New Year congratulatory palace visit

The Tokyo Imperial palace in the Chiyoda ku, is a 7.4 square kilometer area of buildings and gardens. Originally built as the Edo castle in 1457 during the Tokunaga shogunate, the castle became the Imperial palace after the Meiji restoration.



The palace is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan and is mostly off limits to the public, with the exception of two days: the Emperor birthday and on January 2nd.



A large number of visitors come on that day to celebrate the New Year and hear the Emperor message.





Visitors enter by crossing the famous Nijuubashi, passing the main gate, into the kyuden totei plaza.



The imperial family greets the visitors from the balcony of the chowaden reception hall, where emperor delivers a short New Year message.




Visitors then leave through the sakashita gate.
Happy New year to all.

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Winter Illumination at Tokyo MidTown

As every year, Tokyo Midtown set up an illumination display for the winter season. As usual, large crowds gathered to admire of the display.


This year the illumination was named startlight garden, with over 250, 000 LED representing the Milky Way and shooting stars.





Visitors avoiding the cold weather enjoyed the display from inside the building.







At the garden, the impressive display was sometimes difficult to appreciate due to the crowds but the combination of lights and music made it worthwhile to endure the cold.



Additionally to the lightshow, the trees of the surrounding areas were also decorated accordingly.

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Views from Nagoya Station

Nagoya station in the Aichi prefecture is the world largest train station by floor area. Most of the space is located in the JR Central towers; one of the twin towers is used by a hotel and the second one is used as office space.




The towers provide great views of the city. the night view specially showing up the beauty of the Nagoya castle.




The streets around the station, normally busy on weekdays, were mostly quiet on this holiday.





The illumination decoration on the lower floors attracted many visitors, giving the station a special holiday feeling.


View Nagoya Station in a larger map

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Hike at Nansawa forest park

The Nanasawa forest park at the east of the tanzawa mountains in Kanagawa prefecture,is a popular leisure area for residents of the Atusgi, although is no so well known outside the area.


The area counts with several hiking paths, but we decided to stay on the main road, as we did not have a guide or a proper map.



The mountains in the area were showing some of the autumn colors, not so impressive this year due to the extremely hot summer, but a great change from the usual city landscape. Unattended stands offer local products, you take what you need and leave the money in the jar.



Rock climbers practice on a small slope by the road before trying the more challenging Nameri-iwa.



Along the road is the Okama benzaiten, a tori in the small stream running along the path.



The best part of the walk was the small restaurant along the path, were you could catch your own food (conveniently located in a small pond in front of the restaurant), and eat it in the open terrace.


Although we did not venture in to the hiking trails, the park was full of pleasant surprises to provide a pleasant walk; I surely will visit again and try the hiking trails next time.


View Nansawa Forest park in a larger map

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Christmas Illumination at Marunouchi

Marunouchi has concisely set up impressive Christmas illuminations, for the last few years. However, due perhaps to the economic recession, this year the illumination has been strikingly scaled down.




To compensate, buildings in the area have set up illumination on their plazas and squares as in the newly constructed ‘Marunouchi brick square’.



Nearby bulding the ‘Marunouchi plaza’ has set up a nice decoration, notice how the meijiseimei building, designated as important cultural asset, has been nicely integrated into the background.



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Autumn at the University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo logo is formed by two gingkoes leaves, a yellow one and a light blue one, the gingko leaves has been used as a mark of Tokyo university in many occasions of the university history.


Accordingly, the gingko trees are showing the beautiful yellow color of the autumn around the University.


The University is open to the public, and a large number of visitors are enjoying the autumn colors.




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