バスのポースター
今度日本語は少しです。Toby and I were out walking, 
and passed a bus stop with an interesting poster. 
Displayed were several photos of various well known districts within Tokyo, with the photos cut to the shape of butterflies. The poster said (in Japanese, of course), "Gathered while running around Tokyo". The above photo shows a night scene of the Rainbow Bridge, including many party boats.
Under each photo is the Kanji for the name of the place, as well as the associated bus routes. I was able to figure out almost all of the place names fairly quickly by looking at the photo and the kanji. Roppongi 六本木 was obvious, of course, Tokyo Tower東京ターワー, Asakusa浅草, Shibuya渋谷 Ginza銀座and Tokyo Dome東京ドーム.
I have visited several of these places by skate with my City Run 
friends, starting at Ueno Park上野公園, which is depicted at springtime with the lovely cherry trees, Akihabara秋葉原, also known as Electric Town, and the area around Tokyo Station with the Metropolitan Government buildings東京都庁. Our City Run Goal, Jingu Gaienne神宮外苑, is depicted in autumn with the fabulous golden ginko trees, and we've skated to Tsukishima月島 
several times to enjoy making and eating monja together. 
Omotesandou表参道 took me awhile, but the lovely tree lined boulevard was an excellent tip, so finally there was only one place name that had me stumped. I had to spend a long time using my computer and electronic translater to finally sort it out. It's not a name I had ever heard 
before, Kabukichou 歌舞伎町 in Shinjuku. Now that I recall, besides 
being a rather sleezy part of town, it is famous for interesting little ally side yakitori places. I wouldn't want to go there by myself, but it is surely interesting.
Even after several years here in Tokyo, the city bus is still a mystery to me. I can go to Shibuya on the #1 bus, that's pretty straight forward, but when I tried 
to take that same bus back from Shibuya once, it stopped at Roppongi Hills and the driver said that was the end of the line, so I took the train home the rest of the way, and still don't understand why it works this way. The kids sometimes ride the bus to Shinagawa, but that doesn't involve any transfers. I'd like to ride the bus more, it's 
actually more convenient than the train sometimes, but figuring out 
the routes is really tough. For the train routes, we use this handy website, but to my knowledge, there is no such thing for the bus. The bus website has some English, but not enough to help me navigate, and the Japanese bus site, which shows the routes, is just too intense for me. Japanese people don't seem to have any trouble, though. Ha! Being able to read is such a benefit! The buses are always well maintained, on time, and well utilized. Such an efficient city.
Comments