We flew into Tokyo and stayed there five nights. We had two days to sightsee in the city, spent one day on an excursion to Kamakura, and one day was entirely occupied by the wedding and its various parties.

A view of downtown Tokyo from the Tokyo Tower, an Eifflish sort of tourist destination which was our first stop after getting off the airplane.

It was dusk. The neon lights stand out.

Seiji Murai, who was Opcode's distributor in Japan.

Keiichi Goto, a record producer who was an Opcode user. Seiji-san and Keiichi-san picked us up at the airport, took us to the tower, and out for dinner the first night. Keiichi-san showed us around Tokyo for the next few days, and helped out quite a bit even after that.

Part of a wax museum at the base of the tower, where Keiichi's friend worked. Do you ever stop to think what a weird art form wax museums are?

... even apart from whom they decide to celebrate?

The museum curator also collects pop flotsam from all over.

Definitely inspired by the Eiffel Tower.

Dinner the first night is shabu shabu. Very thinly sliced Kobe beef is dipped in boiling water for a few seconds, and then in some sauce. Vegetables are also cooked in the water. Later on, the water has become delicious stock, and is served with noodles. The appetizers for this meal included fugu fish sticks.

Here's Taito Ryokan, the very modest traditional Japanese place we stayed. No shoes past the lobby; no meals; thin mats to sleep on; thin walls between rooms; one shower.

Keiichi-san said this was a newspaper company. This promontory reminded me of a submarine.

The Tsukiji Fish Market. We didn't arrive at 4 AM as some people suggested, but there was still plenty of activity at 8 AM.

Some tunas awaiting processing.

Doing business.

Eel.

These cute little carts were whizzing by everywhere — you had to be careful to stay out of the way. More pictures of fish...

After looking at all the fish for wholesale, we went to a very popular nearby sushi bar and had breakfast. Everything was ethereally fresh.

The sushi chef.

This is what true wasabi roots look like before they're ground up and served in Japan.

A little knife shop. We bought an affordable knife (i.e. one I won't feel too bad about not using properly since I am sure it is a life long art to take best advantage) and it was especially good to get some little pliers designed for pulling fish bones out — using needlenose pliers isn't that convenient.

Everywhere in Japan there are vending machines selling coffee, tea, and soda.

A post office had a video aquarium — a layer of real water with bubbles was in front of a CRT displaying computer images of fish.

Keiichi-san took lots of pictures of us. Here we are outside the Kabuki Theater, where we saw a few acts of a play. There's a special balcony for people who want to see just one act at a reduced price, but they never kicked us out. Not that we know anything about the reduced price — Keiichi wouldn't let us pay for anything the entire time he was showing us around.

Banners advertising an upcoming sumo tournament.

The Tokyo-Edo National Museum.

Tiles in the museum courtyard.

One of several miniature dioramas showing life in Edo. Edo is the old name of Tokyo.

Binoculars so you can see the detail in the dioramas.

A genealogy showing the shoguns (the line on top). It looks so tidy compared with European royalty. They must have left something out.

A candle holder.

Another diorama.

In front of a Kabuki theater exhibit.

With our very informative volunteer guide.

Keiichi taking a picture of us up the escalator.

Umbrellas, not rain coats, are how the Japanese keep dry — the day we wore rain coats we just felt we were getting everything wet.

I visited the Digi Japan office, and was interviewed for an article in Pro Sound magazine.

We had a "music industry" dinner combining the people I was connected with in Japan and Jonnie's friends who had come to Japan for the wedding. Here's Seiji, Daisuke Naito (a tester for Digi), and Seiji's brother Kanji. Once again, the dinner ended up getting paid for by the Japanese hosts, a nice present for Jonnie. More pictures of the dinner guests...

This painting in the restaurant looked to me like teeth.

The next morning, before going to Kamakura, Keiichi took us to the Kappabashi Kitchenware Town district. This store sold only chopsticks.

This gilded water-sprite represents a Kappa, a cryptozoological apparition reported to live in water in Japan. Wikipedia says they like cucumbers. I'm not sure how the sash and newspaper fit in to that.

Trompe-l'oeil.

After our day trip to Kamakura, Keiichi showed us around the "red light district" of Kabukicho near the Shinjuku station. We had room for a little snack, so we went to a tonkatsu place. Tonkatsu, breaded fried pork cutlet, is on the menus at many Japanese restaraunts in the US, but in Japan there are places which specialize in it (and breaded fried other cutlets as well). Keiichi ordered five entrees for the three of us, which we managed to eat most of somehow.

Nigerians tried to attract tourists and businessmen to spend some time in seedy bars or brothels.

A mural in Shibuya station.

The main square near the Shibuya station.

The best deal in Tokyo for fresh-squeezed orange juice seemed to be at a chain called Freshness Burger.

The day after the wedding, Keiichi had a recording session, and Daisuke spent a few hours showing us around. We found several houses where it looked like the owners were "holding out" against development. Maybe someday they'll get a better offer.

We stopped at Tokyu Hands, a large home-improvement store, where they had a display advertising things to help keep your possessions safe during an earthquake.

An observatory on top of a house, reminding us of Ellen, one of the Niger desert eclipse expedition guests who had built an observatory on her house in the Netherlands.

A handy neighborhood map posted on a wall.

Takeshita-dori, the main street of the Harajuku shopping district.

We just happened to walk by a window display for FiveG, a store selling vintage synthesizers (and some modern synthesizers developed by vintage synthesizer developers like Dave Smith), so we went upstairs and checked out its massive selection.

We walked through the Meiji Shrine. Here is a large wall of sake kegs.

The kegs close up.

Here, as at most shrines, you can buy a little piece of wood, write a prayer on it, and then tie it onto a structure.

Harajuku is famous as a spot for Goth kids to dress up and hang out on Sundays. It seemed like there were more photographers than kids, but they relished the attention.

A small procession carrying a portable shrine went past.

We randomly ran into Paul and Gail near the Goth kid hangout.

Plastic food models of pasta and pizza. We had pasta, with uniquely Japanese toppings.

There were once several Condomania stores in the US. Now there's only one in New York, but it seems like there are still several in Tokyo.

The morning before leaving Tokyo for Hakone, we had some time to watch people making pastries in the department stores surrounding Shinjuku Station. There seems to be a culture of cooking battered things in large cast iron muffin tins. Each style of mold is used of course for only one dish, and they must weigh a ton. Collect them all.

Japanese cannoli.

On to Kamakura