Today the weather was better so I decided to go for a full on excursion. Starting point was Nihonbashi - literally 'Japan bridge'. It is a bridge with really interesting architecture, and was originally the starting point for all the great roads that led from Tokyo to the rest of Japan (Don't know if I sold it, but it was cool to me).
After that I headed to the new Sky Tree - Tokyo's new tallest building. Unlike Tokyo tower, which has several extra levels some devoted to an arcade and other attractions, Sky Tree is just a huge tower, that took 40 minutes to get to the ticket counter, then you go up 350 floors in 10 seconds (bang go the ear drums) and look around for a bit and come back down. You can go even higher but that would be another ticket and I just didn't feel it today. There is an interesting shopping mall adjacent to Sky Tree, and it was pretty good to see some different shops (other than the anime centred ones near me). It also had a starbucks where I went for lunch = because looking at the queues for all the good restaurants was making me feel queazy. The real let down of this was that, whilst walking to my next place I found dozens of really nice looking restaurants, but of course wasn't hungry anymore. Thank's Starbucks.
My next stop was Asakusa Jinja; a huge temple and a must do for tourists. I had visited this place once before with my Dad when I was younger, and was eager to have another look. The whole tour starts at Kaminarimon: literally 'lightning gate' a huge gate way with a big lantern, and from here you walk up a street filled with venders selling Japanese stuff, from kimonos to swords. And if you've got time then look up the side streets, of which several are built and styled from a Samurai era. You then end up at the Actual Asakusa Jinja, and next door to it is Sensoji jinja, both of which are fun places to stop and take photos of from a distance, but get kind of busy inside.
Next on the list was Kanda Myojin - this is a small temple about 10 minutes walk from Akihabara. I had also visited here once before, and thought to do so again as it is kind of my local temple and figured I should go and pay my respects.
Last stop on my journey was Tokyo dome, the biggest Baseball arena anywhere, and with connecting hotel and amusements parks. Unfortunately there were no games on, and the parks seemed to be closed. Why? No idea, I didn't ask. Besides I had only planned on going and taking a look at the place, since I'm not a sports fan and its lonely to do amusement parks alone.
I wrapped up todays explorations there and headed back home, in time to see a display being put on for one of my favourite anime series. Well why not? Later in the afternoon, my estate agent was kind enough to come round my place and sort out the TV for me. I think I've already explained the differences in channel options, but effectively I now have free basic TV, and am paying for some of the good stuff. So with nothing left to do today, I just decided to chillax in front of some quality Japanese TV. Even if I had no idea what was going on.
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