Top 10 Tourist-san Pictures

Gabriel blogs about a street survey conducted by TBS (Tokyo housou) in which they find out the top 10 photos taken by foreign tourists in Japan. Lets see how I measure up to the average tourist-san:

10. Tsukiji Fish Market and giant maguro (tuna)
Well, I didn’t make it over here so NO FISH PICTURES FOR YOU!


9. Kimono
Guess what? NO KIMONO PICTURES FOR YOU! (Okay, that joke is so not funny any more.)


8. Japanese street signs
Of course I did! This is the exact sort of inane crap I take pictures of. For example:



7. Mt. Fuji
I didn’t make it to Fuji-san and therefore did not take any pictures there however I did buy a really nice picture of it on a post card. Two copies. One for sending and one for hiding in my journal. Also, I will go to Fuji-san and inundate you with pictures at some point in the future.


6. Vending machines
Much to my disappointment I did not see any really cool vending machines while in Japan, and believe me I was looking for them since I was supposed to bring back an assortment of “crap from vending machines” for a friend. This picture of people buying tickets for the subway is the closest thing I have to a picture of a vending machine.



5. Narita Airport
WTF? And you thought my vacation pictures were B-O-R-I-N-G, “Hey look, its an airport!” I took a pass on this one as there is nothing really cool to see at Narita and I LOATHE that airport.


4. Shibuya Crossing
You betchum Red Ryder!


And the statue of Hachiko.


Read Hachiko’s story here. (Interestingly Edinburgh also has a statue to a famously devoted dog however I never made it to Greyfriars Kirkyard.)


3. Asahi Beer Headquarters in Asakusa
With something referred to as a giant looking pile of $%!#, the Giant Golden Sperm*, or Golden Turd, how could I pass it up? Seriously when I went to take the pictures I wanted to see the Asahi Beer Headquarters because I enjoy their beer and the building is colored to look like a glass of beer with a head on top.

* If your sperm looks like this then, well, get that looked at. Seriously.


2. Tokyo Imperial Palace
I had to get my castle fix in somehow and with the amount of time I had in Tokyo this was the logical solution. Quite frankly it was not all that as you could just wander around the outside.



1. Kaminari-mon (Thunder gate)
Yes, I took SEVERAL pictures of the Thunder Gate:

Heck, Nobuyuki took a picture of me in front of the Thunder Gate:



So I managed to hit 5.5 of these typical tourist photo-ops and all of the top four. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. To be honest I am very surprised the Meiji-jingu Shrine did not make the list. The park is incredibly beautiful and the shrine is impressive. Here are my two favorite picture from my visit to the shrine:



What can I say? I like the torii.

Thanks to James at JapanProbe.com for pointing this out to the unwashed masses.