We wanted to get the best view of Tokyo and hopefully see a bit of Mt. Fuji, so we went to Tokyo’s orange version of the Eiffel Tower, called the Tokyo Tower. We were just blown away at how incredibly huge Tokyo is… and without a singular skyline. When Tokyo needed to be rebuilt after WWII, instead of adopting a singular downtown layout like most developed cities, it retained the historical independent ward layout, with 23 wards in total. It seemed to have multiple metropolis centers (23 to be exact), as there were clusters of huge buildings that would suffice as a “City Center” in any US city. It just kept going. Way cool.
We then caught the subway to the Asakusa Kannon Temple, which was just beautiful, and you get to enter through “the Thunder Gate.” Wee!!! It was also surrounded by a centuries-old and really fun shopping and eating district called Nakamise. It was there that Mike got the best gift you could ever give a 4 year old—his very own ninja outfit from Japan! It even says “ninja” in Japanese on the back of it! Elijah is now the coolest kid around!
With its lights, video screens, shopping, restaurants, and the most fashionable people around, Shibuya (Shibooya!) is best experienced at night. So we went there twice! It was just so filled with life and we especially enjoyed braving the Shibuya crossing a number of times, which is the world’s busiest intersection. One night, we got some sushi, which was good, but not mind-blowing. Then we looked through the “Foreign” section of some book stores and got Mike “Sherlock Holmes.” We were about to go back when we found an arcade (by the way, MUCH more elaborate than arcades you find in the US) that had a game kinda like Guitar Hero with drums. I wasn’t horrible, but not talented at it. Mike, however, found his calling! Who knew!
Our second night in the district, we went to a rather odd restaurant called, Alcatraz ER. The restaurant can’t decide if it is a prison, hospital or some sort of mad scientist’s cavern. You have to give them your blood type to get in the door, then a nurse handcuffed Mike and led us to our table… or should I say cell? We were at a Japanese style table literally behind bars. When we needed the waitress, we had to clang at the bars to get her attention. Beer was in test tubes, and they soy sauce was extracted with a syringe. We had a blast at this weird, fun restaurant. (http://alcatraz.hy-system.com/ ) It was basically the last thing we did before leaving Japan, and I’m glad it was that!
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