If you use Tokyo’s subway system then no doubt you have seen this poster on the subway station walls. It is a glorious Official map of the Toyko Metro system, printed in color on heavy paper. It is a good 5 feet long by over 3 feet tall. Unlike most train maps, this one is to scale. The street that I live on is just milimeters away from the top, and with a glance I can pan across the the entire city, arriving to Noborito station near Senshu University (Mukogaoko Yuen station did not make it onto the map) in a second. The legend states that this map is 1:30,000 scale. It would be nice to find a same scaled map of my home town to compare it too.
These maps are sold at the station offices in most Tokyo Subway stations for 1800 yen. This one was purchased at Meiji-jingu Mae back a few months ago, and at some point when it was rolled up it got flattened slightly, hence the ridges that have been highlighted by the camera’s flash.
I came here to Japan 2 years ago today. This September I will have been in and out of Japan for 8 years. The honeymoon phase of Japan Living is fading, after a while you start to see how things actually work and what can or can never change. This is not really a criticism of a country or a people- just an observation of how things are. There is only so much that a single American male without marketable skills (outside of having native English proficiency) in Japan can actually do- and the realization that the life(style) I enjoy each and every day is based from the permission of a very generous employer to work in this country is something I constantly keep in mind. First and foremost I am here for my school and my students. All that blog talk about photography and cameras and other stuff is in all reality, second. But this is the internet! I can do my real life well (or at least try my best to) and so Camera-Photo talk will continue here. My nerdness grows with each passing day. 2 years of fairly constant Friday and Saturday evenings home alone will do that to a guy.
I was going to write some more, wax poetic and all, but that would be dumb.
Here is to being able to get my visa renewed in 365 days.
Too much time on my hands this week. I keep looking around at lenses online- One thing leads to another (started off researching the Noctilux) and I came across some Leica related japanese blogs:
ライカ日和
AFTERGLOW in Leica
In a small way with Leica
Girl’s leica club
