This is Shimbashi from Ginza in the early morning, as it is the street the last time I went to OKUROJI before and after. In the early morning, Ginza is almost empty of people. I like Ginza in the morning when there are no pedestrians. It is a very luxurious place and time. It may be a feeling similar to that of exclusivity at the place of Ginza.
This is Hibiya OKUROJI in the early morning at 6:00 a.m. This is an urban development project by JR East that was built under the elevated Yurakucho – Shimbashi railway line. I saw it featured on TV, but never had a chance to visit it because it opened in September 2020, right in the middle of COVID-19. This time I thought of it and said early in the morning when no one would be there, but no one was, lol. But thanks to that, it was time to get a full feel for the elevated structure. There were many pillars, and the connection to the outside could be seen in the form of an archway. It is good that we can coexist in such a way, even though the viaduct seems to be more than 100 years old.
This is the last post in the Akihabara series. The Radio Center under the station is one of the most famous places in Akihabara. It is the most Akihabara-like place and you can feel the old Akihabara. It is a place that sells mostly small electronic parts, so it is hard to buy anything here unless you go there with a purpose, but it is an interesting place to walk around. So is the Radio Department Store. I don’t know how long this kind of appearance will remain, but I hope it will remain just because it is a place I have been going to for a long time. It is hard to tell from this picture because it is hard to recognize such a figure in the early morning and there are hardly any pedestrians.
This time back to station side from the main street and back street side. It used to be customary to have all-night lines on Thursday and Friday, I think, the day of game releases. Some stores dared not to take reservations, so we had no choice but to do so, but gradually reservations became possible, partly because it would cause inconvenience to neighboring stores. Even so, there were still all-night lines, but what about these days? On this day, it was a Wednesday when I went there to take pictures, but there was no such line in particular.
This time is focusing on the back street of Akihabara in early morning at 6:00 am. It is not so crowded as one would expect. Even the quintessential Akihabara is quiet in the early morning. I think there are opening only family restaurants and karaoke bars in Akihabara. It is rare to see such a quiet Akihabara. The weekday streets change depending on the day of the week and time of day, but on weekends, there are quite a lot of people on the streets. The contrast between the two is interesting. But with the redevelopment of Akihabara coming to the area, I am not sure how long this kind of Showa-era scenery will remain. Akihabara is a bit old-fashioned to say, but it is an electronic town where you can get unusual things, but the building scenery has remained almost static. I think that the redevelopment of Akihabara has been underway for the past few years, and the scenery of Akihabara will probably change, for better or worse.
This is Akihabara in the early morning. Akihabara is a town I have been visiting regularly for about 25 years. I have not talked about it much on this blog, but it is one of my favorite places. I like it so much that I have not been actively taking “pictures” of it. (Although I have taken many rough pictures with my iPhone). Akihabara is a world-famous town, but it is a small town in terms of size. It is not limited to Akihabara, but Tokyo is small in terms of the size of a city. Even in such a small city, Akihabara has a lot of information, so how to capture it in a photograph? I had not been able to do so much in terms of it. I decided to change the direction a bit and try taking pictures early in the morning at 6:00 a.m., when it is less popular. There are still a few pictures, so I will post them several times, but Akihabara without any popularity…it is very different from daytime. For now, I will focus on the Bansebashi area from the Showa-guchi direction this time.
Thease pictures are Akihabara station early in the morning around 6:00 am. The station is at the intersection of several lines, so there are quite a lot of passengers even in the early morning hours. The morning sun was just shining into the station in a nice way, which made it very dramatic. This is the front side of station in the Tokyo-bound direction, and the view from here gives you a sense of old Akihabara, which still has a Showa-era feel.