This was a busy day. My cold was gone for good, and though my body was tired my mind was fresh, stomach empty, and feet ready to move. With so much Tokyo left and a long plane ride the next morning I was going to cram as much as possible into my last day.
First stop - Tsukiji to see fresh fish and hopefully score some amazing sushi.
The fish market was closed to the public, but the market next door was bustling. I wandered through the streets intent on finding a quality sushi place, but soon my curiosity got the best of me and out came my Yen. In addition to all kinds of unique shops selling fruit, meat, and random stuff, there were tons of tiny restaurants and street food. Jackpot.
The first thing I tried was two skewers, on each of octopus and scallops - oh man. Next up was fresh cooked gyoza and a cold beer to mitigate the sun's heat. And my last stop on my this-stuff-might-make-me-sick-but-oh-well tour was a shop with all kinds of small food for sale, including sea kelp, lots of beans and peas, dried fish, sardines and anchovies, and candied all-things. All of it was free sample, and they were persistent. Some was good, some was not, and most was somewhere in the middle. All worth it!
Eventually I decided I better find some sushi before I was no longer hungry. I walked up and down the lanes past dozens of sushi bars, looking for one that looked good. They all did, but I chose one with a decently long line and joined the queue.
My plate was a huge sampler dish of different tuna rolls so I could taste the difference in preparation for the same type of fish. I was not disappointed:
I also had a glass of sochu, sweet potato liquor, which was in essence vodka made from sweet potatoes. It was delicious, even if it was an odd combo for the sushi. I talked to the lady next to me who was so impressed with the dish she took a picture, then another with me and the sushi. Maybe she was a little too excited, but she came across as genuine and fun.
Feeling full and very happy I headed back toward the subway. On my way I saw a Buddhist temple and decided to go in. There was a lot of history to it, and it was beautiful, but a far cry from the temples in Thailand. I learned that the original temple was destroyed in either a fire or earthquake, and the city told the Buddhists they could not have their original spot back. Instead, the area called Tsukiji was dredged out of the sea (Tsukiji means "reclaimed land" or something similar) and the temple relocated there. So the temple is a symbol of the area, but the fish market gets all the attention.
I left the temple and took the subway to Akihabara, a place Jack and Serge told me I had to go see. When I got there I realized why - this is the electronics megacenter of Tokyo, and also a haven for people with intense interest in a specific hobby. The two hobbies in particular that are the most well known and obvious in Akihabara are video games and anime. The American kid's idealized version of Tokyo!
Right away I started seeing huge buildings plastered with ads for anime stuff, but what caught my eye were humongous shopping buildings full of electronics. I went in the biggest one I saw and wandered into a sea of phone chargers, adapters, TVs, watches, home appliances, video games, guitars, and everything else with wires or batteries. It's like someone took the electronics section at Walmart and made a seven-story building out of it.
After I left that bewildering store I decided to stay outside for awhile. Conveniently, on Sunday they close the streets in the major part of Akihabara, so everyone is free to wander in the middle of the road. This was great as I got to freely walk up and down the streets in the whole area and get the full perspective.
Outside the electronics store, and not too far from the subway, was a place called Gundam Cafe. Here the staff, decor, food presentation and food names and descriptions are all based on a Japanese show called Gundam Wing that I am at least cognizant of, but haven't ever watched. The line, even in mid-afternoon, was very long, stretching out of the building and around the corner.
Further up the road was a place called UPX, which seemed to have no relevance to me at all except I heard there was an anime center inside. I went in to find it, and did indeed, but it was much smaller than I expected and confusing to me. I don't know anything about anime at all, and I thought hey, I should learn while I'm in Japan. The problem was everything was in Japanese and none of it made sense to me. There was some cool art and some videos about people drawing, but I didn't really learn anything. I gave it a try, hey!
Outside the building was a mechanical bull and a huge crowd of people were taking turns riding it. That was entertaining - they were having a blast. Moving on, I saw multiple huge electronics stores, game stores and anime stores. I walked into a game store expecting to see the newest and best games, but again everything was in Japanese so I had limited understanding. There was a new Zelda game coming out with a little demo that everyone was crowded around, that was apparently the biggest deal.
I also went in a huge, multi-floor anime store just to see what was there, but was again bewildered and confused. If only I knew at least a little Japanese! I was later told that each floor of the anime buildings gets weirder and weirder, and the upper floors are DEFINITELY adult only... Hmm... Would be worth checking out if I return just for the experience.
Finally I found a store that spoke my language, or at least where I recognized everything - a used, retro video game store called Super Potato.
