Tokyo Together

Our second day in Japan (and our first together) was already a thousand times better than the first because it began with a good night's sleep.

This was the view from our hotel balcony. I had to keep wiping the camera lens because it would fog up almost immediately when I went outside. I suppose a sudden 15 degree temperature difference will do, that huh? We had the airconditioning in the room set at a beautiful 20 degrees celsius or so, and outside it was definitely in the 30's. I managed this shot at a clear moment, and the view was still incredibly hazy. We could just manage to spot the ocean across the park.

Feeling sufficiently relaxed, we were excited to get on the move and do a bit of Tokyo exploring. As I've mentioned, our hotel in Tokyo Bay was a little distance outside of Tokyo itself, so we needed to get ourselves to a train. But because I'd established in my wandering the previous day that the nearest train station was a really long way away (even allowing for the fact that my weary feet and bad attitude probably made it seem longer), we were not excited about attempting to walk all the way there. And then we had a brainwave. Because of our hotel's proximity to Tokyo Disneyland, free shuttle buses ran all day between us and Disneyland. So, since we knew there was a train station just outside Disneyland, we decided to hop on a shuttle bus and get ourselves to a train station that way.

And so, we made it to Maihama train station, just near Tokyo Disneyland!

We were excited already.

We were even excited by the fancy schmancy rubbish bins!

I was most excited to see that I had a coffee bar named after me.

And then we turned our attention to the amazing maze of train tracks to figure out what our next move would be. And that was a bit less exciting.

We managed to decipher it and get ourselves some tickets eventually, and made our way to the platform. We were very overdue for breakfast by that stage, so one look at Honey's Bar and we were sold!

After collecting our pre-arranged Japan Rail Passes (that would cover all JR train travel for the rest of our trip) at Tokyo station, we moved on to the nearby suburb of Akihabara, an entire district full of electronics.

Just crossing the road was a cultural experience. The school uniforms are incredibe. Just after I took this photo, Tom dropped something as we were crossing, and I completely overreacted (out of shock) and squealed and jumped two feet in the air. Those girls thought it was the funniest thing they'd seen all day. Thanks guys, we're here all week.

Before we got too excited about electronics, our tummies needed some attention. So we found an authentic-looking little Japanese restaurant and got ourselves our first proper Japanese meal. A lovely platter of sashima, some udon noodles, miso soup and tempura prawns. Yummm!

And then we hit the biggest electronics department store-ish building that we could find. Tom was in heaven. An entire two rows of speaker wire! There's a long story behind that. Let's just say that during our honeymoon in Thailand over four years ago, we spent literally a full 1.5 days (of our 10-day honeymoon) searching high and low for speaker wire. We were just about to demolish our first house and start construction of our second house, and Tom had his mind set on finding enough cheap speaker wire while we were in Asia to fit out our entire two-storey new house. Unfortunately for me, it was nowhere near as easy to find there as it was in Akihabara!

I eventually managed to drag Tom away from the speaker wire (thankfully without buying any of it), and we moved on to admiring the other wares. Who doesn't want a giant Hello Kitty camera?

Our real mission was to find ourselves a power transformer, since Japan runs on a different voltage than Australia does, meaning we couldn't risk plugging in laptops without potentially doing them damage. We didn't have any luck in the department store, so we hit the streets again.

And finally found what we were looking for in a little store where we were greeted by Mr Vader himself. I think Tom's trying to challenge him to a duel with his free promotional fan here.

While Tom was talking volts and wattage with the sales guy, I entertained myself by admiring the interesting uniforms. Calf-high black stockings with sandals and shorts? Why not?

I finally tore myself away from ogling Japanese ladies' calves, and we began our afternoon's sightseeing in earnest, once again back on the trains. It didn't take long for me to be completely dumbfounded again, this time by the strange warning signs adorning the walls of the escalators. Upskirting? Is that what I think it is?!

Good luck upskirting under these! The meeting of old and new Japan.

The signs on the platforms themselves were much friendlier. It's nice to know that the guards keep fishing lines on hand in case little girls lose their hats.

Can you spot what doesn't belong here?

Eventually we stopped looking at signs and got ourselves on a train to Odaiba, a man-made island just across the water from central Tokyo, that came highly recommended by the tourist office in Tokyo. I of course started snapping photos of buildings along the way.

Here we are just beginning to approach Rainbow Bridge, which crosses to the island.

In the smoggy grey scene of buildings and water, this bright pink ferry really stood out.

As did this ferriswheel.

It didn't take long for us to reach Odabia, although we got a bit excited and exited the train one stop too early, so while we were waiting for the next train to get us there, I amused myself by taking photos of the station ceiling.

And again, the signs. In this case, an extremely bright and cheerful advertisement! If this ad were anywhere but in Japan, those people would most definitely have moustaches drawn on, at the very least.

We arrived at Odaiba just as the sun was beginning to set, and we got a bit of a shock, wondering if we were still in the right city (or country, for that matter).

Yes, they have their own replica of the Statue of Liberty. Go figure!

Although it's hardly as spectacular as the footwear that the Japanese women manage to totter around in.

Once we were finished admiring the fake Statue of Liberty, we moved on to the very interest Fuji TV building.

And hopped on the largest escalator we've ever been on (giving the escalators in Siena, Italy a run for their money) to get a closer look.

Even then, once we felt like we were perched in the clouds, we had to do this to look at the building.

I made a quick stop at the bathroom, and was grateful for the pictorial instructions so I knew how to go about it.

We made our way back to ground level as the sun was setting in earnest, and kept wandering.

We briefly admired "La Flamme de la Liberte", although unfortunately neither my French nor Japanese reading skills were good enough to understand the nearby sign that explained its story.

Not far away was Gundam, the transformer! Tom thought he could give him a run for his money.

We then went in search of dinner. In a higher floor (I think the fourth floor) of a nearby shopping centre (Aqua City), we stumbled across these European-themed streets. Yes, inside.

One of the restaurants there, called Gonpachi (we think), was in a more traditional Japanese style, with gorgeous views across to the Rainbow Bridge.

The food was great, the view was great, we were happy little travelers.

Feeling appropriately satisfied, we then wandered through the shopping centre admiring the enthusiastic shop names...

Waved hello to the Statue of Liberty again...

And then decided that we absolutely had to have dessert. We found a little ice-cream shop on the ground floor of another shopping centre, where Tom fell in love with the seating. I'm still not entirely certain that it was actually designed to be a stool.

The staff made my night. As they constructed my extremely cheerful ice-cream, they kept up a sing-song running commentary describing exactly what they were adding to it. Hilarious.

On that happy note, we exited the shopping centre where this 'Tokyo Teleport Station' sign was above the door, and I started getting very excited about the prospect that Japanese technology had progressed a lot further than we had thought. Perhaps I can be like Harry Potter after all!

I'm sorry to report that it was actually just a normal train station. Shame.

We waved a sleepy goodnight to the Ferriswheel, made our convoluted way back to our Tokyo Bay hotel (managing to catch a shuttle bus back from Disneyland, thankfully), and so ended our first proper day in Tokyo together!