Toria Heath: Day 4 in Tokyo Shopping and Tokyo Tower

Day 4 was Monday and we had planned on going to the Gundam front where there was a Gundam museum and shop and then to Tokyo Tower. When I was researching the Gundam front I printed out a PDF of information about in 2 months before we left for Japan and planned the journey there. I did not however check the website again before and when we arrived we couldn’t find where to go at all.

Yeah so, it turns out its gone and closed down with plans to reopen it in a few years. I’m was pretty annoyed with myself and Matt was pretty disappointed. However there was nothing to do about it so we headed off to Tokyo Tower.

When we got off the train we debated if we were in the correct place as we seemed to be smack bang in the middle of the business district. There were hundreds of men running around in business suits looking super busy. The walk was quite long around 20 minutes and it was pretty warm and sunny. Eventually however Tokyo Tower came into sight and the skyscrapers got less and less and we found a little park to walk through.

We arrived at the foot of the tower and followed the signs to get tickets to get in. The top floor was shut for maintenance and there was the option to get tickets to another floor where there was a big One Piece exhibit but it was quite expensive to get in and as we don’t watch One Piece we gave it a miss. But it was really cool to look at the art outside and around the entrance hall area.

We got our tickets and headed straight into a lift which took us up to the observational deck area. The views up there were amazing and you could really get a feel of what Japan looked like. There were windows in the floors as well that you stand on and look directly below you which was super cool. We had a really good look around the 360 degree view of Japan and I can’t really sum up in words looking out across Tokyo so here have some photos!

After we were done on the observational deck we headed downstairs to the area that was open to the public where we finally had some lunch. Matt had a Tokyo tower themed burger and I had a regular one and it was super tasty.

As the day was still young we decided to head back to Akihabara to have another look round the shops. On our travels back to the station we came across and Shrine and decided to take a look around. It was beautiful and we were able to go inside and watch some people inside.

One thing that really struck me was the fact they had this really traditional area seeped in history smack bang in the middle of this modern built up business district. Once we were done we headed towards the train station to go back to Akihabara.

My lack of sleep and days of walking started to catch up on me, and as we started to have a proper look around the shops I soon realised how huge the shops were. Some of the bigger ones were 10 floors high packed with merchandise. A lot of them were second hand and display cases which I assume you rent out to display and sell your items. I had soon had enough and as the night was fast approaching we made our way in search for food. However that was easier said than done. We couldn’t find anywhere to eat that had an English menu. I really fancied something rice based but the only places with English menus were ramen places and my feet started to give out and I just wanted to sit down so badly.

Eventually we came across a curry place that had English and we went in there. It turned out to be a big chain that even had restaurants in America. It was an Anime themed place (although I wasn’t aware of the Anime) and inside they had private booths as well as seats are the counter. There were shelves and shelves of Manga that you could pick up and read while you eat which was so cool, I wish they had something like this over here.

I loved the fact that you had a bell too that you pushed when you wanted to be served and I order a Katsu Chicken Curry. It was sooooo good I really enjoyed it and my body thanked me for finally allowing it to sit down and rest.