Path to Greatness

Andrew W. Cornwell has added a photo to the pool:

Entrance to one of the most prestigious colleges in Japan.
I had a couple extra days off and decided to take full advantage of March 1st as the weather was calling for heavy rain on the 2nd. At about 11:30 I took the train out to Shibuya and started out walking towards Nakameguro along and area that showed Shibuya's less pretty side. After about 20-30 mins of walking what I really wanted was to explore more of the inner city suburban areas and so I began walking toward Shinagawa. After about an hour walking and not seeing to much to peek my interest I noted a giant gnome on the opposite side of the tracks. I decided I wanted to try and take a couple shots of it . But at the time there was no way to cross the tracks from where I was at so I continued till I came to Osaki station. While passing through Osaki station I noted nice cylindrical shaped bridge. I liked the interior shape and decided to try and capture it. Hoards of people were constantly filling the tunnel and I wanted to capture the the nice shape and lines within. But the traffic made several angles hard to capture simply because there were so many people crowding the hall way. After a couple long exposer shots trying to blur the people out I opted for total elimination and pulled out the ND400. After a couple shots I was off to see the gnome ^.^b after taking a few shots it was close to 3pm and I was back to walking and looking for interesting things to capture. I ran a crossed a small garden in the middle of a busy 5 way intersection. Here I saw several small green birds "Isuigistu I believe is the Japanese name for them" but while getting out the only tel-photo lens "a sigma 150 macro with 1.4 converter on it" I spooked them and they all flew off >.<* But it was at that moment I notice all the lovely plants and flowers in the garden. By 4 it was starting to get a little dark and so it was time to continue on again. By this point I was moving through the suburbs of Shinagawa area and was finding many different subjects to shoot. I finally came to an old hand water pump just after the sun had set. An old woman who's house with adjacent to the pump had started talking to to about how there wasn't enough light to take a photo of the pump~ I told her that between the moon light and street lamp I had plenty of light and then shared a photo with here that I took while talking with her. At that point I had the honor of hearing a life long story about that neighborhood and that pump that worked up until 2 years prior where water one day exploded out of it and for the next 30min hehe ^o^
At this point It was very dark and I was getting hungry. I had 2 choices head to the nearest station and call it a night or continue on~
I had asked the women where the closest station was at and started waking in that general direction. But My feet tend to carry me where ever my camera wishes to go and that was towards the Shinagawa piers. Just as a FYI I never made it to the piers. Instead I got to a water way and decided to follow it. The evening lights were looked very nice off the water and the clouds in the sky offered some extra color in the sky. At about 7pm I came up on a major river crossing where I shot some nice scenic shots.
In the far distance I could see Tokyo Tower. After thinking back for a few minutes I realized that it had been more that 10years since my last visit to Tokyo tower and decided that would be my final goal for the night. I had finally reached the main street and had a nice view in the far distance. I thought to my self "Gee it would be nice to get a shot from the middle of this big road and when the light changed I moved out to the middle and tried to get a shot. unfortunately the local police drove by and made me get out of the median area. At that point I found myself looking to get a better angle of the tower and was hoping to get back to the other side. It was at that moment that noticed The Keio University entrance. I took 2 shots and then was approached by lost foreign traveler from Korea. She wanted to reach Roppongi and it turned out that she needed to head towards the tower also so we walked and chatted a bit till we got near to where our paths would separate. At about 10:30pm I decided I should head to Roppongi myself or miss last train and be stuck in Tokyo having to walk home. NOT!
If you look through my stream you'll see some of the images from my journey. They will be close to this image.