Shinjuku

You have already seen some photos of Shinjuku but I didn't take many last time so I thought I would bring you some more - including some from the 243 meter tall Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office (Tocho).

These shots were taken from the North tower of Tocho but twas pretty though. First off, you cant take in a tripod for "security reasons". Either because a tripod looks like a martian weapon or because they think that people may smash the windows with it. Well if its the latter, could somebody just use one of the many chairs dotted around to do that?
Anyway, even if you could take in your tripod - its no use at all because they put the lights on so bright inside that all you can see when you get up to the 43rd floor (cant remember) is your reflection - to see anything out of the window, you have to push your face against the window and cover the sides of your face - be-carefull when you do that though cos the previous person may have got a bit too close to the window and left a trail or saliva - would be pretty unpleasant if you got any on your face - especially if the person before has left some highly viscous saliva with green bogies in it.

In order to take these shots, I had to set the camera ISO to 1600, press the lens against the window and use my hat to cover the edges of the lens to prevent the lighting seeping in though the sides of the lens. You can see in some of the shots some light getting through.
Unless your aim is to get some good photos, unless you have a decent camera with high ISO settings, I dont really recommend Tocho - the lights inside are just too bright. Whats the point of having an "observation desk" when you cant observe?

You can see 4 yellow blobs in the sky which is actually light reflection from indoors that seeped through my hat.

Then its off for a stroll around Shinjuku.

This building with two towers sticking out is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office (Tocho).

This is Kaho - an actress gaining lots of popularity in Japan at the moment.

More Kaho...

Another popular actress - Manami Konishi.

More Shinjuku...

Everybody knows this fruit store in Shinjuku but its very out of place! Among all the modern fashion, electronics, food stores is this fruit shop which also sells Durian for about 15,000 yen! My guess is that its a Yakuza hideout or something and that the Durian actually contain packets of white stuff.