cteno4 Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Oh I agree sky tree must have a more spectacular view with its height. It was designed to awe with the height. I was just commenting not the exterior. Jeff Link to comment
railsquid Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Skytree was, well, ok. It's definitely better than Tokyo tower as it's much higher, but still it's just fine. I find it a little pricy for the tickets just to get up there, and needing to pay again to go up to the higher observatory deck. There wasn't any queue at all when we visited, probably because it's a Friday. I heard it tends to get busy during weekends. They've been advertising the Skytree as a destination on TV recently, which is something I haven't seen before. I get the feeling most people who want to go there have done by now, so it should be less crowded generally. (A bit like Krispy Kreme at Shijuku Station...) Link to comment
katoftw Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 What happened to the rest of the trip? Link to comment
Jensen Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 They've been advertising the Skytree as a destination on TV recently, which is something I haven't seen before. I get the feeling most people who want to go there have done by now, so it should be less crowded generally. (A bit like Krispy Kreme at Shijuku Station...) I hope so, I finally get a chance to get up there without much queuing. Waiting and queuing is not my strong point. In fact I really envy Japanese people lining up everywhere and long one too! Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted May 10, 2015 Author Share Posted May 10, 2015 They've been advertising the Skytree as a destination on TV recently, which is something I haven't seen before. I get the feeling most people who want to go there have done by now, so it should be less crowded generally. (A bit like Krispy Kreme at Shijuku Station...) Yes they have! I watched quite a number of these advertisements when I was in Japan, some of them really comical.. Like these! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=356Ts2d7GEE and this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAN-vfCS0_M Wonder why the boyfriend and the Mother rejected to go to Sky tree town in the first place, then when the mascot appeared, they quake in fear and agreed to go. Is it because the mascot is too cute or too scary? :) Here's more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiaYwvhOsdo And on dubbed in English: The constant reminder to use public transport to go to Sky Tree town is interesting.... But being a Tourist spot it is not connected by JR, which is sad cause we know many tourist carried the JR Pass when they visited Japan... Here's one by the elevator company that supplied Sky Tree's elevator: What happened to the rest of the trip? Yes I intend to update soon, but I just got more photos to leech from my wife's iPhone. Also, been kinda busy lately due to exams so that's kinda not cool... Apologizes will be updating them really soon! I hope so, I finally get a chance to get up there without much queuing. Waiting and queuing is not my strong point. In fact I really envy Japanese people lining up everywhere and long one too! Yes I believe most people have gone to the Sky Tree since it's like its third anniversary this year? When I went there it was REALLY quiet... Just a few tourist from a tour and some other individuals... Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted May 24, 2015 Author Share Posted May 24, 2015 Did you get to stand next to the e4 coming and leaving? It's really amazing in person as it grows and grows so gracefully. Jeff Of course! It wouldnt be a good prove without it right? Humble picture of myself with the E4 Max at Gala Yuzawa station! 1 Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted May 24, 2015 Author Share Posted May 24, 2015 Finally find time to carry on the sharing. Here's day 4, Kamakura, Enoshima and Yokohama day. It's also the day when the cantery pole fell and delayed the Keihin-Tohoku line greatly. We were starting off from our base at Tamachi when there was a long queue and we were wondering what happened when we saw this: It seems Keihin Tohoku was greatly delayed due to this... Nonetheless we managed to grab a Yamanote to Shinagawa to catch a Yokosuka line Saw a 185 series zoom pass while waiting for our train.. Waiting at the platform for our Yokosuka line to Kamakura Here's our train, a E217! Green car Number 4 & 5, Double decker carriage Inside the green car on the 2nd level Here's the Suica card device to use for upgrading to Green Car. I think you tap the Suica card and the light will turn Green. Otherwise, the conductor comes along and after asking where we were heading to and checking our passes she click afew buttons on her device and viola the light goes green! Spotted a E251 Super View Odoriko while travelling there, with Sakura painting! Arrived at Kamakura station and walked over to the Enoden! To be continued... 3 Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted May 24, 2015 Author Share Posted May 24, 2015 First stop was Hase station, for the Daibutsu on the Enoden. Arrived! After walking for a while along a really nice nostalgic street, we arrive at the gates to the Daibutsu shrine! The Daibutsu is majestic. And there were a lot of tourist there! A closer shot after praying Next we headed back to the Enoden and made a short stop over at Shichirigahama station after th Mrs. saw something interesting along the sea coast. You can see Enoshima island in the distance! There seems to be a bazaar going on! Interesting stuffs for sale by the people there... Went back to the Enoden and carried on to Enoshima station.. to be continued... 