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Harajuku and Shibuya are two popular shopping areas in Tokyo that attracted younger crowd. This time we've decided to explore adjacent Aoyama and Daikanyama area where boutiques are set in a smaller scale neiboghoods intermingled with residential and office buildings. These two areas are typically not as crowded and seem to attract older crowd.

It's common in Tokyo to see icon/content of western culture re-appeared in an unfamiliar setting and taking on a different reading . In this case I found some posters of Grace Kelly at the Daikanyama train station.

Photo: Jonathan

Sony Building

One of my ritual in visiting Ginza is going to the Sony Building where the latest product lines are shown. This time the building has a new neighbor next door, a glass block Louis Vuitton building by Renzo Piano. Some of the interesting Sony products on display included high definition digital video camcorders, which is much more clear than the old DV format (images of the two formats are compared side by side) wireless home suround sound system (with PSX, the Playstation/DVD/TV recorder combo unit) and the latest cel phones made for KDDI and Vodaphone. The phones are pretty impressive, with a very clear display to handle the 3G media contents. They are all the flip type and are bigger than the slim Japanese cel phone in the past.

Photo: Jonathan

Tokyo-Ginza

After Typhoon #7 swept by metropolitan Tokyo area last night, we have excellent sunny weather today. Despite the sweltering heat I think everyone on the street is happy that the typhoon did not affect the city that much. Even with the impending arrival of the typhoon, we were able to visit Ginza and Yurakucho and did some shopping at the Apple Store and Muji Store yesterday.

The Apple Store in Ginza is amazing! It's multi-story with the upper floors clad in screened opaque glass (double glass skin; the innner layer is operable window for maintenance and fire escape) and the lower floors in the standard Apple Store stainless steel panel. The inside of the store has the same look and feel as it's US couterparts except the ELEVATOR. It's got this amazing all glass (on three sides) elevator that do not have floor push buttons inside the cab; it will automatically stop at each floor. It might sound like long wait time but the elevators are extremely fast and wait time is minimum.

Photo: Jonathan