6 Days in Tokyo

My last 6 days were spent in and around Tokyo. I had some ideas on where I wanted to go and generally kept myself busy, all the while still managing to miss a lot of what Tokyo has to offer.

Akihabara

I’d certainly be broke if I lived close to anything like this. Akihabara, the ever growing Electric Town, has shops full of computers and various electronics, as well as lots of anime, manga and other otaku related goods. A lot of the shops are laid out so that each floor has a specific something that they’re selling. Like on the first floor, they’d have cameras or something, the second they’d have computers and on the seventh they’d have video games, anime and action figures. Really, it was all pretty cool. I visited a couple of arcades which have a similar layout, different types of games on each floor.

There were a couple of maid cafes here, which I was tempted to stop in, lol. But decided against it, until next time when my Japanese is a bit better. It’s just one of those things I have to experience sometime.

I would come back to Akiba once more in my trip in search of some Bakugan figures to bring back as souvenirs. That said, although it originated on Japan, Bakugan apparently isn’t too popular here, so it was hard to find something, though I eventually did so. I also grabbed the latest Weekly Jump magazine, which is a thick book of manga including series like Naruto, One Piece and Bleach. I really wasn’t expecting it to be packed full of so much stuff; I basically got it though because there were some color pages of Naruto featured in it that week, heh.

Shinjuku

Plenty of skyscrapers, shopping and food. Didn’t do much but look around the city portion of it and had planned come back later at night, but ran out of time. From here however, I did take a short trip to Nakano, to Nakano Broadway, which had some interesting shopping and what not to look at.

I visited Shinjuku Gyoen (Gargen), which was pretty large and had some interesting designs and layout of the various trees, bushes and flowers. It was a nice peaceful walk compared to the city side of things.

Shibuya

Busy, busy, busy and lots of cool fashion, and shops, and stuff to do. I did a lot of walking around and throughout the stores, starting at the big 109 shops across the street as you leave the train station. That famous crosswalk was pretty cool too, the cars stop and everyone gets movin’, iconic Tokyo. I missed the famous Hachikou dog, totally forgot about it the couple of times I would come here, oops. Overall this seemed like a cool place to hang, even just during the day time or on the weekends.

I went to the Hello! Project shop here, and bought up a lot of Berryz stuff. There were a few sold out photosets that I would pick up at the some of the other stores, and I saw some stuff on the way out that I had missed. As I mentioned before, if this stuff was more accessible to me, I’d be so broke, lol.

Ueno

Took a walk through Ueno Park which connects to a lot of museums and a zoo. The park was really nice. There’s a lot to do here but I spent most of my time at the Tokyo National Museum. The museum had a lot of artifacts, statues and history to look over. Definitely enjoyed walking thought it all.

Made a trip to the Hello! Project store here to buy some more Berryz stuff. Yeah, I didn’t buy much while in Japan, but I spent a pretty penny on H!P.

Tokyo Tower

Tokyo’s Eiffel Tower, only bigger. At the base looking up this thing is kind of daunting. From the top down, even more so. There were two observatories here, one at 150 meters and another at 250 meters (the tower is 333m). Nice view of the city from both. There is also a small museum inside and some shops to go along with it. One thing that was interesting was when riding the elevator to 250 m. An announcement said something to the effect of, “there will be a cracking noise, this is normal.” I just found that to be a bit amusing, lol. The ride up was a little nerve tingling, but the view is worth it.

Harajuku

Went a couple of times, but made sure one of them was on Sunday, when a lot of people were said to hang out. Another fashion spot similar, but different from Shibuya; and it’s withing walking distance of Shibuya, tho I didn’t walk the whole way, I did walk around a bit. Streets full of young people, in the shops and hanging in the park.

Visited another H!P shop and also stopped in a bunch of the other stores located along Takeshita Dori right outside the train station. The Oriental Bazaar and Kiddy Land were on my list of shopping stops as well.

The Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Park were also in the immediate vicinity. A lot of walking, there was a lot to see. Yoyogi Park was huge and bustling with activity. From people playing soccer to cosplayers posing, dancing and acting for crowds, picnicking families and kendo practice/performances. A lot going on and it was great to just sit back and observe.

Odaiba

Spent a whole day here, there was a lot going on. On the ride over I noticed that there was some sort of special Pokemon promotion going on. There were a lot of cute kids and families with Pikachu hats and little booklets packed on the trains over the weekend. They went to the Pokemon Center to get info and apparently each train station had a booth setup where you could get stickers and such. You would also get a pokemon stamp to stamp in your booklet. Got to catch ‘em all, haha.

Going to Odiaba I took the unmanned/automated train, the Yurikamome, over the Rainbow Bridge. It was kind of slow, but still cool that no one was driving it so to speak. I sat in the front which offered an awesome view. Coming over, I could see the giant Gundam towering in the park, was really cool.

Spent a lot of time at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. Lots of interactive and informative displays on computers, technology and biology. And an Awesom-O… err an ASIMO demonstration. He was pretty cool, talking and interacting, walking, running and kicking a ball; he drew a large crowd.

Saw the mini Statue of Liberty, which was kinda funny. Apparently France had temporarily brought over a larger one for display. After it was taken back, the mini one was put up in its place. In addition to that, I did a lot of walking around to the ferris wheel, and the shopping and restaurants all that.

Photos are up on Facebook here and here.

Had a great time in Japan and hope to go back soon. The flight home was as uneventful as the flight out, and customs was a breeze; non existent really. There’s more to be said, but I’m going to leave it at that. Fun, fun, fun!