When I was a young child my first knowledge of Japan came from Nintendo, and I was obsessed with video games, especially on the NES, SNES, PlayStation and GameBoy.
So walking through this store was like stepping into my childhood for a few minutes, and I was able to find all of the old classics and a hell of a lot more than that too.
Part of me wanted to buy some of the games and bring them home, but they will do greater things for the world staying right there on the shelf.
Content with Akihabara, I moved on to Ginza to see the rich part of Tokyo. I didn't expect much from this ward, and mostly wanted to see it to cross it off the list, but I was pleasantly surprised. First of all, the architecture was at some times stunning.
I also liked the fact the A/C was blowing so hard that some of the streets actually felt conditioned. Everyone was very well dressed and looked good. I saw most of the big world-famous stores, but didn't bother going in any.
At some point I walked past a store/exhibit/something? full of saxophones. I walked in, having no idea what it was all about, and walked up to a pair of good looking horns. I pointed at one and asked if I could play it, she said something in Japanese and had a confused look on her face, but let me pick up the saxophone. I played for a minute, thoroughly enjoying myself, then gave it back to the confused lady. She smiled, so I know I didn't do anything wrong, but I have no idea what was supposed to be going on in there!
My last stop in Ginza was a conbini to get some water. I took a look at the beer there and they had some pretty good selections, in stark contrasts to the conbinis in Shinjuku and Asakusa. I grabbed them and walked back to the subway to go to my last destination - Roppongi Hills.
Roppongi Hills is known for late-night partying, but I went there to look at the Mori Tower and Art Museum and see the city from the top of a very tall building. The area was very nice, full of people, and had a good scene and feel. Also, a giant statue of a spider, for whatever reason:
In the tower I rode up to the museum first and took a look at the exhibit. It was about the transition from child to adult and was pretty interesting. Afterward I took another elevator up to the top of the building and got to walk out onto the roof. This was great, a 360deg view of the city at night.
The walkway circled a helipad, and multiple guards were stationed to keep people from walking onto the pad. There were tons of people too, it was very crowded. But definitely worth it for the great views.
Coming down from the tower I had the opportunity to go to the Sky Deck, an interior observatory circling the building just a few floors down from the roof. Unfortunately there was also an extremely involved and intricate Pokemon exhibit full of lights, annoying video and cumbersome displays. Don't get me wrong, I loved Pokemon when I was younger and wouldn't be afraid to play the first few games again today. But this Pokemon TV show and movie obsession is just downright annoying, and I can't handle the Pikachu overload. Guess I'm just a grumpy old man!
There were a couple exhibits showing interesting artistic efforts, though. One was about choosing the correct sky and shadows to make a scene either epic and grand or claustrophobic and intimate, depending on what is necessary. Another was about introducing 3D and CGI graphics into an animated scene - how do you do this correctly without breaking into the uncanny valley or cheapening the artistic effect of the hand-drawn animation?
I left the tower after getting a few more glimpses of the gigantic city at night. My night complete, I headed back to Ikebukuro and to my hotel. I was ready for bed and ready to move on to the next destination on my mad rush across the globe. But first... Ramen! I looked up Ramen in Ikebukuro and was happy to find out some of the most renowned places for Ramen in Japan are right here. I walked over to a place called Mutekiya, recognized online by reviewers for being either the best place in the world for Ramen, or simply a decent restaurant. Good odds!
When I got to Mutekiya just before midnight the place was full to capacity with a queue of about 10 people standing outside. That's what I want to see! I waited for about 20 minutes and finally sat down to eat. I ordered a pork bowl of some sort, and when it came I was absolutely blown away. THIS is the Ramen that everyone talks about. It was incredible. Save the best for last, right?
Finally, tired from a complete day and with a full stomach, I slept in my capsule for my last night in Japan. I know I didn't get to see everything in Japan, maybe not even Tokyo, but all things considering this was a good start.
Next stop: Aussieland.
Outside the electronics store, and not too far from the subway, was a place called Gundam Cafe. Here the staff, decor, food presentation and food names and descriptions are all based on a Japanese show called Gundam Wing that I am at least cognizant of, but haven't ever watched. The line, even in mid-afternoon, was very long, stretching out of the building and around the corner.
Further up the road was a place called UPX, which seemed to have no relevance to me at all except I heard there was an anime center inside. I went in to find it, and did indeed, but it was much smaller than I expected and confusing to me. I don't know anything about anime at all, and I thought hey, I should learn while I'm in Japan. The problem was everything was in Japanese and none of it made sense to me. There was some cool art and some videos about people drawing, but I didn't really learn anything. I gave it a try, hey!
