Hello everyone! Thanks for tuning in! Greg has apparently had a tough day, so its Eve for now - Greg will fill in later (I hope!) Its 11:45 p.m. here and he's a bit tuckered out! (Get comfy - busy day, lots to read today!)(Greg now. I'm up here at 7am local, Eve's still sleeping, and I will do some editing and ad the photo's.)
Another beautiful day, +22 C, with 60% humidity, a bit of a breeze this morning. We sure have been lucky with the weather. All of our rain gear has not seen any of Japan yet!
We started the day with what seemed to be a simple plan; go to Asakusa then catch the water ferry for Odaiba. We marveled at the end of the day how it turned out to be so much more. The first clue was we left the hotel at 10 a.m. and got back at 9:30 p.m., with a few bags in tow.
Asakusa looked like a good destination as I read about a popular temple there. I also wanted to take the water ferry so we could see Tokyo Bay. There's a ferry which runs from Asakusa to Odaiba, so it sounded like a plan!
I must mention that it is now "Golden Week" in Japan, a period of public holidays from the end of April to May 5th, the longest Japanese vacation time of the year, with some companies even closing for the entire period. It is a string of individual holidays which seem to run almost consecutively. People travel for holidays and to see family during this time, so lots of people are on the move. In the newspaper today, (due to a reduction in toll fees) several Expressway companies forecast traffic jams on the roadways of more than 30 kms long will happen between April 25th and this Wednesday, May 6, as well as 372 traffic jams at least 10 kms long. These numbers are double over last year. I can't even imagine being stuck in that kind of delay! Tokyo Disney Resort expects 1 million visitors during Golden Week. We had to book our hotels in January, even then, some properties were already sold out. We planned our city to city travel to hopefully miss the peak travel times this week. **We noticed more people everywhere we went today.**
Back to today's adventure......before leaving the hotel, we checked our trusty map and noticed Akihabara ("Electric Town" where everyone seems to go for electronics) was on the way to Asakusa, so we decided to make a detour. There is one Japan Rail line which makes a continuous loop around Central Tokyo (handy!), Akihabara is one of its stops (perfect!)[Our hotel is located right next to the Shimbashi station, which is also on this loop (Yamanote line). Its all about location!!] We also noticed something different at today's train stations - escalators connected by a mini moving sidewalk; we'd go up/down an escalator leading seamlessly to a "plateau" moving sidewalk, then seamlessly again connecting to another escalator continuing up/down. Cool!
Akihabara is a sea of electronics and seems to have even more concentrated signage than Ginza.
It was VERY busy here. On the way out of the JR station, the walkway was lined with mini shops. We later discovered that behind these shops (all under the rail line - like last night's restaurants) was a maze of even more shops, sort of like international marketplaces I've seen in other cities. Out on the "regular" streets were banners, signs and pictures of anime characters (which we figured our kids would just totally love if they were here!) and all kinds of advertising for everything electronic.
We walked through the main streets as well as down many back streets. There were huge multi-floor electronic department stores as well as shops only big enough for one person to just sit in.
We looked at household appliances big and small; Fridges for about $3,000 CDN - interesting design with meat and vegetable keepers in separate compartments from the rest of the fridge, then two freezer drawers on the bottom(all accessible from the outside); washers, but we didn't see any dryers, so we will have to ask if these machines are washer and dryer or how that works! We love the hot water dispensers we've been getting in our hotel rooms, so we've been curious about them and a few other interesting items such as blood pressure machines and wall clocks which are not only beautiful but play a selection of tunes. Greg was kept intrigued by all the computers/laptops (All types), cameras, televisions and home media, MP3 Players, and every component imaginable. There were even shops for electronic tools, lighting, cords/cables, connectors, etc. Really, anything remotely connected to electronics could be found here. Prices weren't cheap by our standards, but the items were very interesting!
We got back on the Japan Rail (JR) and headed to Ueno Station,
located just north of Central Tokyo, from there we would have to connect to the Tokyo Metro line (Ginza subway line) to make our way to Asakusa. Ueno station was much larger than we expected. It included a huge mall - good time to stop for lunch, another location we were grateful for pictures in the menu! We each chose a combination; we both had a fish based noodle soup - Greg's came with a tempura shrimp and vegetable cluster over rice and a wee salad with a fish sauce dressing; mine came with three sushi rice rolls and tempura (1 shrimp, 1 seaweed, 1 carrot and one pepper - which Greg even declined!) Both were excellent.
We wandered through the Ueno station mall and discovered a Hard Rock Cafe (one of 4 in the Tokyo area), so we had to go in! Greg's first encounter with a HRC was only a few years ago, and I think this is now his 6th (Ottawa, Niagara Falls, San Juan, Toronto, Las Vega and now Tokyo).
