{"id":1462,"date":"2023-10-12T05:14:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T10:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/?p=1462"},"modified":"2024-03-31T07:53:21","modified_gmt":"2024-03-31T12:53:21","slug":"japan-day-11-tokyo-tower-and-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/12\/japan-day-11-tokyo-tower-and-shopping\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan Day 11: Tokyo Tower and Shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was my last full day. I started off by going to Tokyo Tower. It\u2019s maybe not as cool now that Tokyo Skytree exists (Tokyo Tower is 1092 feet tall; Tokyo Skytree is 2080 feet tall), but I only wanted to visit one, and Tokyo Tower is the tower that showed up in the anime and movies I grew up with, so that\u2019s why I wanted to see it.<\/p>\n

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There are go-karts around the corner from my hotel. Tourists put on goofy onesies and drive these through Tokyo, including the busy Shibuya Crossing.<\/p><\/div>

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This is the Great Gate of Shiba, which appears in a number of famous Ukiyo-E woodblock prints.<\/p><\/div>

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A bust of Commodore Perry<\/a>, who forced Japan out of isolation. This is an incredibly flattering (if rather gaunt) bust, considering how he looked in photographs and Japanese caricatures at the time.<\/p><\/div>

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This is the entry gate to the Z\u014dj\u014d-ji temple, a Pure Land Buddhism temple.<\/p><\/div>

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Making my way closer to Tokyo Tower.<\/p><\/div>

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Jiz\u014d statues<\/a> at the temple cemetery.<\/p><\/div>

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This entire temple compound, except for the large bell, was completely destroyed in the World War 2 air raids on the city. It was rebuilt in 1974.<\/p><\/div>

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It\u2019s starting to really make its size known.<\/p><\/div>

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Here\u2019s some of those go-karts driving by Tokyo Tower.<\/p><\/div>

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They really push the message inside that Tokyo Tower is a super romantic, lovey-dovey place. Though there were also Blackpink and Digimon collaborations happening.<\/p><\/div>

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And now for a series of photos showing how enormous Tokyo is, and also how high up I am.<\/p><\/div>

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I only paid to go up to the main deck (490 feet up). For a lot more, one could pay for a tour of the Top Deck (819 feet up).<\/p><\/div>

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I\u2019m not normally really scared of heights, but my legs were pretty jelly up here. I don\u2019t think I could have handled the Top Deck.<\/p><\/div>

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Tokyo itself has 14 million people living in it; the metro area has almost 38 million residents.<\/p><\/div>

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Naturally there are the extra scary look-through-the-floor windows.<\/p><\/div>

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The buses look so small from up here.<\/p><\/div>

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A silhouette of myself as I sit and watch a movie on the history of Tokyo and the Tower.<\/p><\/div>

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I took the elevator up (which was fast and made my ears pop); I took the stairs down. There are approximately 600 stairs, and they count them down\/up as you move flight by flight.<\/p><\/div>

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You get a good view of the construction of the tower via the stairs.<\/p><\/div>

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The guy who decided to build the tower really wanted to outdo the Eiffel Tower. The tower color is \u201cinternational orange\u201d for safety.<\/p><\/div>

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The tower opened to the public in 1958.<\/p><\/div>

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A view of the Z\u014dj\u014d-ji temple I passed on the way to the tower.<\/p><\/div>

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Finally reached the bottom; here\u2019s a view looking straight up.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

After I finished visiting Tokyo Tower, I proceeded on a whirlwind path of subway stations to hit some key tourism and shopping spots. First up, Shinjuku.<\/p>\n

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Tiny waterfall in a park bordering Tokyo Tower.<\/p><\/div>

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Shinjuku has a lot of entertainment places, like this castle-topped karaoke place.<\/p><\/div>

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Taito Station Game Arcade is a chain with locations throughout Japan, but this one is particularly big.<\/p><\/div>

