Weekend cycling on 30 Mar 2012

I left home at 4:40 am, and I headed the new broadcasting tower, or  "TOKYO SKY TREE" in Oshiage, Tokyo.

Tokyo Sky Tree will open in this May. its height is 634m.

Today is relatively warm, but very windy. 

So, sometime the wind help me, and sometime it hamper me.

I arrived there at around 5:30, it took for about 50min.

It was smooth ride.

The top of Tokyo Sky Tree.

After Tokyo Sky Tree, I headed Yasukuni shrine via Ryogoku and Jinbo-cho. 

The official Sumo wrestling studium is there.

Sakura, or cherri blossom,  

some kind of Sakura has flowers,

I arrived at Yasukuni shrine a few minites before 6am.

The gate had not been opened.

The gate has the big Imperial crest,

depicting a chrysanthemum with sixteen open petals.

Big Torii, a gateway to a Shinto shrine.

Officers of Yasukuni shrine bowed toward the Imperial Palace.

It seems their daily work, on every morning.

I'm positive for the Emperor system of Japan, but I felt it was strange.

The emperor is not God, but I felt as if they thought the emperor is God or something. 

The gate open at 6:00pm

The Imperial crest.

Yasukuni shrine is also famous for Cherry blossoms.

They have a lot of Cherry trees.

Just one of the cherry tree has flowers.

When the cherry trees are full blossom, a lots of people come to see them.

The main shrine.

I tried to take photos of the interior, a officer, the man on the bottom left, warned me,

Taking a picture of the interior is not allowed.

This is a will of a soldier in World War II.

The guide explain about the cherry trees there.

The first of the trees was planted by Kido Takayoshi.

Some of the cherry trees are the samples, and when the samples bloom 4 or 5 flowers, a meteorological observatory of Tokyo will announce that the cherry blossom in Tokyo. 

After Yasukuni shrine, I headed to the Tokyo Tower, the old tower, via Kokkai-gijido, or the Diet building, parliament house of Japan. 

Chidori-ga-Fuchi. or a moat of the Imperial palace.

This place is also very famous for cherry blossom. it's really beautiful, when the tree are full blossom.

Hanzo-mon, one of the gates of the Imperial palace.

Kokkai-gijido, parliament house.

A cherry tree in front of the Ministry of Finance.

My elder brother works in this building. 

Some people is appeal "No more Nuclear power plant" to politician and bureaucracy. 

The Tokyo Tower.

I arrived here around 6:20 or 30. 

The top of the tower is bent.

by the Earthquake on 3.11 last year.

From here, it's return ride to my home

via Mita, Ginza, Tsukiji and Kasai.

Kachidoki-bridge and Sumida river.

This place and from this time, the wind got stronger and stronger.

The new tower from Shinkawa area. 

I arrived at home at around 8:40. 4hours trip. 

Distance: 63.82km
Time of riding: 3H07M
Average speed: 20.4km/h
Max speed: 45.1km/h