Finally sorted out my alien registration today. We walked to Shinjuku City Hall ‐ I hadn't realised that Shinjuku was just a 15 minute walk from the dorm. I couldn't have asked for a better location to be placed in！

Does anyone know

What on earth those noises are everyday at 4:30pm and 6:00pm??

Pancake flavoured drink. Nicer than you'd imagine！

Tokyo Tower

So we finally made it up the tower despite the hoards of Japanese school children and coach loads of tourists milling around the entrance. Originally we paid to go to the 'Main Observatory' which is 145m up. Once at this level we were so impressed with the view we paid another 600円 each to go a further 100m up to the 'Special Observatory'. 


The guide book did us proud for this visit - we went up the tower at about 6pm and the sun set whilst we were up there. The change from day to night was dramatic, once it was dark enough for car and office lights to come on the view was absolutely stunning. 


Now lots of photos of the view, none of which do it justice.

 This is looking in the direction of Odaiba, which we visited earlier. The bridge in view is the Rainbow Bridge which we took the Yurikamome line across.

 The sunset was sadly obscured by the clouds.

 There were a surprising amount of football and sports pitches in the centre of Tokyo.

 This is Zojo-ji Temple that we visited earlier. I hadn't seen the large grave yard whilst we were there.

At this point we decided to change floors and go higher. In the time it took us to do this, no more than 20 minutes (a short queue for the elevator) we sun had completely set and Tokyo was transformed.

 Here is Odaiba again with the Rainbow bridge lit up and the ferris wheel we rode earlier. It lights up all flashing colours and is a very impressive light show.

 Back down on the Main Observatory there were these glass floors (which we were now used to since our ferris wheel ride!) but they were somewhat wasted at night.

And finally, Tokyo Tower lit up at night. It was really difficult to get a decent, in focus photo of the tower lit up at night, which was a pity as it's far nicer to look at at night than in the day. 


That's the end of the photos but it wasn't the end of the day. David headed home but I met with Mark in Shibuya where we went to an izakya for some food and cheap drinks. We were adventurous and ordered off the Japanese menu which backfired as friend chicken cartilage turned up. Surprisingly, not as tasty as they sound. 


Then; home to bed. 10 hours of sightseeing followed by a few lime sours is just about my limit.

Sushi and Zojoji Shrine

Having got off the Yurikamome transit train in Shimbashi, David and I decided to have a wander to explore this new area. This is one of the things I really love about Tokyo; there is just so so much to explore. You can get off at any station and around it will be a hub of activity, people and neon lights to challenge Picadilly Circus. I've been asked by a few people how far from the centre of Tokyo my dorm is and, I don't think it's Hyperbole when I say, I don't actually know how to judge where the centre of Tokyo is. Everywhere is so busy; everywhere has a unique and exciting charm to it. Frankly, Tokyo is overwhelming for much of the time.

After wandering about a few streets and David nearly buying an ipod, we decided we were hungry. Disappointed with the lack of sushi I'd eaten since arriving 3 weeks ago (Takadanobaba is known for its ramen, so pretty much every restaurant is just that; ramen). So after a few hours exploring we decided to find some sushi.

The chef stood in the middle of the conveyor belt making lots of dishes before adding them to the belt (just like yo sushi but with a lot less corporate branding). I actually couldn't work out how he got in there; there must be a trap door or something. I also don't know where he kept all the fish we was preparing, it just turned up from below the counter.

 There were lots of different types of fish but I stuck to what I knew. Salmon, Tuna, an omelette one which I didn't like as it was too sweet, and a mug of green tea.

David and I got really excited when we first entered and realised it was a conveyor belt restaurant. The restaurant was full of silent Japanese people, eating their sushi and keeping to themselves whilst David and I were chatting loudly and taking photos of everything. I don't think we really fitted in.

After a lovely and surprisingly cheap meal, we set off to find Tokyo Tower. We wandered a few blocks in the general direction we thought it was in, when from behind a sky scraper it popped up on the horizon.

It was about 4pm at this point and the sun was starting to get low but it doesn't get dark until about 6-6.30pm. We were trying to time our trip to the tower as best we could, as, upon the advice of the guidebook, Tokyo Tower is only really worth the trip in the dark. We had time to kill and we happily stumbled upon a huge temple in the shadow of the tower called Zojo-ji.

 The Temple was huge, and each of the buildings was very impressive and ornate.

 A large bell housed in a wooden structure.

 A view of the bell from the side. See the cat watching me in the corner?

