amdavidson

My Morning Commute Tokyo

posted on 2009-08-18 - amd.im/BeL8

When I stay in Tokyo, I rarely "stay" in Tokyo long. It's more of a base-of-operations, or more accurate: a place where I leave my suitcase.

I have not yet had a vendor that could actually call themselves, "based in Tokyo" but it's still a major hub and so it ends up being a hub of my travels in Japan.

This commute is not a single day's commute like the other days, instead I'm posting pictures from two days of commuting as they were drastically different.

Day 1:

The first day I had to visit a vendor in Toyama, which unfortunately is difficult to get to by train (mountains in the way). This meant a day flight, not my favorite.

It took me nearly 5 hours to make the 176km flight for a 4 hour meeting and then another 5 hours to get back to the hotel, but that's life.

Day 2:

On the second day, I had to visit a vendor that was outside Niigata, a ways north of Tokyo, but much more easily accessible by train.

To get there, I took the Chue line from Shinjuku to the Tokyo Central Station then the JR Shinkansen up to the Tsubame-Sanjo Station.

And a bonus shot below, of my evening commute back to Shinjuku after a long day...

My Morning Commute Shanghai

posted on 2009-08-11 - amd.im/8Osc

I'm a little late posting these, but it's been a crazy week. Here's a continuation of the My Morning Commute photos I took.

The next stop in my travels took me to Shanghai, a city that I've been to but really have only been visiting much recently.

What has always stricken me about the city is it's glaring contrast between the modern world and the city's long history. This photo of a modern skyscraper immediately behind a historic office building is one of several scenes that I have come across that really shows that contrast.

Leaving Shanghai is a completely different contrast. Shanghai is in the top 10 largest cities in the world, but when I leave it, it doesn't seem to trail off the way that other large cities do, into a maze of suburbs. Leaving Shanghai often feels like traveling into another world.

Here's a less interesting, but frequent view that I have from the back of whatever vendor's van I'm in. China's freeway system is comprised of more tollways than anywhere else I've seen yet.