First stop: Roppongi 「六本木」land of Tokyo's international club, pub and bar district, where the foreigners gather and come out to play after the sun sets. We arrived in the morning, and came to Roppongi for sightseeing purposes rather than to get drunk.
After emerging from the station, we found ourselves practically right next to our intended destination: Roppongi Hills 「六本木ヒルズ」, an absolutely massive shopping-dining-entertainment-housing-business complex, that took seventeen years to become what it is today. Roppongi Hills gets over one million visitors every weekend-- that's a third of Melbourne's population at the same place in one weekend!
Outside, on the ground floor, there are a plethora of modern tea-houses and cafes, many of which have pretty good views of the city, or of the small Japanese-style garden located between the main building in Roppongi Hills and the Asahi TV building (which we also paid a visit to).
We found a defibrillator (for emergencies of course) on the ground floor, so that you can revive your friend if they took the term "shop 'til you drop" a little too literally. We sat outside in the open undercover area dubbed 'the Arena' for a bit, enjoying a sit down and a drink. I got some weird milk-tea-in-a-bottle, while Ben got a chode Coke and we plotted our course for the day.
There were some brilliantly coloured dragonflies around the Japanese garden, but we only managed to get a photo of one kind. Our favorites were the electric blue dragonfly, and the two fire-engine red dragonflies chasing each other around.
From the Roppongi Hills establishment, we made our way through the hot and sticky streets of Roppongi, making a detour through Aoyama cemetery 「青山霊園」on our way to Akasaka. The only sounds in the cemetery were the cicadas, the gentle breeze, and our footsteps. It was a huge contrast from the streets of Roppongi only half a kilometer away!
From the cemetery we made a beeline for a Nogi-jinja 「乃木神社」, which is just a dot on the map in the Lonely Planet book. It didn't even have anything written about it, so we figured it was just going to be some shabby little shrine in the back streets of Akasaka. Boy were we wrong.
In my opinion, this shrine is worth paying a visit to. It's small, quiet and very humble, but it was so peaceful sitting under the Japanese maple trees, sipping the tea that was on offer and listening to the cicadas hum away.
The trees in the main square had moss all over their branches, emerald-green moss that almost glowed in the dappled sunlight.
Our next destination: Akasaka 「赤坂」and Hie-jinja「日枝神社」. On our way to Hie-jinja, we took the opportunity to have a random photo with a pig before continuing on our search for yet another shrine recommended to us by Lonely Planet.
Lonely Planet says the highlight of this shrine is the tunnel of orange torii (and they are), but the way they write it gives the impression that you'll walk through the torii on your way to the temples. You might-- if you come in through the back entry (which is accessed via a very small road-- practically an alleyway), but most people will enter the shrine premises through the
front.
To be honest, it doesn't matter whether you enter or exit through the tunnel of torii, as the photographic opportunity remains the same, but for reference, if you're standing directly in front of, and facing the main shrine, turn right, exit the main shrine compound, turn left and follow the path until you find the brightly-coloured arches.
If you're lurking about under the torii, playing with your camera (as we did), be careful of the spiders that may or may not be lurking there too-- a dried up leaf caught in a web tickled me and I freaked. Just a word of caution.
From Hie shrine we started a search for a little ramen restaurant recommended to us yet again by Lonely Planet. I think the maps in those books are wrong... We followed the directions exactly, but still couldn't find this shop. Frustrated and hungry in the end, we went to trusty old McDonald's.
After devouring a Big Mac or two we caught the train (finally) to Shibuya. Took a photo of the Hachiko statue. Hachiko was the dog of a professor who lived near Shibuya station back in the 1920s who would come to wait for his master at the station every afternoon. His master died in 1925, but the dog continued to show up until his own death eleven years later. The Japanese people of the area thought the dog's loyalty deserved to be recognised, so they built a likeness of him for everyone to see.From the Hachiko statue we meandered through the streets of Shibuya until we came across a department store called Loft. I think this is the best department store we've been to yet. It isn't huge, nor is it cheap, but it has some really funky merchandise. Even i you're not in the mood for buying, it's still a nifty place to go and have a look at.
By the time we'd finished up at Loft night had fallen. We fluffed around a bit-- peeked around a few more stores along the way back to Shibuya station until we came to Shibuya crossing. I think most people would have seen footage of when the pedestrian light turns green at this intersection, and the surge of people fill the entire crossing.
No? Well, when we went it wasn't overly busy, so we're going to try and head back there during peak hour to get some better photos of the sheer tsunami of people at this intersection. It's crazy. We took a few photos and a video (which is too big to post on here unfortunately) from the second floor of Starbucks, which offers a great view over the crossing, even when it is having a "quiet" time.
Next stop: Tokyo Tower 「東京タワー」, a bright orange copy of the Eiffel Tower, except three metres taller. That's so typical of the Japanese- to copy something a country is famous for and make it that much bigger. Such smart arses, I love it.
We were told to wait for night to come before going up the tower, as while the daytime view is alright, the night view is superb. Like the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices in Shinjuku, rising 150m into the air gives you a real idea of just how ridiculously huge Tokyo metropolis actually is. Unlike the Government Offices, at Tokyo Tower they charge you ~$8 to ascend to 150m, then another $8 if you want to take a shaky little elevator another hundred metres up.
We went the whole way, so the view of Tokyo, from a 250m high vantage point is quite spectacular.
Coming back down to earth we realised the time and rushed back to Moriya so we didn't miss the last bus home.
2 comments:
The blue dragonfly is beautiful, the night view from Tokyo tower spectacular. I enjoy reading your blog very much; keep up the great work. You both look well.I have put you and your piggy friend as new screen saver.
Last comment actually by Mumsy!
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