Another couple of entries to compare.

Two more of the displays in the Bonden Festival.

Two nice Bonden exhibits.

The JR Bonden being propped up.

The object of the Bonden is not that they fight, but occasionally they may bump into each other as they are running up and down the street.

The Tiger is either trying to get back up or coming down, not sure which.

We have a Bonden down. Looks like the police may be on standby in the background.

Determination on the faces here as this JR group parades their Bonden down the street.

Walking through the crowd.

Lots of guys in this group getting ready to hear the winners of the best Bonden Award.

The Bonden is quite heavy and takes a lot of strength and determination to keep upright.

This guy needs to move a bit quicker to get out of the way here.

Lots of fun when the Bonden falls down. Everyone comes in to lend a hand.

Looks like we are going to need more help on this one !

Some of the children get to walk along the parade route.

Plenty of color and characters combining to make the matsuri a great event.

When the Bonden fell they were difficult to get back up again. Looks like the guy on the left has got something tangled in his hair.

One of the displays shining against a blue sky.

I was invited to have a drink from this fellow's Sake cup. I told him instead I would take his photograph. Kanpai !

A portable shrine getting ready to be shown in the parade.

Plenty of color in these simple jackets. This red really stood out.

Another jacket, another everyday scene at the festival.

A portable gas bottle and a makeshift Nabe. Looks like the chefs might have had a few drinks too.

Some great snow footwear being shown off here.

Great day out for these locals, looking down the main street.

Festivals normally mean lots of fun and often Japanese Sake is involved

The middle of the day got quite warm and against the backdrop of snow and Sake it was time for some to just take a nap.

Main street, Yokote, Akita-ken

Bonden in the background with a Kamakura on the right. Great scenes from Akita.

Peering out from inside one of the Kamakura

The winners of one of the many contests.

Local children enjoying the day out.

Tiger loose on the roof.

Walking back through the crowd.

More Bonden approaching.

Baseball Bonden

The cloth used on one of the Bonden.

Wonderful color here in the cloth and markings for part of this Bonden.

Parade underway.

Local children get to march down the street with their exhibit.

Memories of the Bonden Festival, Sake, snow shoes and some litter.

I bet you would like to be eating a bowl of this wouldn't you?

The dancing horse

Ebisu and Meguro Stations are going to be the first to have the automatic gates installed for the Yamanote Line.

You can see the platform has already started to be changed for the gates to be installed.

Note the markings near the edge of the platform ready for the gates.

A test section of the gate set up at the end of the platform in Ebisu station.

The train lining up to stop at the right place for the gates to open.

Got my camera settings wrong here, as I was waiting for a shot of the train moving away from the station. Suddenly realized this train was a special test run to check the distances between platform and train in preparation for the gate installation.

The test gate section is not in use yet and is actually at the end of the platform away from where the train stops.

The Yamanote Line leaves the station passing the test gate section.

fresh strawberry and milk pound cake a new line item at Family Mart.

looks like the aero style chocolate has a new contender with this kyoro-chan chocolate bar from morinaga.

Italian chocolate bread.

In the camu camu series I found a whole lot of different flavors. Strawberry, fruits, lemon and more.

These have been 2 of my favorite snacks for a long time. At 34 yen for a quick bite they are always good to have around.

The camu camu sweets are now in sakura, yuzu and ume flavor as well. Lots of vitamin C here.

Just in case you need an extra shot of vitamins, there are normally many supplements available in the convenience store. This one is a multi vitamin, enough for 7 days.

Blue and red color coding helping drivers remember which way to go.

Left (blue) for the Tomei Highway, right (red) for the Inner City Highway route. These colors were also followed through on the road below to help drivers steer their course.

It was raining outside, but inside the tunnel the weather was fine and quite warm.

At ground level the road looked really clean.

Inside the tunnel it looked as if Disneyland had been set up.

Looking back down the Yamate Tunnel towards the entrance.

Some of the illuminated archways people could walk through.

The colors on the arches changed every few seconds.

A display of lights also was shown on the roof of the tunnel.

Inside the tunnel it seemed like a Christmas illumination show at times.

