Japan - Part Two: Sightseeing Around Tokyo

Our second day in Tokyo started off with a surprise.  Charlie lost his shoe when we were boarding the subway!  Some of us had already boarded, some of us were still on the platform, and Charlie was stuck in the middle with no shoe!  We all got off the subway and Eric went to find someone who worked there.  Watch the video to see what happened next!

After retrieving his shoe, we took the subway to Ryogoku station and then walked north along the Sumida River.  (in the map below, Sumida River runs north/south in the eastern third of it)

The first thing that caught our attention was a little urban park with a koi pond. On Google Maps, it is titled Former Yasuda Garden.  I liked that you could see the Tokyo Skytree in the distance.  These little urban oases can be a welcome relief from a sea of pavement, in a big city like Tokyo.

On the edge of this park, Eric noticed there was the Japanese Sword Museum.  We had not planned on stopping there, but Eric couldn't resist checking it out.  No photos were allowed to be taken where the actual swords were on display, but I did get this one shot of the sword making process.

The swords were cool to look at, but they tend to all kind of look the same after about the 10th one.  Some are short, some are long, some have detailed carvings of dragons, some had cool handles.  But basically they were all swords, the kind a samurai would have used.  The four types of Japanese sword are: Tachi, Katana, Wakizashi, and Tantō.

From the museum, we walked closer to the river, and saw dinner cruise boats on the opposite side.  They were docked, since it was only morning, but they looked like they would be fun to ride at night.

We also spotted this building with a weird sculpture on the roof.  We dubbed it 'The Golden Booger'. According to Google Maps though, this is the Asahi Beer Headquarters building.  We drank Asahi beer while in Japan and it is quite good!

Finally, our 2.1km walk from Ryogoku station led us to the edge of Sumida Park, where we got our first glimpse of the cherry blossoms!  They were just beginning to bloom, so the trees weren't really full yet.  Still gorgeous though.

We also got an up-close look at the Mario Go Karters, and some cute Japanese couples getting their pictures taken in the park, wearing traditional Japanese kimono.

The kids played hide-and-seek in the park while I walked around looking at the cherry blossoms.

Then we explored the grounds around the Ushijima Shrine.  We were not sure, but we thought we caught a bride and groom entering.  At least that is what it looked like from behind.

Purification Fountain

Directions for how to use the Purification Fountain

Bride and groom?

Totching Cow

Origami Paper Cranes

From the shrine, we walked to the Tokyo Skytree.  This is the world's largest tower, at 2,080ft tall.  It is a broadcasting tower for television and radio.  We first took the elevator up to the 350th floor.  There is an observation deck there and a cafe where we had lunch.  I took a few videos to give you a sense of how high we were.

We spotted 'The Golden Booger' from up there too!  See if you can spot it too.

Sumida Park, where we saw the Cherry Blossoms, next to Sumida River with the river cruise boats.

Then we circled around to the side facing Mt. Fuji.

I think the most noticeable difference between what we saw from Namsan tower in Seoul and the Skytree tower in Tokyo, is that Tokyo doesn't seem to ever end.  It stretches in every direction with nothing but the ocean on one side and the mountains way far off in the distance.  Seoul, on the other hand, has big mountains and tons of green space right in the middle of the city.   If you want to compare, go back to my Sights of Seoul post for what Seoul looks like from Namsan.

From the 350th floor we took the elevator even further up, to the 445th floor, and then walked up a ramp that circled around the tower and took us up to the 450th floor.  (Sorry for the weird angle at my face in the video below.)

The highest point we could reach is called Sorakara Point, at 1480ft above the ground.

Flat Stanley came out to celebrate overcoming his fear of heights!

Then we took the elevator down to Floor 345, then an escalator down to 340, where we walked over a glass floor section (super scary) and finally took the elevator back down to Floor 5.

View as we walked away from the tower.