2 Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted May 24, 2015 Author Share Posted May 24, 2015 The crossing right outside Enoshima station There's a small layout in N scale at Enoshima station, which tries to showcase the actual Enoden running along the coast and on the streets. Walked over to the Shonan Monorail station The suspended Monorail! After riding the monorail to Ofuna... The Godness of Mercy statue can be seen at Ofuna station A transfer to the Narita Express to Yokohama! Man the Green Class is GREAT! Next a switch over to the Yokohama line at Yokohama station to get to Shin-Yokohama for the Ramen Museum with some friends To be continued... 1 Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted May 24, 2015 Author Share Posted May 24, 2015 Arrived at the Ramen Museum A really nice and nostalgic place! And of course a RAMEN for me! YUMMY! And finally a Keihn Tohoku line to get back to Tamachi End of Day 4 ~ 3 Link to comment
lurkingknight Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 the ramen museum..... not much museum as it is kitchy roadside attraction type stuff found over here in north america... world's biggest ball of twine... the big apple... which is literally a 10 story apple and other wierd attractions of the like. Ramen I had there was ok.. nothing special, we had better for less money at some place in ikebukuro we just wandered into for lunch... which was not as good as the place we wandered into off of shinsaibashi in osaka.. lol. Link to comment
katoftw Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 He is teasing us with the daily updates once a week. haha Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted May 31, 2015 Author Share Posted May 31, 2015 (edited) the ramen museum..... not much museum as it is kitchy roadside attraction type stuff found over here in north america... world's biggest ball of twine... the big apple... which is literally a 10 story apple and other wierd attractions of the like. Ramen I had there was ok.. nothing special, we had better for less money at some place in ikebukuro we just wandered into for lunch... which was not as good as the place we wandered into off of shinsaibashi in osaka.. lol. I certainly agree. We went there more for the atmosphere than anything else. The Ramen were ok, but yes you can get better ones at a lower cost elsewhere. My favourite was a Ramen store called Musashi just next to my hotel in Tamachi.. He is teasing us with the daily updates once a week. haha Teasing is good. Builds up excitement for the mind! :) How about some videos I took for a change from static photos? An E2 Toki service arriving at Echigo-Yuzawa station https://youtu.be/Z1yUFcTSzQs An E5 Nasuno 280 arriving at Oyama Station https://youtu.be/uqxRgOXQQJw E231-500 Zenmen Tenbou. *PS Strange no matter how many times I click un-click it still links and the video doesn't show up for the bottom 2... Edited October 9, 2015 by JR 500系 Link to comment
beakaboy Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 Great photos JR500 and some pleasant memories from our 1985 visit when my wife and I visited the Daibutsu Shrine among other places. We spent a short time at Mikimoto Pearl Island as well, where I brought my wife a pearl necklace. Fascinating place! The E4 is my favourite Shinkansen and then you got a photo of the E217 . Wow! My first Japanese N scale model (gifted to me by a Japanese student who stayed with us on our Orchard many years ago) This started my obsession with these models. Thanks again! Link to comment
cteno4 Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 The E4 is my favourite Shinkansen A man of great taste and discrimination! Jeff Link to comment
kvp Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 A man of great taste and discrimination! I wonder what would you say if i told you mine are the 0 series and the E1... Link to comment
cteno4 Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 just about the same really! but the E4 has curves the others don't! I always liked it from the models, but standing next to one as it slides into a station quietly with that nose growing and growing gracefully is really amazing in person at 1:1 and harder to get on a 1/160 model! must admit both the 0 and E1 come in close behind the E4 for me! Just tweaking all those who seem to love to hate the poor E4 duckbill, but i think this is in part as the curves don't come off well when so tiny, its a scale thing. in reality most all the shinkansens up to the E4 and 700 series really had nice curves. there was a human hand in there doing some smoothing and aesthetic curves. then with the n700 total computer designed aerodynamic modeling took over and i think all smoothing for aesthetics was gone. while i still like the later models, there is something missing in the beauty of them in that little bit of human hand/eye smoothing that was lost (and something that japanese design aesthetic has a lot of in subtly). its something like the old GG1s had here in the states with a lot of attention to subtle curves and the pin striping was just in the right place to accentuate the curves. a time when that stuff mattered a lot even when it was not something