A walk in Tokyo and going up in the world

As we relaxed over a beer after our karting experience we decided on a visit to the Tokyo Tower for our outing for the following day.

Hope it’s not too busy I said, it’s the last day of Golden Week here.

Golden week is a series of 4 national holidays occurring in the same week in Japan and tomorrow would be Children’s Day, the last of these.

So off we set in the morning and after a quick subway trip we’re back up on the surface and next to the Tokyo Tower.

The tower was completed in 1958 and stands at 332.9 metres tall.

A huge crowd of people were swarming in all directions, it looked like the tower was a popular spot on children’s day! Gary and Diane joined the end of a queue, we were not sure what the queue was for but it was the focus of most people’s attention. I tried and failed to get information about where the ticket office was and so after a few minutes I joined them.

As the designated person to operate Japanese machines after queuing for an hour I purchased 3 tickets for entry at 2PM.

So off went for a look around for a couple of hours.

There’s a shrine just down the road said Diane after studying her phone as we stopped for a coffee, why don’t we go there?

It’s just across the river and only about 5 mins walk from there.

Off we set and again Google maps in Japanese proved difficult. We consulted a couple of friendly local ladies on bicycles who pointed in various directions and on we walked.

NOTE TO SELF: going to need new shoes soon after all these miles,

We soon found a big shrine complex where it seems half of Japan had decided to spend the public holiday.

On the way we passed the Asahi beer headquarters with what I am led to believe is a flame on the top.

Anyway after another very pleasant 5 mile stroll in the sunshine we were back at the tower.

The views out over Tokyo were superb, we could see for miles.

And so ended another highly enjoyable day.

Off to Akihabara, “electric city” tomorrow, home of Anime and all things cute Japanese, should be fun!

TTFN

Bibbley