Tokyo Day 4

So the initial plan for today was to check out the sumo museum with my Dad but I sadly flaked out and decided to explore Ginza with Jane and Jonathan. I kinda regret doing this, it was a bit crap of me to leave my Dad hanging, but I was just excited about seeing my friend again I guess.

Arriving in Ginza I was once again just blown away by the scale of everything. Unlike Osaka, which is a bit of a concrete Jungle, many of Tokyo’s district are surrounded by not only huge but also very beautiful buildings. In fact it is clear that a lot of thought has gone into their design as each district seems to have it’s own look and feel.

What was Ginza’s feel you ask? I can sum it up in one handy phrase from back home. “It’s ded posh innit.” Seriously though it is very swank again the high street is lined with all th big brand names from around the world. Looking down at my primark t-shirt and shabby shorts I felt like a bit of a pleb.

After the initial shellshock had worn off it occurred to me that I hadn’t actually arranged an station exit to actually meet Jane at. Blunder since as I’ve learned there are so many places to get off the underground that we literally could have been on opposite sides of the district. As I had no means of phoning here I just decided to wonder a bit and take in the sites until she phoned me.

About 20 minutes later (it’s always 20 minutes isn’t it) and a little bit of confusion on my part we met up outside of the Sony building. It was an 8 storey exhibition hall of all Sony’s latest products and it opened at 11am. Convenient really as we managed to fn each other at 10:55.

Inside it was pretty interesting, the whole place had a sort of marine theme running through it, with gentle ambience music filtering through every floor and many images of marine wildlife. In fact, which surprised me a little given the experience I’d had with Japan and animals there seemed to be  a strong theme of conservation.

Anyway whilst there were many products on display I believe the thing they were really trying to push forward was the new 3D technology. It was very impressive and we had some un messing with the different 3D video recorders. Something else that really impressed was the new shake correction features on display, I would love to know how they worked.

 

The top floor was a large cinema displaying the Okinawa Churaumi aquarium in 3D, cheaper than flying out to Okinawa I guess. To be honest 3D mostly just hurts my eyes and there were so many people crammed in there that the effect was a bit ruined so we moved on to the neighbouring department store.

Moving down to one of the bottom floors we found many an interesting trinket that would make excellent gifts for people back home. My favorite was definitely the clockwork Llama, not sure why you’d need one but it was excellent. Jane also pointed out a rather wonderful tea strainer that was shaped like a yellow submarine, yeah alright I know I hate the Beatles and proclaim it all the time but yellow submarines still have a place in my heart.

Our final stop in Ginza was to JUSCO. JUSCO, which stands for Japanese United Stores Company, is essentially the Japanese Primark, or maybe Topshop, although in terms of price it might be somewhere in between. Either way Jane had a friend back home whom was obsessed with the place so she wanted to have a look. Jane didn’t really find anything she liked but I got myself a much needed new t-shirt.

All done with Ginza we moved on to Tokyo tower. I’ve decided I’m going to try and visit all the major towers in Japan if I can, gotta have a goal right. I think I’ll need to do a bit of research to figure out where they all our but I’ll definitely be planning some weekend excursions I think.

It was only a few stops away and didn’t actually take us very long to get there. On the approach I was really taken aback at how huge it was. I mean I knew it was big but pictures never give you a real impression. In fact it’ so large it incorporates a small amusement park, many restaurants and souvenir shops and even a small, shudder, aquarium.

After a bit of queuing we took a lift up to the 1^st viewing floor, 150 meters up. There was a second floor at around 250 meters but it was an extra 600yen and an hour wait so we felt it best to jibb. The views around Tokyo where still excellent from here. My Dad had said the previous day that the only way to really see Tokyo is from on high and he was definitely correct.

After we’d gotten snap happy and soaked up the horizons we proceeded to exit the tower via the stairs. You don’t really get an impression of how high up you are until you are walking down stairs. Before reaching the base of the tower we stopped on a small plaza that had many coin operated kids rides. I couldn’t resist a go in one of the ‘giant’ robots I was in Japan you have to ride a giant robot once it’s the law.

At the base of the tower again we headed into what seemed to be some sort of pokemon related event. I can only quess that it was promoting the latest game although it is hard to tell as Pokemania is still alive and well over here. There were people of all ages battling it out not only on their Nintendo DS’s but also via the card game, in fact I’m pretty sure I saw a 10 year old battering a rather bemused looking middle aged man. Creepy or quaint, you decide.

Leaving the tower behind we moved on to Roppongi Hills where I had agreed to meet up with the Parental unit. Due to a misunderstanding they seemed to have been waiting for me again, I really am sorry you guys. Not for long however and had headed to the top of the Roppongi hills tower a whopping 52 storeys high. As it was 2000yen I opted not to follow them up though I regret this now.

Jane’s sugar levels where starting to dip and she said something along the lines of, if I don't eat something soon it’s going to get ugly. We went over to a nearby Ice-cream place, I don't remember the name but I d remember the annoying and incessant singing of Disney songs y the staff. After a bit of a cuffufle over her Gluten allergies and the staff losing the allergen chart Jane and Jonathan were fed and appeased.

It acctualy took so long that my parents were almost done and it was time to meet them outside the tower, next to a giant spider. I said my goodbyes and that I would hopefully see Jane before she flew to Oz tommorow and met up with mum and Dad.

My Mum had been reading up about a comedy hall in Ikebukero that she though might be entertaining. Dad was done for the day and opted out of our excursion but we happily set off on our way. Lttle did we know it would be a bit of a nightmare.

Ikebukero it seemed was about 3 degrees hotter than anywhere else in Japan. It’s pretty interesting as a place but very encroaching with densely packed buildings and a lot of seemingly busy people. Finding the comedy club was a pain, nobody seemed to of heard of it by the name given in the tourist information. In fact when we did eventually find it the place was tiny. My mum decided she’d had enough for the day and didn’t fancy sitting in a little comedy club where she wouldn’t understand anything for 2 hours, I agreed.

Heading back to Ningyocho we looked for someplace to eat at for the evening. It being a Sunday and also getting on for time places were fairly limited. I picked out a restaurant that I thought seemed alright but in fact turned out to be a rather up market Izakaya, essentially just very expensive. The food was so so as unfortunately their specialty seemed to be crab and shrimp, not so great for me. It was a bit of an anti-climax to what on the whole had been a good day. Admittedly the bemused look on both my Mum and Dad's faces as they tried to work the electronic ordering panel was worth the weak food.

Dewa, mata kondo ne.