Dear Tina + Gabby,
How’s your Sunday? How’s your hosting stint at PICC for your college’s graduation, ‘ney? I know you did well, of course. As for me and my Filipino colleagues here in Tokyo, we went to places that I immeidately fell in love with.
After a 3-station-train ride via Yamanote line from Gotanda, the place we’re staying, we got off Shimbashi and found young ladies beautifully dressed in kimono… who would pass a photo op with these graduating students?
From the train station, we walked a few blocks to Imperial Palace. The area looks like an upscale Malate-Luneta-Fort Santiago area; I honestly miss home more when I saw the place.
Then after few shots; we went back again to the streets and found these wonderful scenes…
Who would not fell in love with these blooms on the streets? It’s not even spring yet… Sakura or Cherry blossoms will be experienced on the last week of March; but tulips, roses and other floral arrangements and plants on the pavements were such a feast for the eyes…
I so wished you and Gabby were with me on this bench, lovely isn’t it?
From Imperial Palace we walked our way to our lunch buffet which deserves another letter soon. On our way there, more fascinating art installations were impossible not to appreciate…
After our lunch, we got a taste of what it feels like walking in the streets of GINZA!
Undoubtedly, Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world; and one of those upscale streets in this capital is Ginza. It is like Times Square in New York according to my colleagues. Don’t you think, Tatay-doc is so blessed to have walked in Ginza for free? 🙂
Ginza Street is closed to cars and other vehicles before 5PM. Some seats are even provided at the middle to render comfort amidst stylish fashion shops.
There were a ton of high-end shops of watches and clothes –a true shopping mecca for rich and fabulous…
But what’s Tokyo without Hello Kitty and Disney’s Royalties ?
Ginza is hard to resist; but home is still where my heart is. 😀
I miss you ‘ney and Gabby.
I love you.
Till my next letter;
tatay-doc.
beyond toxicity @ docgelo.com 
From your photo of Ginza I can see why some of your colleagues compare it to Times Square in NYC – for one, chairs and tables dominate a now pedestrian-only section of Times Square.
The Hello Kitty on kimono is quite cute but lucky you to have posed with real ones on kimonos!
hi dennis, maybe one day you can tour us around NYC, hahaha (wishful thinking) so I can compare it myself with Ginza. I love Ginza street; i find it so relaxing walking through it despite the many tourists.
ang ganda naman! those benches will indeed come in handy sa dami ng shopping! 🙂
oh yes, kg… saya sana magshopping kung may budget, hehehe
i remember the days when we toured beverly hills in LA a decade ago..
we were content with window shopping, 😀
ang ganda ng place. at the first glance kala ko hindi Japan very new yorker talaga ang lugar. cute nung bench with floral arrangement hehehe sarap nga kunan ng may taong nakaupo.
oh and hello kitty hehehe i miss her.
thanks, i’ll try to take more pics of hello kitty.
Nice photos of Tokyo docgelo…heard a lot of nice things about Tokyo 🙂
thanks, romel.
Ginza! I’ve never revisited the place since ’67 – it look more beautiful now than before…I’m talking about the place, not like the kimono-clad girls in your pic LOL. I was in Nagasaki and Okinawa a few years ago but I did not get a chance to go to Tokyo. Thank you for giving us a tour of Tokyo, gratis. Is the Nichigeki Theater still around? Btw, I resided at the Tokyo International Center (probably no longer there), a short walking distance to the Ichigaya train station. Keep sharing with us your letters to Tina and Gabby.
i’m not sure of nichigeki theater, bert.
we only explore tokyo on weekends.
thanks for following the series.
Hi, docgelo. I love your photo with that dog statue and I suddenly remember this Akita dog named Hachiko who have his own bronze statue near the Shibuya Station…I did not passed reading that dog story, it was heartrending.
hello, elna.
i just went to shibuya yesterday just to take photos of hachiko monument
hehehe.. i’ll post it soon.
wow! that so so great! kakainggit naman 🙂
Oh man! I have a ton of backreading to do!
My wife’s aunt just came back from Japan a few weeks ago and she said na ang mahal nga dyan. Usually daw they eat heavy breakfast meals from their hotel, take the fruits as baon in their bag sa thier lunch, tapos nag split ng dinner meals. Ganun daw kamahal!
mahal talaga, rico.
in just doing laundry alone in the inn that we’re staying, i get to spend Y500 per washing and drying; make that 2x a week so it’s like P1000 per week on keeping clothes wearable again. Food, train rides, almost everything does not come cheap here.
nice captures doc! i like ginza st shots 🙂
how early mag open ang stores and how late do they close?
thanks, anne.
sorry i failed to ask the stores their opening and closing time.
walang nakapaskil eh. 🙂 wala din naman akong intentions to shop when we went to ginza. hehehe … but i certainly like that street so much. ang saya!
parang namasyal ka alng ata diyan doc. saya ah.
on’t you think, Tatay-doc is so blessed to have walked in Ginza for free?>>> yan talaga ang masaya.
ganun na nga ata talaga, dom..
masarap mamasyal talaga. enjoy ako sa pix mo doc.
salamat!
wow I really envy you now hehehe, I miss Tokyo 😉 I’ve been to those places too but didn’t explore much and you’re lucky coz you’ll see the sakura blossom there, while here in Northern Japan we will have it by end of April 😦 enjoy your stay there doc!
hi sardz! sayang malayo kayo sa tokyo, sana nga EB tayo, hehehe..
luckily, i have seen a cherry blossom tree yesterday in asakusa temple (i’ll post it soon) before i miss the actual sakura when i fly back home soon hopefully before next week.
i’m cutting my trip here shorter than scheduled because of internal problems with something.
but i am OK.
very blessed indeed.
i felt like this letter is written for me. haha, nag internalized. Ü
hello chyng!
you can internalized for as long as you pleased.
thanks for reading! i’ll visit all your blogs soon.
It’s amazing how Japan can be so urbane and yet so clean! The flowers wrapped along the bench armrests were a delightful sight as well. And the co-mingling of traditional and modern fashions on the same street is quite a marvel. You would never see someone in Manila sporting the baro’t saya or the terno for normal day-to-day activities. 🙂
The pervious post from Akihabara also made me salivate over the tech stuff on display. Some of those gadgets will take a couple of years before they make it to Philippine shores.
I wish I could be in Japan in the middle of autumn. Those cherry blossoms would really be a scene to cap my days. 🙂
hey, josh.. watzup? thanks for visiting my blog.
Beautiful Kimono and beautiful flowers too! Looking excellent there, Doc. Enjoy the rest of your stay and thanks for sharing with all of us your wonderful Tokyo experience.
hello, b’ley! thanks for following this series.
saan ang bago mong trip?
i’ll visit your site soon.
hello Hello Kitty!!! 🙂 wow parang ang sarap maglakad diyan! 😛
dyanie! 😀
sarap dito sa tokyo, kaya lang mahal..sobrang mahal lahat.