Colors of Shinjuku

To me, Tokyo is a city that gives a feeling of optimism... it makes me cheerful and eager to explore. And since I returned to Tokyo multiple times over a period of 6 years, I can tell that this is not the passing feeling you get when you first visit a foreign city. The same is true for many other Japanese cities I've visited. I got the same feeling in Osaka, in Hiroshima... in almost every city where I stayed.

It's true that as a traveler I am a city explorer - if you like more "wilderness", you may not get that feeling. But I think that there are two reasons for this feeling: the people, who unlike in other countries I have been to, are smiling when they see me with a camera (and some are even posing!), and the way the streets look like, with clean and vivid colored buildings and billboards. Here's and example of such a zone, a simple corner near the South Exit of Shinjuku Station...