A Product Of	The ANA plane pulling into the gate at SFO. Covered, inside and out with POKEMON characters. An electronics superstore in the Akehabara district, known for its electronics bazaar. Me, outside one corner of the imperial palace. Another corner of the palace, with the city in the background. I believe this is a gateway to a memorial for all Japanese soldiers who have died in any war throughout all time. The fellows from "Cho Go King" (trans: Super Mix Gold) who I saw at a little club in Koenji. A train station with a few fashionable people. For school girls, it's the catholic-school uniform look with big, baggy socks. For young women, it's minidresses and platform hip-boots. Japanese tourists outside the palace. Groups of these tourists were all over the place, being led by women in stewardess outfits and bearing matching colored flags. More of the imperial palace. The place was HUGE. Julian and Jan in Shinjuku. A little karaoke Inside the "Super-Echo" karaoke facility. Outside Julian's apartment in Tokyo, where I stayed for most of the trip. I'm not sure what I was thinking here; the best I can imagine is that I liked the idea of a "kinki tourist", whatever that may actually mean. Meguro station, Tokyo, near the apartment. Standard 5pm crowd. Me and Julian on the train from Narita airport. Can you tell I had been flying for 10 hours? Outside Meguro station, on the way home. Here you could find Wendy's burgers, a pachinko parlor, McDonalds, and just about anything else you want. This is the scene outside Ueno station. There's a sort of mini stip-mall across the street at this 7-way intersection. The entrance to Ueno mall. Oops, I know it's out of order, but this was a romantic couple taking pictures at the imperial palace. Really out of order: Pikachu on the wing of the plane on the way to Tokyo. Me and Jan checking out some video games in Shinjuku. Yes, I'm playing a fake electric guitar, and that's two turntables on the console to my left. Not pictured: dance simulator and drumset game. This is the Tokyo Main train station. One can (and did) catch the Shinkansen bullet train here. Cranes on a memorial in Ueno park. Trust me, this fountain in Ueno park had a really cool dragon on it. Bad lighting. D'oh. These firemen had a competition or something in Ueno park. They were all over the freakin' place. Here, they were doing a simulated hose maneuver, standing and moving forward and back in sync, sans hose. This is a shrine in the memorial in Ueno park. The log Jan is kneeling in front of was a remainder of one of the oldest shrines which had been burned in a bombing in WW2. Another view of the memorial area there in Ueno. See all the little white tags? Those are fortunes that you buy from the little red boxes ahead. If you don't like your fortune, you tie it to the string there on the left so you can leave bad fortune behind when you depart. This is Yuki, who took me to see Cho Go King.