takodabashi pier

the first sunrise of 2011, a photo by asihsimanis on Flickr.

Flickr is an obsession of mine. One of the things I love about Flickr is that it gives me information about things that I might be interested in. So in the break of 2011, I decided I wanted to see the first sunrise in Tokyo, the question was where? Of course I diligently looked for answers in Flickr. Where would the sunrise be nice in Tokyo? Then I saw a very beautiful image of sunrise  taken by this guy named Alfie|japanorama (who by the way takes amazing pictures, and is Tokyo based), and it was taken in this place he said was Tokyo bay. after I asked google about it, I found out that the name of the place was Takodabashi Pier, and it was actually located near Tokyo tower, where I already planned on attending the incredible balloon celebration at the change of the year. It was a perfect plan. 


So that night, together with my best adventure buddy pici (see her incredible Flickr stream here) we had the adventure of a lifetime. At the afternoon of December 31st, we decided we wanted to see the last sunset of 2010 in Odaiba, after that we went to the Tokyo tower, then we spent the change of the year in Zojoji-temple, where we watched thousands of wishing balloons being released at 12 o clock, in the change of the year. After midnight was over, everyone else headed to the Izakayas (drinking bars) near Tokyo Tower, to further celebrate the change of the year, some headed to the karaoke places to get some rest (in Japan, people sometimes sleep at Karaoke places, because it is cheaper than actual hotels), but me and pici took the other route, we went to a 24/7 McDonald's shop to try to get some rest until sunrise was close.


It turns out that you are not supposed to sleep in McDonald's, I found that out because the workers keep waking me up. but I still got some sleep after all. We already checked the sunrise schedule for the day, and started to walk towards Takadabashi Pier about an hour before sunrise. It turns out that the pier has a waiting room, with chairs and everything, so we decided to continue our sleeping there -although this was also done by some other homeless people, and other crazy kids who are there for the same reason, the sunrise -. When the sunrise was near, we moved to our spot to find that this place was really popular. I knew from google, that the Japanese don't usually celebrate New Year the western way -at the change of the 12 pm clock-, what the Japanese do is they watch the first sunrise of the year, and this place was obviously a favorite spot. I felt like we didn't make the wrong decision to come. I could feel the expectations of people around me. It was just a sunrise, yes, but it symbolized so much more. It symbolized the dawn of a new year, it was supposed to be about hope. After loosing my dad the year before, I needed that hope so much, so I felt my heart beat getting faster. I wanted to move on.


The sunrise was beautiful. I have to remind you that at that time it was still winter, so the temperature was really low, it was bellow 5 degrees Celsius, so the sun was like a gift from heave. I loved seeing it rising from between the buildings. I loved how the Japanese are so in awe of this process, it made my day. 


If you want to see the whole collection of pictures I took that day, please go here.thank you so much for visiting my blog. I will try to keep things interesting.