I woke up at 8ish and spent a good chunk of my morning drinking carmel lattes from the vending machine, organizing my stuff, and browsing the net. I had decided to do a couple things which were: check out Roppongi Hills, cross the Rainbow Bridge, go to the Tokyo Tower, and ride the Odaiba big ferris wheel.
I started off by checking out at around 10:50, and then went straight downstairs to GoGo Curry for breakfast/lunch. Good filling gorilla curry...mmmm. I decided to take the train down because I already knew this was going to be a long haul day. I could have planned certain parts better, but it worked out in the end.
First I went to Tokyo Tower. Its way cooler looking in my opinion than sky tree, its classic, and has Sakura Trees around making for some excellent photo ops. Inside the Tower is a mini theme park for the anime series One Piece (like Camp Snoopy or the Nickelodeon moa w/e except smaller and no actual rides). You have to pay to go and they have character actors do stage shows and mingle with the audience, and various themed games and stuff. They also have a cafe like the pokemon one that serves food with designs from the show. I checked out the gift shop but didn`t want to go do that (although I do like One Piece). I poked around in the gift shop and headed out. I decided not to go for the view of the tower since I was going to the ferris wheel later, and no point getting both views.
Next I went to Roppongi Hills. Its know for its art museums and upscale neighborhoods and restaurants. I decided to stop by the Tokyo Internation Art Museum. I paid about 15 bucks for the special exhibit, which I knew nothing about.
It turns out it was Turkish treasures and was "The Treasures and the Tradition of Lale in the Ottoman Empire". Lale means tulip and when spelled in the arabic alphabet uses the same letters as "Allah". Additionally they were seen as symbolic because tulips only have 1 flower, and there`s only 1 god in Islam, so it was used in a lot of iconography. The exhibit was in 3 parts: Royal Treasures, Tulip Iconography, and the Japanese connection.
The Royal Treasures were easily the neatest because it was insane amounts of Gold, Emerald, and Rubies. The throne of the sultan was there and it had 3 Emeralds hanging above it, each the size of my palm. A dagger in a golden sheath encrusted with rubies, and the handle of the dagger was an emerald. Just 1 emerald, as a handle...There were helmets studded with emeralds and diamonds, and a necklace coated with rubies. Just very amazing things. They loved their encrusted jewels so much that there were Chinese dishes they imported, instead of leaving them as plainish with blue artwork on the inside, they covered the outside with gold studs with mounted rubies and emerald, just because.
Link for the exhibit, shows some items: http://www.nact.jp/english/exhibitions/2019/turkey2019/
Link for the exhibit, shows some items: http://www.nact.jp/english/exhibitions/2019/turkey2019/
It took a while to get through but was very interesting. Afterwards I tried to go into another exhibit, but that`s when I found out the pass I got was only for that exhibit. No biggy, the timing was such that it would have delayed my plans bigtime if I had done another one.
I headed back towards Tokyo Tower, past it, and towards the Rainbow bridge. So this is where I could have planned a little better and saved myself a little walking by going to Roppongi first. Not a lot though. I made a stop just after Tokyo Tower to Zojo-ji temple. It must be pretty popular earlier in the day as there were some tents with food stuffs starting to wrap up. Tokyo Tower looms up right behind the temple and makes for a great shot too, complete with Sakura in it. There are also monument statues of children with knit red caps and pinwheels next to them. I`m not sure of the significance but hears someone say it was for children who died in labor or miscarriages. Total hearsay. I bought a stick of sweet sticky rice balls from one of the stands just as a boost for the journey to come. They were oook. Texture was like if someone mashed up sticky rice and added some sugar into the paste and reformed it into a ball (that may be exactly what it is), and then it had a syrup on it that was still soy based but a little sweeter, like if you took out the saltiness and added a little honey maybe. Either way, ok but not great.