Plenty of people were taking a look at the many rescue trucks on display.

There were various demonstrations being given. This one was showing people how to use the tunnels manual fire hose systems.

As the tunnel curves around it gets quite wide.

The sliding fire escape door which leads to the emergency stairs.

Bumped in to @lhuga and her crew whilst in the tunnel.

The tunnel splits between heading for the Tomei Highway and the Inner City Highway.

Up ahead you can see the existing highway where the tunnel traffic can merge onto.

A good opportunity here for people to get a souvenir photo in front of the official sign.

Looks like we have a broken down vehicle in the left lane here.

Nice large crash barrier looking very clean. Lets hope no one needs to use this.

Getting the chance to ride in the fire truck had many people lining up. This was probably the most popular attraction.

Let's hope that not too many people need the fire truck called out to them when they are in the tunnel.

A few uniforms waiting for the next group to try them on.

Displays by the fire crew allowed you to sit in the fire truck and also try on some of their protective clothing.

Fire Chief at your service.

Ambulance on standby

The Love Tokyo sticker on this fire truck looks great.

One of the many patrol cars.

This Mazda 8 police car was getting quite a lot of attention by people.

A police bike gets checked out.

The Tokyo Smart Driver sticker looks good here.

The Tokyo Rescue logo on the fire and rescue truck.

These bikes are special patrol bikes for checking close up what is happening on the route. These are not police opearted by the police but by the Highway company.

A very colorful display set up in the middle of the tunnel.

Walking back down the tunnel passing through the illuminations.

There was a video racing game set up for the kids with the screen projected on to the tunnel wall. The sound of the racing cars echoed through the tunnel which was a nice effect.

The 3km walking course set up inside the tunnel.

Mr ETC made an appearance in plastic form. I hadn't seen this character before except on TV.

Lots of photos being taken of this Highway character. Not sure why he has the mask on. Maybe to cut down on the exhaust fumes?

A closer look at the Highway character. Like his hat.

Nice clear signs above and color coded markings on the road make it easy for drivers to see which lane they should be in at an early stage.

Some of the pictures taken during the construction phase had been projected onto the tunnel wall in black and white. Nice effect.

The construction calendar shows the progress points for the Ohashi Junction work.

A scale model of the Ohashi Junction and highway.

A closer look at the calendar showing construction progress, including some pictures of the various stages completed.

Displays on the tunnel wall showed what type of equipment had been used to help construct the tunnel. This picture shows the large cutting shield machine, which weighs the equivalent of 11 jumbo jets!

One of the components that make up the huge cutting machine which carved the tunnel.

A few folks getting a closer look at the cutting machine.

A school orchestra provided some music and entertainment inside the tunnel during the day.

The children's orchestra gets ready to play. The Omedeto sign is missing a character in the middle. Also, I thought it was o-me-de-to-u, not o-me-de-to-o, but then realised that these signs are printed on both sides for people to read walking in both directions.

One of the many sensors in the tunnel to look for any sign of trouble.

The cable and box running to the machine that checks for the sign of any changes in the tunnels structure.

The tunnel looks a little narrow here, but once you get further down it widens out quite a bit.

These devices help to send back signals showing whether the road is crowded or not. That information is then used in the VICS road reports which can tell you in advance whether to take a different route.

Breakdowns can be called in from these phones that are places along the way.

Can you make out what kanji sign I have the camera sitting on top of?

SOS calls can be made through this phone.

Plate marks are set along the route, Shibuya A - 28

Loads of red on display and a few face masks in the crowd as well.

Just another day walking to school through the Yamate Tunnel. Well for today only

At times the traffic in the tunnel was getting quite crowded just with pedestrians. Once the cars roll threw it will be a different scene.

Everyone was keeping to the main asphalt track and not crashing in to the cones or wall.

Recognize anyone in the photo here. Strange who you bump into in the Tokyo tunnels.

I liked the image of the child running down the road while everyone else is getting into their lane.

A very clear sign here.

A little bit of traffic crossing the sign. Straighten up guys!

Looks like these guys didn't notice the direction of the arrow.

