Distractions, reflections

I’ve been to the Harajuku district on every trip to Tokyo, and somehow managed to arrive at the Meiji Jingu at times when the gates are closed.  This time, Marianne and I found the gates to the garden open.

I guess that Saturday afternoon is a good bet for families to visit the gardens.

As we entered the gardens walking north, I enjoyed the view of the brook to the side.

The park honours the Emperor Meji who passed away in 1912, and is interred in Kyoto.  The view of the long, tree-covered walk is impressive.

Sake barrels are displayed as decorations, emptied from prior festivals after having been donated by local brewers.

The Meiji period was seen as enlightened one, when the emperor enjoyed western food and took wine with it.  Wineries in Bourgogne, France, consecrated these barrels in the emperor’s honour.

The view from observatories at the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building is recommended around sunset … and it’s free. This building is towards the west side of Tokyo, so looking out that window shows a few skyscrapers in the foreground, with shorter buildings fading into the horizon.

Looking north and east at dusk, the distance from the Shinjuku district to the harbour was too great to see any water.

After the art gallery focused on the last century, we took the subway over to Opera City. After riding a series of escalators up, we found the NTT InterCommunication Center. Beyond the usual WIMP — Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer — interface, there were much larger scale devices to interact with computers. Some displays were by computer science students, and there were even some from the HCI scientists at IBM Research. The guides didn’t permit photographs in the main galleries, but encouraged us to take pictures in the kids’ area. Diana and I took turns crossing the bridge, causing ripples in the projected “water” underneath.

On one of the large screen interactions had us bouncing bubbles up, before they hit the ground.