From the Skytree, we took the subway to Akihabara.  On the map, way up at the top of the post, look for Sofmap Amusement.  That is the shop in the Akihabara neighborhood where Charlie bought some souvenirs.  Akihabara is an assault on your senses, or at least it was on mine.  It is super crowded, super loud, and just in your face.  Imagine Sega, Anime, Manga, Nintendo, Pokemon, plus all general and specialty electronic goods all sold in one city block.  Throw in a few Pachinko parlors and a couple of Sexy Fetish shops and that just about covers it.  And for some unknown reason to us, the streets were blocked from vehicle traffic, so people were just lying down in the streets, and milling about in the middle of the road.

Anyone fancy a Samurai Umbrella?

 Or Sukiyaki Flavored Pringles?

Or Zombear Living Dead Ramen?

We added Banana to our list of Kit Kat flavors.  There was also one called Crunchy Mouthfeel.

From Akihabara we took a short subway ride to Tokyo Station.  We did an hour-long panoramic open-top bus tour with Hato Bus Tour company.

This took us to parts of town we would never have otherwise gone to, like the area with all the government buildings.  Seeing the architectural influences from other countries was interesting.   

Meiji Life Insurance Building with beautiful pillars

We saw the edge of the Imperial Palace grounds, but not the palace itself, since it is hidden by a forest, and is surrounded by an inner and an outer moat. 

The outer moat

We also saw the original Tokyo Tower, which used to be the broadcasting tower before Tokyo Skytree was built.  It is much shorter (1,092ft) and couldn't broadcast far enough once the buildings around it got taller than it.

As the sun was setting, we got on the freeway and went out towards Tokyo Bay.  We saw the port and got a great view of the shoreline along the bay.

Lastly, we drove through Ginza, which had some very cool architecture and seemed very ritzy, with shops like Gucci and Coach.

After our bus tour, we rounded out the day with dinner at the Ninja Restaurant!  Everyone in the family agreed that this was their favorite part of the entire trip to Japan.  Unfortunately, no photos can be taken inside, but we got some photos of the secret entrance outside!  (warning: the description below is a lot of words with no pictures, but please read because it was so amazing.  I would recommend it to anyone visiting Tokyo.)