Outside the building was a mechanical bull and a huge crowd of people were taking turns riding it. That was entertaining - they were having a blast. Moving on, I saw multiple huge electronics stores, game stores and anime stores. I walked into a game store expecting to see the newest and best games, but again everything was in Japanese so I had limited understanding. There was a new Zelda game coming out with a little demo that everyone was crowded around, that was apparently the biggest deal.
I also went in a huge, multi-floor anime store just to see what was there, but was again bewildered and confused. If only I knew at least a little Japanese! I was later told that each floor of the anime buildings gets weirder and weirder, and the upper floors are DEFINITELY adult only... Hmm... Would be worth checking out if I return just for the experience.
Finally I found a store that spoke my language, or at least where I recognized everything - a used, retro video game store called Super Potato.
When I was a young child my first knowledge of Japan came from Nintendo, and I was obsessed with video games, especially on the NES, SNES, PlayStation and GameBoy.
So walking through this store was like stepping into my childhood for a few minutes, and I was able to find all of the old classics and a hell of a lot more than that too.
Part of me wanted to buy some of the games and bring them home, but they will do greater things for the world staying right there on the shelf.
Content with Akihabara, I moved on to Ginza to see the rich part of Tokyo. I didn't expect much from this ward, and mostly wanted to see it to cross it off the list, but I was pleasantly surprised. First of all, the architecture was at some times stunning.
I also liked the fact the A/C was blowing so hard that some of the streets actually felt conditioned. Everyone was very well dressed and looked good. I saw most of the big world-famous stores, but didn't bother going in any.
At some point I walked past a store/exhibit/something? full of saxophones. I walked in, having no idea what it was all about, and walked up to a pair of good looking horns. I pointed at one and asked if I could play it, she said something in Japanese and had a confused look on her face, but let me pick up the saxophone. I played for a minute, thoroughly enjoying myself, then gave it back to the confused lady. She smiled, so I know I didn't do anything wrong, but I have no idea what was supposed to be going on in there!
My last stop in Ginza was a conbini to get some water. I took a look at the beer there and they had some pretty good selections, in stark contrasts to the conbinis in Shinjuku and Asakusa. I grabbed them and walked back to the subway to go to my last destination - Roppongi Hills.
Roppongi Hills is known for late-night partying, but I went there to look at the Mori Tower and Art Museum and see the city from the top of a very tall building. The area was very nice, full of people, and had a good scene and feel. Also, a giant statue of a spider, for whatever reason:
In the tower I rode up to the museum first and took a look at the exhibit. It was about the transition from child to adult and was pretty interesting. Afterward I took another elevator up to the top of the building and got to walk out onto the roof. This was great, a 360deg view of the city at night.
The walkway circled a helipad, and multiple guards were stationed to keep people from walking onto the pad. There were tons of people too, it was very crowded. But definitely worth it for the great views.
Coming down from the tower I had the opportunity to go to the Sky Deck, an interior observatory circling the building just a few floors down from the roof. Unfortunately there was also an extremely involved and intricate Pokemon exhibit full of lights, annoying video and cumbersome displays. Don't get me wrong, I loved Pokemon when I was younger and wouldn't be afraid to play the first few games again today. But this Pokemon TV show and movie obsession is just downright annoying, and I can't handle the Pikachu overload. Guess I'm just a grumpy old man!
There were a couple exhibits showing interesting artistic efforts, though. One was about choosing the correct sky and shadows to make a scene either epic and grand or claustrophobic and intimate, depending on what is necessary. Another was about introducing 3D and CGI graphics into an animated scene - how do you do this correctly without breaking into the uncanny valley or cheapening the artistic effect of the hand-drawn animation?
I left the tower after getting a few more glimpses of the gigantic city at night. My night complete, I headed back to Ikebukuro and to my hotel. I was ready for bed and ready to move on to the next destination on my mad rush across the globe. But first... Ramen! I looked up Ramen in Ikebukuro and was happy to find out some of the most renowned places for Ramen in Japan are right here. I walked over to a place called Mutekiya, recognized online by reviewers for being either the best place in the world for Ramen, or simply a decent restaurant. Good odds!
When I got to Mutekiya just before midnight the place was full to capacity with a queue of about 10 people standing outside. That's what I want to see! I waited for about 20 minutes and finally sat down to eat. I ordered a pork bowl of some sort, and when it came I was absolutely blown away. THIS is the Ramen that everyone talks about. It was incredible. Save the best for last, right?
Finally, tired from a complete day and with a full stomach, I slept in my capsule for my last night in Japan. I know I didn't get to see everything in Japan, maybe not even Tokyo, but all things considering this was a good start.
Next stop: Aussieland.
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