Photos: Nighttime and Markets

With my stay in Japan reaching its countdown stage of under a month, I realized I should post the photos I want to share while they’re still slightly relevant. This week, I’m finally delving into the couple thousand or so pictures that I’ve taken in the past several months this year.

This first set of pictures is of the markets in Asakusa (Tokyo) and Toji (Kyoto) as well as some night shots of Dotonbori (Osaka) and Akihabara (Tokyo).

Click Here for the pictures.

The temple in Asakusa is the most visited in Japan, which I imagine would make it the most visited in the world. Even on weekdays outside of peak season, it and its markets are slammed with patrons both Japanese and foreign. I don’t know the exact figure of how many people go there daily, but lets just say… oh…. 6 trillion people a day.

Kyoto’s Toji temple turns from national treasure to giant Flea Market the 21st of every month. The juxtapositions of mounds of Japanese garakuta (junk) with centuries old temples and a multi-storied pagoda makes for an interesting contrast.

Dotonbori is the large promenade of Minami (southern Osaka) filled with eateries, bars, beautiful people, neon, and belligerence. It runs alongside a river in which hundreds of drunk people dive when the Hanshin Tigers win the Central League baseball championship.

Akihabara is the nerd capital of the world.