The inside of the restaurant is dark, with narrow halls, stairs going up and down, a magic drawbridge, with twists and turns until you don't know where you are.  Part cave, part ninja lair, it is totally awesome!  Our ninja master finally led us into our own elevated room, at the top of some curvy steps.  We left our shoes on the landing.  It was so cool, words cannot describe.
We sat on cushions at a low table.  Our ninja brought our first course, Shuriken star-blades grissini.  Basically they were black breadsticks, in the shape of those stars that ninjas throw as weapons.  Presentation is everything in this restaurant.  The stars were hung on a bundle of sticks, with star shaped hummus dip.  At least it tasted like hummus, but who knows.  There were many times during the course of the evening that we had no idea what we were eating.  We would just say "it tastes like...", since most of what we ate we had never eaten before.
Eric and I drank hot sake.  It came in a covered box with hot water in the bottom of the box.  The ceramic vessel sitting in the box held the sake.  We would pour ourselves a small amount and then put the ceramic vessel back in the box, to keep it hot.  Eric warned me that it doesn't taste so good once it isn't hot anymore.
After the first course, Eric and I were served different courses than everyone else.  It was exciting to see what was coming next.  Eric and I got gazpacho with a shrimp on top.  The girls were given bowls of salad, but then also were presented with gift boxes with dry ice fog pouring out of them.  The ninja said to open the boxes.  They untied the bows and lifted off the lids to see this mysterious egg shell inside the box with dry ice fog swirling around it.  The eggshell was only half of an egg.  The ninja was giving directions for what to do with it.  They squeezed the eggshell gently to push out the gelatin egg and drop it onto their salad.  This was so much fun for the girls, I can't even describe how giddy they were.  The gelatin was actually the salad dressing.  Never before had eating a salad been so entertaining.
Eric and I got some more ninja magic delivered with our next course: turban shell bombs.  The turban shells were sitting on a bed of rock salt with little ropes stretched out away from them on the platter.  There was also some kind of cottony looking material at the end of the ropes right before the shells.  Our ninja lit the little ropes on fire, like bomb fuses, and the fire raced up the ropes and when it hit the cottony looking material there was a flash of fire and then it went out.  She called it the "ninja microwave".  The shells were hot to the touch when she served them to us.  The food, whatever it was, was inside the shell.  I think she said there were anchovies and garlic in there, but I also got something really chewy, which I think was the turban snail itself.  Honestly, if I hadn't been drinking the sake, I probably wouldn't have tried any of this food.  This was so far out of my comfort zone.  It actually tasted really good though. 
The fourth course for Eric and I was really odd looking.  It was a cylinder shape lying on its side, covered in black crumbs and sitting on a bed of black crumbs.  The cylinder was maybe 2 inches thick and 3 inches long.  The ninja's accent was really thick and when we asked her what it was her response sounded like Italian Lizards.  When we bit into it though, it tasted and looked more like risotto on the inside.  No idea what the black crumbs on the outside were though.  Very tasty, whatever it was.
Then we were served something in a shot glass.  She said the bottom of the glass had Japanese flowers in it, and the top was whipped soy sauce.  No idea if I heard that right.  We had to use our chopsticks to "mix, mix, mix", as she told us to, and then eat it. 
The sixth course was like a science experiment.  She brought out a tray with many objects on it.  There was a metal pot with a hot rock in it, a wooden bowl with a lid, some scissors, a bunch of leafy greens, raw rolled pork belly, and a small pitcher of soy milk.  She used the scissors to cut the leafy greens into the wooden bowl, then unrolled the pork belly and threw it into the bowl, then poured the soy milk on top.  Finally, she somehow moved the hot rock from the metal pot into the wooden bowl and then put the lid on it.  She said it would take some time to do its thing and she would be back, then she disappeared.  When she came back, she took the lid off and it had turned into soup.  She ladled it out into bamboo bowls for us.  So unbelievably delicious, this soup was. 
The girls then got their next course.  It was also a soup, more of a miso soup, with something black floating in it.  The black thing was maybe tuna with crab paste?  The girls were not fans of the flavor of this dish.  But, always the troopers, they were willing to try everything. 
Then Eric and I got our seventh course.  It was a black cream puff with a greenish filling.  She said the filling was avocado and tuna.  Not sure what made the puff pastry so dark. 
The eighth course was frozen sherbet ice balls flavored with cherry blossoms.  So sweet and just melted in our mouths.
Then Maya, Willow, and I were served steak, Eric was served veal, and Charlie got fried chicken.  We all loved this course.  No complaints or raised eyebrows as to what we were eating on this one.
Two more courses to go! 
We all got sushi, 3 rolls each.  One tuna, one salmon, and one was egg souffle with black truffle.  They were served with ninja ginger on the side.  I have no idea what made the ginger actually ninja ginger, but it was so amazing.  I could have eaten a whole plate of it.
Then, before the final course, we were treated with  magic show by our own private ninja magician!  This was close-up magic and we were all stupefied.  We could not see how he was doing it, but he was making things disappear, reappear, and disappear again.   Very impressive and we were all thoroughly entertained.
The last course was dessert for everyone.  These were called 'snow frogs'.  It was cheesecake shaped like a frog, sitting on a chocolate cookie.  It was so cute, you almost didn't want to eat it.   The cheesecake had a filling of kiwi, strawberries, and blueberries.
We have nothing but praise to give to this restaurant.  They made dinner into a whole ninja experience and we will treasure those memories for a long time to come. I highly, highly recommend it anyone visiting the Tokyo area.

The kids and our ninja waitress.

Charlie got a souvenir ninja bandanna

I stole the bandanna, using my ninja skills.