 The entrance way to the temple. It was absolutely massive. Sadly they'd covered some of the carving in netting to keep out birds, I suppose.

 A view from further back so you can see the enormity of it.

 Where you wash your hands before entering the temple.

 Another entrance to the temple.

 What was so striking about the temple was the fabulous juxtaposition of these traditional style buildings against the sky scrapers and, below, with Tokyo Tower looming in the background.

 As we finished wandering around the temple we decided it was time to make our way to Tokyo Tower.

Next post, the views from Tokyo Tower.

Feeling touristy - Odaiba

Yesterday me and David decided we hadn't be nearly touristy enough so far. We met at 10am and set off for Odaiba, an artificial island off Tokyo bay. It was a strange little place with some amazing futuristic architecture and stunning views across the bay.

You take a driverless transit train called the Yurikamome line. We couldn't work how if it was a monorail or on a track - wikipedia informs me that it's on wheels and is guided by the side walls.

A peek of Tokyo Tower between the sky scrapers.

 Past some ships in the harbour.

 Tokyo Big Sight, or the Tokyo Exhibition Centre. What an amazing building! This is where the guys went to a games expo a couple of weeks ago.

 The back of the Fuji Television building.

 A slightly better view of the fuji television building. I'm not really sure why this little artificial island off Tokyo bay seems to be a hub of futuristic buildings like this but it's quite an impressive sight.

 Me beside the sized down statue of liberty. Your guess is as good as mine as to why it's here...

The Rainbow Bridge which we had previously crossed on the Yurikamome train.

After checking out the view across the bay and the bizarre statue we turned around to explore what was on the island. There were a few office towers, such as the television centre, and in one we discovered the Shell museum. Yep, a museum dedicated to the oil company Shell. If you couldn't guess; it was dull. Luckily for us it was free entry and consisted of one room so the whole experience was over quickly. It was mainly company propaganda and promises about how green their intentions were. I didn't buy into it, nor did I buy anything from the gift shop which was actually larger than the museum itself.

Beyond the office buildings was a pedestrian suspension bridge across a motorway, on the other side of which was probably Tokyo's answer to Blackpool. There was a sorry looking outlet shopping centre, a large car showroom, an arcade and a pretty awesome ferris wheel.

 Just like the Tokyo Tower, it has been painted this hideous 'international orange and white' due to aviation rules (I wonder how the Eiffel tower gets away with being green?).

 Me and David decided to give it a go and were just about the first people to ride it on the day. Because there was no queue and it didn't cost more I took an executive decision that we wanted the glass bottomed pod (you might be able to see it on the photo above this one, the pods which are a different shape to the rest). As it turns out David has a mild fear of heights so I guess I enjoyed it more than he did...

The view from the ferris wheel was fantastic and, luckily, the glass bottomed floor had gotten pretty scratched from use so it didn't feel unsafe (well, I didn't think so).

 The tallest car storage elevator I've seen so far. It went down into the building containing the car show room, I guess these were just surplus cars in storage for the moment.

 A huge container ship docked in the harbour.

 A view of the back of the Fuji Television building. I really did love this building more than I was expecting to, it's just so brave and unusual.

 Tokyo traffic; better than London's at the same time of day I'd say.

After getting off the ferris wheel we had a wander into an amusement arcade. I guess because it was early afternoon on a Wednesday the place was deserted. Here's what we found:

 Pachinko. Strange gambling game played with little silver balls, sort of like pinball I guess. I have no idea how to play but this game is hugely popular. All over Tokyo there are pachinko parlours with storeys and storeys of these machines with flashing lights and noises and they're all very popular with the Japanese. I'm still too baffled to give it a go, but I hear it's very addictive.

 Weird ride on animals.

 Purikura booths. I mentioned these in a previous post, these are the photo machines with green screens that distort your eyes and mouth. They're usually sponsored by a company of some sort, often make up; one machine we've used gave me some free fake eyelashes. This time me and David opted for a Hello Kitty booth.

As we were leaving we noticed a fortune telling shrine - if I remember correctly you chose a paper slip with your fortune on it, read it, and if you don't like it you tie it on the grate. Anything for a bit of luck at the pachinko machines, I guess!

At this point we left Odaiba, so I'll end this post here. Still a lot more photos to come, I took about 300 from the whole day! Next post(s): sushi on a conveyour belt, Zojoji shrine and Tokyo tower at dusk.

Menu

I guess when you chose food by pointing to a picture on the menu, eventually you're gonna chose something with peanuts in it. Whoops.