that screamed at you, but your subconscious liked it so! cheers jeff Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted June 2, 2015 Author Share Posted June 2, 2015 Time to move on to Day 5... A rainy day, and rainy days are BAD for moving around... This was the worst day of the whole trip as most of the moving around were discouraged by the rain. You know, Mrs and rain don't mix well... Did went to Akihabara but didn't go anywhere else except the station... haha Initially intended to go find Fmodels, but again the rain.... So just got a keep stake picture of Akihabara's main attractions... Moved on to Shinjuku instead since it's all indoors... And went to visit Popndetta which is located on the 7th floor of Keio Plaza tucked in a corner. Went there the other day but it was closed at 8pm. Nothing much though... Kinda a small store as I will realise later on... Rental layout.. I want that Sound controller! Despite the rain, we decided to go to Odaiba since we have never been there... Here's at Shimbashi station to transfer to the Yurikamome... Yurikamome tickets to Odaiba! As you can see, it's still raining... Kinda sucky for photo taking.... Here's a lousy shot of the Statue of Liberty... Getting hungry and nowhere to go as it was raining outside, we went to a famed sushi restaurant (after searching around for sometime for Odaiba Diver City and walking a LONG distance in the wind and rain) that featured sushi buffet at a reasonable cost, with TRAIN fun! What's that?? :P To be continued... Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted June 2, 2015 Author Share Posted June 2, 2015 The Sushi restaurant Premium Sushi Keio has a train system by which you can order your sushi. Basically, you just key in your orders at the Ipad provided and wait for the train to arrive! Alternately, you can grab plates off the moving sushi belt unless... The plate colours are important. You cannot take the Green plates (270 yen) if you are ordering the sushi buffet, or additional costs will be charged... More on that later.. Here comes 'Hikari 486 bound for Tokyo!' The sushi will be delivered to you in style on a bullet train! You grab the plates, and once you are done, just press the red button to send the train back... Very interesting indeed! As I mentioned earlier, the Green plates will be charged extra if you order the buffet. Although we did took 2 green plates by mistake, the waitress, with her special scanning gun, scan the plates without counting and we were not charged any extras. I did talked to them about this using my limited Japanese but they said it was ok. We came to a conclusion as long as your charge plates total did not exceed the amount you pay for the sushi buffet, they wouldn't not charge you the extras for the Green Plates... Mrs was a small eater so we did not exceed what we paid... Strange. A sad shot of the patent Gundam statue at Odaib bay.... Back view due to rain... Well, to look on the bright side, we are leaving Tokyo area tomorrow so I guess that's fine. To be frank, I couldn't wait for Kyushu to arrive since there were so many joyful trains there I would love to ride, plus tomorrow is the Hakone trip and the Odakyu 50000 VSE so that got me excited too! Keep tuned for more updates as we progress along. Sorry for the slow updates as work is quite crazy these days and my project is finally on the way (check the personal project's thread for more details) ... 2 Link to comment
katoftw Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 (edited) Fun times. Shame about the rain. I would've suggested buying a 500 yen umbrella from a Lawsons, 7-11, Family Mart etc. Don't let a little rain beat you. Looking forward to more pics as you move west. Edited June 2, 2015 by katoftw 1 Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted June 2, 2015 Author Share Posted June 2, 2015 Fun times. Shame about the rain. I would've suggested buying a 500 yen umbrella from a Lawsons, 7-11, Family Mart etc. Don't let a little rain beat you. Looking forward to more pics as you move west. Actually we HAD umbrellas, just that the Mrs. would not move around in the rain even with umbrellas to search for my hobby trains... The first time we were caught in the rain was because we left our umbrellas in the hotel, but this time we had them. Still doesn't help much combined with the coldness... Unless of course we are searching for a branded handbag but that's another story.... Yap there should be more pictures there since Kyushu had lots of Joyful trains. Please stay tuned. Thanks! Link to comment
Ochanomizu Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Hello Mr JR500, So many cool things to do in Tokyo when it rains ... best time to visit Disneyland, for example. Link to comment
katoftw Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 What happened to the pics? Don't leave us hanging like this! :laughing3: Link to comment
katoftw Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 What happened to the pics? Don't leave us hanging like this! :laughing3: Still hanging! Link to comment
JR 500系 Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 Haha ~ Sorry but photo bucket is hating me at the moment... Any other spaces to recommend where I might upload the photos and link them here? I reviewed and guess I stopped at only day 5... Day 6 is Hakone and boy there WERE pictures.... :) I know katoftw cant wait for Kyushu which is like Day 11 or so ~~~ :P Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now