to wrap back around the plazas and skyscrapers to get to the original area I was aiming for...