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The real reason I stopped in Shinjuku - Godzilla!<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Then I headed to Jimb\u014dch\u014d, Tokyo\u2019s book district.<\/p>\n

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Books Sanseido. Sanseido publishes a lot of dictionaries; this is the main branch of their general bookstore.<\/p><\/div>

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Jimb\u014dch\u014d is Tokyo\u2019s book district, \u201cthe world\u2019s number one book city,\u201d filled with new and used bookstores. It seems to sit next to a sports equipment district.<\/p><\/div>

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Even the subway stations at Jimb\u014dch\u014d are book-themed.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

I then headed to Shibuya, home to Tokyo\u2019s busiest pedestrian crossing. It\u2019s also where one can find Tokyo\u2019s Nintendo store.<\/p>\n

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Shibuya Scramble Crossing, \u201cthe world\u2019s busiest pedestrian crossing\u201d can have up to 3000 people transversing it at a time.<\/p><\/div>

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I guess when Inspector Zenigata isn\u2019t chasing after Lupin (or maybe it\u2019s what enables him to keep chasing), he\u2019s advertising Suntory Draft Beer.<\/p><\/div>

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A rare quiet moment at Shibuya, as pedestrian crossing ceases and vehicle traffic is about to resume.<\/p><\/div>

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The traffic cops keep everything moving orderly.<\/p><\/div>

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Hachik\u014d, the faithful dog that waited nine years for the return of his unbeknownst to him deceased owner.<\/p><\/div>

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A wall honoring Hachik\u014d.<\/p><\/div>

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\u201cNo music, no life.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

\"\"

Outback Steakhouse! It feels weird for an American \u201cAustralian\u201d restaurant to exist in a country just a couple time zones off from the real Australia.<\/p><\/div>

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The entrance to Mandrake, full of all kinds of wonderful secondhand anime and manga merchandise, some incredibly old.<\/p><\/div>

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An Aliens-themed club in Shibuya.<\/p><\/div>

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This-a way to Mario!<\/p><\/div>

\"\"

It was hard picking something for my kid; I was incredibly overwhelmed with choice.<\/p><\/div>

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Another view of the Nintendo store.<\/p><\/div>

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MewTwo at the Shibuya Pok\u00e9mon store.<\/p><\/div>

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I thought of my dad - across from the Nintendo store was a Minions-themed caf\u00e9.<\/p><\/div>

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There was a Jump store and a Capcom store on the same floor as the Nintendo store. The Capcom store had some really cool Monster Hunter x Pop Team Epic collaboration merchandise, but it was all sealed don\u2019t-know-which-design sorts of things, so I didn\u2019t get any.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

My feet were finished at this point, so I headed back to my hotel.<\/p>\n

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A Maneki-neko art piece near my hotel.<\/p><\/div>\n

Here\u2019s today\u2019s haul of goodies:<\/p>\n

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At Books Sanseido I bought \u201cThe Dictionary of Words that have Disappeared from the Sanseido Dictionary.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

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In Jimb\u014dch\u014d I happened on a store displaying this Neverending Story movie promotional booklet.<\/p><\/div>

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Behind the scenes photo of the Morla puppet.<\/p><\/div>

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At Mandrake I got some anime art \/ info books for some of my favorite shows.<\/p><\/div>

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At the Nintendo store, I got my kiddo a bath bomb with a mystery Kirby figure inside. I got myself a washcloth with my favorite Mario baddie.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

In the morning I get to play Tetris with everything, get packed up, and head towards the airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was my last full day. I started off by going to Tokyo Tower. It\u2019s maybe not as cool now that Tokyo Skytree exists (Tokyo Tower is 1092 feet tall; Tokyo Skytree is 2080 feet tall), but I only wanted to visit one, and Tokyo Tower is the tower that showed up in the anime … Continue reading Japan Day 11: Tokyo Tower and Shopping<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1496,"href":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions\/1496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encyclopaedia-fortuita.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}