The Rainbow Bridge is a suspension bridge on the northern part of Tokyo Bay connecting the mainland to Odaiba, a large artificial island home to a few interesting things. It has a road, a trainline, and a walking path. I had underestimated the distance because Google Maps told me, an hour and 20 minutes. Well as it turned out Google wanted me to swim through Tokyo Bay to get there apparently as the line went straight through it to the middle of the bridge. Instead I headed right for it guessing I`d figure it out when I got there.
The bridge turned out to be another amazing place I`m not sure why there weren`t more people there. I was about the only person walking that bridge at close to sunset. The view was spectacular. The entry to the bridge has a nice break area with drinks and a restroom and it was just completely deserted. I took some pictures on the way across and after 30 minutes or so made it past the bay.
I could see the ferris wheel further down the road, but took a break to sit and watch the sunset some more. I`ll just have to show photos if I got some good ones. Quite a few other folks were out taking pictures in the area as well. There was a small beach with a flock of ducks? I think?
Kept walking, and got the ferris wheel after making a few wrong turns and backtracking. Its part of a shopping complex called Palette Town. It also houses a Toyota showroom that contains concept cars and some produced cell powered cars. Pretty neat, took a few photos. I waited just a little bit for the sun to go down some more and bought a ticket at the wheel.
The Daikanransha, which I think just means big ferris wheel, was formerly the worlds largest ferris wheel. Not sure which ones hold it now, but its pretty big. Entry fee was 1000\, 9ish bucks, and I got on. The view was fantastic, lights were starting coming on in the city but the sun was still setting in the distance. That@s when I notices one of the clouds wasn`t a cloud, but was in fact the silhouette of Mt Fuji. I finally got to see the peak even if it was a silhouette. Absolutely gorgeous, I could see Tokyo Tower lit up, I could see the Sky Tree to the right which has some light patters that play on it.
One last picture I needed...In the anime Inuyasha, in the end credits the main character Kagome is riding a ferris wheel and looking longingly out of the window. This is that same ferris wheel, it shows it zoomed out. So naturally I had to do my own Kagome pose of me looking longingly out of the ferris wheel window.
I limped out of and checked google maps. By walking directly to the internet cafe it would be 5 miles, no thank you. Took a couple trains, cost about 5 bucks and got back. Now I wanted food kinda of quick but I also wanted to sit down. I thought about just getting curry again, but decided against it. I found a ramen place with a lot of reviews near by and 4.2 stars so I headed that way. I found a line waiting for me about 10 long, not too bad, and a sign that said "ticket first then get on line". I now knew how this worked, I`m pretty pro. I went to the machine, ordered their premium ramen for 11 bucks and got back in line.
This ramen was spectacular and is kind of what I had imagined it could be. It was spicy, had garlic pieces around in it, packed with flavor. The noodles were thick, there were 2 hunks of meat that seemed to be slowcooked pork with stripes of fat on them, a cooked egg where the yolk was just not cooked all the way so it was almost gelatinous. Super delicious, I don`t need to try more ramen here, this one made me extra happy.
On a full stomach I headed back to my favorite Popeye. Was greeted by the same super friendly guy at the desk and got a new spot. Since I got through so much today I might try a day trip to Kamakura tomorrow. I don`t want to waste a day and I think its doable.
I have a couple more food to-do`s:
Melon Bread: There`s one down the road so I`m thinking breakfast tomorrow
A5 Wagyu Beef: One of my many readers had a question on this, I`m sure who can`t guess who. Wagyu is just the name of beef raised in Japan. If it was raised in Japan, it is Wagyu. Kobe beef if still Wagyu, but is specifically from the region of Kobe, and just has a reputation of having a more consistent high quality. Then there are grades they give beef based on the fat marbelization (distribution and amount). A5 is the highest grade. It can be served raw by itself, raw on rice, or lightly seared on each side. The fat has a waxiness to and it melts just from the heat of touching it. Thanks youtube!
More sushi: Probably another conveyor belt sushi. That was easy, laid back, and tasty.
Had to be Scott
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