Shimbuya

Konbanwa students,

I'm sorry that I didn't have an entry for last night. I was having technical difficulties, and by the time my problem was corrected, I was too tired to keep my eyes open. I did only have 3 hours of sleep before I went to the fish market. I actually wrote the entry about the fish market when I returned at 6:00 a.m., so I was too exhausted to do another after 10:00 p.m. Sometimes you will see a couple of entries dated the same date. Sometimes I will write two or three at one time if I have a lot to write and time allows it. Also, since Google is the creator and host of Blogger my blogspot loads through Google at a specific time of day, California time.

I am not at a loss for anything to write about, there is plenty and all of it has been either interesting, a different experience, an adventure, or all three. Lack of time is sit down at the computer has been a problem for me...But let's begin now.

I just returned from an area of Tokyo known as Shimbuya. The Shimbuya area is known as a hang-out for the youth culture, and has the busiest intersection in the world. Besides the the stores that are located there, it is also the end of the Ginza Metro Line, and that is one of the reasons it is so busy. People are exiting the Metro at all times of day, every day. I know that if you have never been to a big city like New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., London, Paris, or Tokyo you don't know what I'm talking about. These cities all have commuter trains underground. Some are called by terms like subway, others use the word metro, short for metropolitan, or city area.

Metros are safe in terms of the incident of accidents, avoid traffic interference, go fast, are a cheap way to travel, are better for the environment, and save time. I like them, so tonight I decided I would learn how to travel the Tokyo Metro. For 160 yen, which is about $1.56 in U.S. currency I traveled one way across half of Tokyo in about 10-15 minutes. I returned the same way for the same price.

Here are pictures of busiest intersection in the world, a map of the four or the nine different metro lines posted for this metro station with the stations that it stops at on each line (the other lines are not posted on this list because you would have to transfer from one of these lines and get on another to go to a different area of the city---you would use the same ticket because they are not collected until you exit the station), and the Neon lights that illuminated my first Friday night in Japan.

I'm inviting comments. Where are they, please?