Although the Yamanote Line generally stays on the same track all the way round the loop, at the flick of a switch it could be diverted to other platforms.

The Yamanote Line train approaches the Station.

The Shinkansen takes a peak from behind the Tokaido Line. The old and the new. I can easily guess who will win this race.

Shinkansen N700 series heading to Tokyo Station. Very sleek long nose cone.

As the Shinkansen passes by, can you see the monorail coming in frmo Haneda Airport at the top of the picture?

The Tokaido Line train heading South towards the coast.

The Tokaido Line is going to celebrate its 120th year anniversary in July this year.

The 700 Shinkansen passes by the Minatoku sports center.

One of the many overhead electric lines.

The button is pressed by the rear cab driver for the Tohoku Line. Time for everyone to jump on before and head home.

Female drivers on the Yamanote and other train lines are not uncommon now. It is good to see a mix of different people being employed, male, female, old, young and maybe even some foreign in the future.

The Yamanote Line leaves the platform.

Danny Choo the Tokyo Dance Trooper

Joseph Tame the Usagi runner

Steve Nagata, the Gadget Man

The temple looks quite weathered sitting on this small island near the waters edge, but it is still well maintained.

Lots of pine trees help to make up a nice view of the bay.

Matsushima is one of the 3 famous Japanese scenery spots.

Entry to the main temple grounds

Inside the grounds. Wonderful tall tree coverage

The map around the temple grounds.

Looking back to the entrance way through the line of trees.

One of the many restaurants in the temple grounds.

These old buildings in the temple grounds have been converted into restaurants and cafes. A very nice setting for a relaxing afternoon.

One of the older buildings acting as a Soba, Oden and Dango eating place

The area with all the temples has a nice set of paths that you can peacefully stroll down. There are not a lot of shops but the ones they have are well stocked with local gifts and plenty of charm.

Walking between temples

The roofs of these buildings are in the traditional form. They must be on stand by in case a fire ever comes through this area. It would be a shame to see it all destroyed.

Lots of nice shade and relaxed atmosphere.

One of the many stones in the gardens.

A number of nice scenes here in the temple grounds.

I liked this (mini temple?) depiction in the mossy grounds. The red against all of the shadowed green was a great scene. The Canon Powershot did not do a bad job, but I would like to see what the Nikon could have done here to get some better contrasts. I am sure that red would have jumped off the page and the greens in the foreground would have sat back a bit.

Very creative and skillful work to craft the stone wall in this way.

Looks like the character for unagi (eel) here.

Wonderful view from the car park.

The bay looked very calm on the day I visited.

One of the temples on a small island in the bay.

Fishing Boats in the harbour

Red colored bridges are a beautiful feature of Japanese gardens.

Looking out at some of the islands in the bay.

Some of the hotels and restaurants surrounding the harbour

There are over 200 small islands in the bay all dotted with pine trees.

Station and temples withing easy walking distance of each other.

View back from the station platform over the bay.

Nice blue colors on this train as I waited at the platform to ride back to Sendai.

eleven23 on vimeo showing great scenes of Tokyo

The Rilakkuma face

The Rilakkuma Pastel Pudding set from the Rilakkuma Tokyo Station Store.

Lawson are promoting their Ponta point system. What happened to using the Rilakkuma brand? Where did this new character come from?

Rilakkuma candy on hand for sore throats.

These look interesting. Green tea milk

There is always lots of good action in the Pocky corner

Some new fran and toppon to try

Kinako mochi chocolate bread. what a mixture.

Some tasty looking monblanc with a well known face on the top.

Pirikara Tofuchige. Sounds like it might be a little spicy!

Edo style soba from Nissin.

Maxim have this new cafe latte out for adults. wonder what the children get to drink?

ok, should have guessed. here is what the children get. lined up under the cafe latte, morinaga mami- milk

Tsutaya have a in store video rental box in this Family Mart store.

1,000 DVD's to choose from in the Tsutaya box

Looks easy enough to rent and return here.

A few treats for the upcoming hina matsuri. cotton candy and sweets.

Rilakkuma cup