Without much trouble, we managed to purchase tickets for the subway and make our way to Asakusa. It was the end of the Ginza line, so everyone got off there. Our goal was to check out the ancient Buddhist Senso-ji Temple, Tokyo's oldest temple; our map showed it to be right next to the Asakusa station.
The temple is recognizable in postcards and books by its huge "paper" lantern in the entrance Kaminarimon gate.
Inside there was another gate, a 5 story pagoda and then the temple. I was a little negligent in not thoroughly researching the temple before our visit. I expected a serene temple like yesterday's, however, we were met with wall to wall people and a multitude of merchants in wee shops between the entrance and the temple, selling souvenirs, clothing and all varieties of food.
It was an amazing scene, people shopping, worshiping and taking it all in. I read after we returned to the hotel, these shops are part of a living tradition of selling to pilgrims who walked to Senso-ji. We took lots of pictures here, and even got one or two in the temple as others were also snapping shots.
Enroute to the Asakusa water ferry pier, we checked out the multi-floor Matsuya Department store, including a stroll through their electronics floor, household appliances, ladies accessories and another extensive basement food floor.
Though we basically only saw about a 4 x 4 block area of Asakusa, as with many parts of Tokyo, we noticed some very interesting architecture. We were photographing two such buildings when I heard a Japanese man speaking English to a tourist friend of his. I asked him what two of the buildings were - he explained the black one with the gold wavy horn was an art gallery, owned by a beer company - which occupies the building next door.
Their building was gold on the bottom symbolizing beer and the top represented the foam on the beer. I asked which beer company, "Asahi" he said, we all laughed that they seem to have a hand in everything here.
Yesterday we had the bird's eye view of Tokyo from two high observation decks, today we got the duck's eye view of the Sumida River, Port of Tokyo and Tokyo Bay from the Water Ferry. The direct cruise to Odaiba was sold out, so we took the cruise with one transfer; total ride was about 1 hour, for about $15. CDN each.
We crossed under 14 bridges, including the famous two level "Rainbow Bridge" along the way. Both ferry boats had multi-level seating and were able to carry over 500 people each.
The Rainbow bridge is pretty impressive - a landmark suspension bridge spanning 570 metres (1,870 ft) and carries three transportation lines on two decks;
expressway on the top level, roadway and subway line on the bottom level plus a north and south walkway.
It was about 5:30 when we arrived in Odaiba, an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, south east of Central Tokyo. Odaiba Seaside Park is the ferry station.
It is home to what seemed to be one of Greg's favourite buildings-the Fuji TV building, a replica of the Statue of Liberty,
Toyota Showcase Hall and the 115 m (378 feet) high "Giant Sky Wheel", 9th highest ferris wheel in the world (largest one is currently in Singapore at 165m), just to name a few of the attractions. The Giant Sky Wheel ride was a very steady 16 minutes all the way around, with an awesome view of all the Tokyo neon at night, all for about $10 CDN each. And I must say, Eve was very brave to go up in this monster, as she doesn't really like heights, in small baskets.
Greg spied a picture of what looked like a chili cheese hot dog at the "First Kitchen" restaurant outside the Giant Sky Wheel - so the supper decision was made. Turns out it wasn't a chili cheese dog after all, it was a "ratatouille" hot dog (stewed vegetables).
I was happy with my boring cheese dog! We ordered the combos, which came with flavoured french fries (we ordered BBQ, as all others were written in Japanese), a drink AND a chicken drumstick, all for about $7 CDN per combo.
Before leaving we also checked out some of the displays in the Toyota Showcase Hall - they not only displayed numerous Toyota models (most we hadn't seen before), but also had a section dedicated to Hybrids and Toyota Racing. We left the park at about 8:30 p.m., but we barely checked out the many other attractions in Odaiba and Odaiba Seaside Park.
We arrived into (our home) Shimbashi station just in time to discover a grocery store, and a market of food kiosks even closer to the hotel - one block! Somehow we walked by it numerous times over the last couple of days and never noticed it! We picked up some pastries for a snack later - tough choice, as so many looked delicious. I also picked up a mini cup (125 ml or 1/2 cup) of Haagen-Dazs ice cream, green tea flavoured! All were extra yummy!
Also, on the walk back to the hotel, we had our second Roughrider comment/sighting, as someone walking across the square with us mentioned to his significant other that someone was wearing a Roughrider hat.
Monday is our last full day in Tokyo - no plans yet, so we shall see what happens!
2025-02-06