One Night in Tokyo
Back in Tokyo with one free night to explore before catching a flight home the following day, it seemed reasonable to put the focus on finding some food and photographing the street life.
We were staying at the Washington Hotel in Shinjuku so we were in a good spot for exploring on foot. We began by heading to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building’s observation deck to get an overview of our location. That’s where the skyline photo at the top of this post was taken. From there, we headed into what appeared to be the lively area of Shinjuku, judging by the growing abundance of brightly colored lights.
We had heard of the street food area known as Memory Lane (also Piss Alley) and, by chance, we stumbled right into it. We grabbed a beer and some yakitori grilled chicken and shot lots of photos. Some vendors were more open to being photographed than others so I mostly tried to shoot on the fly while still keeping on the move. It was a fun exercise in shooting from the hip and the colorful surroundings made for a lot of happy accidents.
Our stomaches full and our memory cards rapidly filling, we started a meandering path back toward the hotel. One night surely can’t do Tokyo justice, but the evening had definitely whet my appetite for exploring more. One, last quick walk the next morning (see the last shot of this post), and then it was off to the airport to fly home. The end of my last pre-pandemic trip. I had no idea that it would be my last international visit for another year or two, but it was a good night to have been my last. For a while at least.
