Photogenic Tokyo

A friend of mine saw all the pictures i took and called Tokyo very photogenic. And it is. There is so much to see. So much beauty. So many color compositions. So many compositions in general. There are old temples next to brand new highrise shopping malls. You'll see Harajuku girls walking with women in traditional kimono. Beautiful.

And to proof i didn't only take pictures of all things cute, i'm sharing some shots of beautiful tokyo.

The Zojoji Temple was right next to our hotel and a very pretty and soothing place to start each day.

There were rows of little statues with bonnets and windmills. These are statues of jizobosatusu, the protector of the souls of stillborn children and the Buddhist equivalent of an angel. Mothers who have lost an unborn child can dedicate a statue and decorate it with baby clothes and toys.

It's so easy to feel like a great photographer when you're in Tokyo. The city is just that beautiful.

On my last Tokyo post, Marilyn asked me about language barriers. If you have seen the movie Lost in Translation, don't believe it all! The day before i left i started to worry about language. I ran to the Barnes and Nobles and bought a pocket dictionary. Well, i didn't use it at all! I basically got around with 3 words: Kawaii (for Cute), Arigato (for Thank You) and Konnichiwa (for Good Afternoon). Plus a bit of English and using my hands in attempt of signing what i meant. I must say that we've spent a lot of time with Japanese people during our trip of whom most could speak at least a little bit of English. So going out to dinner was easy, we let them know what we liked and they picked something and did all the ordering. I'm not sure how smooth that would have went if i had to pick and order myself! Then again, with them we went to restaurants with no English menus and there are restaurants that do have those. Just ask. And a lot of them have fake plastic examples of their dishes outside, so you can just point at what you want to eat. Or you go to the convenience store and pick up some sushi. And as any big city, there are also McDonald's and KFC's.
Subways were easy too. Everything is marked in both Japanese and English. The announcements are in both languages too. So no worries!
Our friends did try and teach us some Japanese here and there, and my hubby was very good at remembering. Maybe because he's a musician and memorizing sounds comes easier to him. I stuck to Kawaii, Arigato and Konnichiwa!