January 9th - Yokohama

I wound up in Yokohama for another night, catching up with another old friend from NY. She happened to have a car, and we decided on lunch in that district, so I finally make it to Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan. It is located in a very glossy part of Yokohama, that seems to be under rapid development as a business and commercial district. Two world records (I still have the 1987 Guinness Book of World Records memorized for those of you who didn't know) are held in this area. One, for the largest ferris wheel in the world, which takes 15 minutes to make a complete revolution. According to my friend, many young enterprising couples take this opportunity to try get down during the single revolution that you get for one ride, as one ride on this ferris wheel is cheaper than any hotel in Japan.

Landmark Tower Inside the Elevator	Here to the left is the 69-story landmark tower from the ground. After a quick lunch, I followed the trail of tourists to the elevator, the other Guinness Record held in this area. The elevator (or airlift as it is called) claims to be the fastest in the world. After 2 trips and 4 ears popped, I am certain that is the fastest I have ever been on. The thin picture shows the little meter displayed inside the elevator. At this point, we are doing 720 meters/minute. I think that's in the area of 30 MPH. Not bad for an elevator. From the tower you get a great view of Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Tokyo off a bit into the distance. There were tons of tourists there for the view from the top. I took some pictures and attempted a panorama by taking 2 pictures each from the NW, NE, SE, & SW sides. It's not a great QTVR but it does give you an idea of the urban sprawl that is greater Tokyo. I'm often hardpressed to find a piece of unpaved land; the cities and suburbs are so compressed and industrialized that you can't tell when the city ends and the suburbs begin. There is nothing as striking as NY's Financial District or Midtown; Shinjuku comes close but because of the foundation and earthquake vulnerability, you just can't build tall buildings in Japan. I've found that a great majority of the urban sprawl are countless 5 and 9-story buildings. Everywhere I see these buildings, in Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, everywhere. It's weird; in the U.S. every business and residence seems to demand it's own entrance. Meanwhile, in Japan you find myriad restaurants, "clubs" public and private, bars, and boutiques stacked one on top of the other, often sharing an elevator or stairwell. It is very confusing. I will post pictures of one of these cities at night; you can see these signs, just one after the other, listing the contents of these tall and thin 5 and 9-story buildings.
Here's the QTVR from Landmark Tower. I apologize for the inferior quality of this VR. It was very hazy at the time of day that I took this, but it's also tought to take a decent picture without access to the roof. The thing to examine here is the incredible urban sprawl that just extends from Tokyo to Yokohama. While they are two separate cities, it feels like just one big metropolitan mass. Japan has some of the most amazing architecture I've ever seen and I have many pictures of which to post, on a separate page. Take, for example, the hotel building in this panorama that looks like the sail of a yacht. Very cool! Mt. Fuji is directly above the ferris wheel.
Compare this with the view from the World Trade Center in New York, a VR which I stiched together recently. Yes, it is better photo quality, and more than double the height, but I gotta say, go NY!