GearsBlog

Tokyo City Hall. The observation deck at the top is worth a visit!

I am tired of hearing Tokyo called an ugly city. In guide books, newspapers and travel Web sites I am constantly seeing people badmouth the aesthetics of the people of Tokyo. I first saw Tokyo in 1991 and most recently in 2006 I’ve lived there for periods of time on several occasions. Tokyo is a clean, beautiful, interesting city and does not at all deserve the bad rap it has received internationally. Read more…

The front entrance

In Nihombashi, Tokyo I found the flagship store for Mitsukoshi, a chain of department stores in Japan. Here it is on the map. Mitsukoshi is the oldest still-operating department store company in the world. It was founded in 1673 with the shop name “Echigoya.” Ten years later, Echigoya took a new approach to marketing. Instead of selling by going door-to-door, they set up a store where buyers could purchase goods. They must have known what they were doing because their flagship store is simply amazing. Read more…

The Studio Alta building in Shinjuku, Tokyo is an icon of Japan to the rest of the world (here it is on the map). I don’t think the Japanese see it that way but it has a strange magnetic power over western journalists. If you send a news team to Japan to do a story about anything they’ll be drawn to Studio Alta and film their anchorman standing in front of it. It certainly isn’t hard to find. One of the northern exits of the massive Shinjuku train station leads to an outdoor plaza across the street from the massive outdoor video screen. Read more…