Makuhari is home to a number of high tech companies, as well as the Nippon Convention Centre (Makuhari Messe). In amongst the modern skyscrapers are high level walkways and garden areas, all with hedges of Japanese rhododendron. All of these hedge rows were in bloom while I was there on the last day of my recent trip to Japan, and I managed to capture a few macro shots, including this one, using the S500‘s macro feature.

What more can really be said about this. It is a statue of Godzilla in the region of Tokyo known as Ginza.

The Shinkansen (bullet train) we took from Tokyo to Nagoya pulls into the station in Tokyo. This was only the second time I had been on one of these trains. Since we were not boarding at its origin, it was already pretty full, but we had assigned seats in one of the reserved seating cars. As with most of these high speed trains, the trip was uneventful. The ride is exceptionally smooth, and unless you look out of the window you’d never know you were on a moving train!

Inside, the seats are comfortable and have a surprising amount of legroom – more than the economy class on any aircraft I’ve ever been on. As with an aircraft seat, they recline and there is a tray table mounted on the seat in front of you. A food service cart passes through the train offering anything from beer and snacks to a full bento box meal.

This building looked as though it had just been reconstructed. All the wood looked new, and the structure was perfect. At the same time, the construction techniques that had been used looked to be original. Inside, as you can see in the photo, was a very large drum.

In the same complex as the Grand Intercontinental Hotel and the shopping mall is the Korea Trade Centre building – another building with unique architecture.

On and off during the afternoon and evening this trio would turn up in the lounge bar at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel and play for a while. This shot was captured without the flash which has left the beautiful lounge area in sharp focus, and the two musicians close to the camera ever so slightly blurred as they moved with the music they were playing.

By the way, I swear that there was a green tea on the bar menu that was more expensive than the long island iced tea – guess which one I was ordering!

In addition to lining the streets with lanterns, there was a lot of work going on at the Bonguen-sa Temple just behind the COEX complex where the Grand Intercontinental Hotel was located. The red objects in the photo were being suspended over a large courtyard area to form an artificial ceiling. There were also some white versions of them in one area.

No idea what this building is, but its unusual architecture pretty much guaranteed I’d take a photo of it. As it happened, it was a night shot. You can also see it reflected in the Reflections on Seoul, II posting.

In retrospect, cleaning the large silver globe would have been a good idea, but I didn’t really have anything on me to do that with (I was heading back from the shopping mall with some souvenirs and Korean Tiger and Mac Mini leaflets – will post those once I’ve scanned them!).