Tokyo Day 3

On day three I was woken up quite early by a rather pleasant surprise. My friend Jane from Liverpool University was finally finished visiting mount Fuji and asked if I wanted to join her and her mate Jonathan in exploring Tokyo. My own pans to summit Fuji had sadly been dashed by bad weather so I was more than happy to.

Jane also informed me that she’d heard that there would be a firework display somewhere tonight. Before heading to Shinagawa I asked about the display at the front desk, never thought I’d need to use the word “花火“ (firework) but well there you go. The clerk told me that it was one of the biggest of the year and pointed out where it would be on the map. It sounded good and was something to look forward to later.

 

After telling my parents where I was off to I started the journey to Shinagawa. It was actually a bit of a pain to get to. Whilst it is well serviced by the JR lines it is nowhere near the underground stations. Never mind I’m learning to love trains now.

Shinigawa was a pretty imposing place. It had recently undergone a regeneration and so was filled with giant skyscrapers, looming down on me from all sides. I headed over to the hotel Jane had told me she was staying at.

What she’d failed to mention was that it was a giant complex, with over 30 floors and multiple towers. In fact it also contained a cinema, an aquarium and even an indoor rollercoaster. I think the Japanese believe in go big or go home.I basically went the wrong way, ended up on the wrong side of the building in the really posh area. After a lot of confusion I managed to get to the hotel lobby where Jane and Jonathan were waiting.

It was really nice to be with some people my own age again and very nice to be chatting with some people from home. It sounded like they had been having a good time so far, although they hadn’t seen much up Fuji, confirming my fears that I wouldn’t be going up.

After a brief chat about where to go we settled on heading for Shibuya, I wanted to go back anyway and the guys were interested in trying to see some of the quirky clothing. We had a few hiccup trying to get train tickets, I’ve had an Icoca card so long now I’d totally forgotten, but were soon on our way.

Shibuya was just as sprawling during the day as it had been last night. In fact there seemed to be some sort of rally on the go though I’ve no idea what it was all about. We checked out the two 109 buildings which are the homes of all the quirky fashion shops. It was a good laugh to be honest some of the brand names and slogans where hilarious ‘engrish’.

Admittedly there is only so long that this can entertain and soon tiring of it we moved on to Akihabara, back to electric city. Wandering with no real purpose just sucks up time with not much gain though. Whilst I was happy to be with a friend I did want to see other things also.

I Showed them round one of the massive arcades, that are pretty much everywhere in Japan, and pointed out a few of my favouites. Jane I think wanted to see if anyone was playing ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ but I couldn’t find any of the machines. She rightly pointed out that Akihabara seemed to have a major male bias.

About an hour later Jonathan and Jane needed to leave to check into their hotel rooms. I opted to stay in Akihabara a little longer, I wanted to find an electronic dictionary. Talking to a few clerks though I was a bit disappointed, they seemed to all be in Japanese and incredibly expensive, not really worth it.

I had planned to see a bit more of Akihabara, there is a lot more to Akihabara than I managed to see but I just ran out of time. I needed to get back to the hotel to meet my parents before we went to see the fireworks. On the way back I stopped of briefly at the Gundam café. That's right a Gundam themed café where all the meals are inspired by the series. I bought a Gundam “taiyaki”, shaped like a mech rather than a fish and very tasty.

 

Rendezvousing with the rentals I jumped in the shower quickly before heading back out towards the location of te firework display. I was really looking forward to this. Apparently they would be setting off 10,000 and it sounded pretty exciting.

As we ot closer it looked as though all of Tokyo were coming as well. The trains were rammed as where the streets. There were people camped out everywhere, it looked like they had been there all day, grabbing the best spots. We headed towards the baseball stadium, there seemed to be something going on in there but as it was over 4000yen for a ticket we decided against it.

The fireworks were pretty impressive however we had to constantly battle not only the security but also the waves of people jostling from side to side. In the end this plus the heat of the night just got a bit too much for my Mum and Dad and so we headed back to Ningyocho. I said goodbye to Jane and Jonathan, agreeing to meet up again tomorrow, whom also headed back to their hotel.

Ningyocho was pretty dead, I guess everyone else was at the fireworks. The upshot is that we had a pick of the resteraunts. We went to the resteraunt nextdoor to the hotel which turened out to be a “すきやき“

 (sukiyaki) resteraunt. Essentially you are iven a mini gas BBQ, some slices of meat and vegetables and you grill your own dinner.

What was really unusual is that this place was serving lamb, something I’ve not come across in my time here. Very lovely, although my Dad joked it was a bit of a rip off since we were cooking everything ourselves. The waitress was alo very entertaining and I even managed a short conversation. The whole holidy has actually proved to be pretty good practice.

Ja mata minna-san.