FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Bangladesh, Burma and Beijing the Long Way (with stops in Laos, Singapore and Tokyo)

Jun 1, 2018, 1:08 pm

#39

swingaling

Join Date: Apr 2017

Location: PVD, BOS

Programs: AA EXP

Posts: 1,664

Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo, Japan

One of my first stops when visiting a new city is to try to go up the tallest building, if practical. In this case, I decided that the Tokyo Skytree would be my first stop of the day. Armed with my PASMO card, I headed back to the Ginza metro station and began the ~30 minute journey to the world's tallest freestanding broadcast tower.

Tokyo Metro

Skytree

View from 350m Observation Deck

View from 350m Observation Deck
The smog didn't help

View from 350m Observation Deck
Smog and more smog

View from 350m Observation Deck

Avengers? What?

Snack Time!
Some ice cream with lemon dessert vinegar. Basically, a sour lemon sauce. Quite tasty and refreshing.

Elevator to the 450m upper Observation Deck
Everyone whipped out their phones in the elevator to capture an Avengers themed video short displayed during the short ride upstairs.

More Avengers Stuff

Different Angle, Same Avengers

Views from the 450m Observation Deck

This Sign Says Mt. Fuji is Out The Window
Can we find it?

Wait! I think I see Mt. Fuji!
Just need to zoom in a bit.

There it is! Mt. Fuji!
Oh, wait, that's just smog. False alarm.

Views from the 450m Observation Deck

Views from the 450m Observation Deck
I can see my house from here!

Views from the 450m Observation Deck

So, in case you're confused by all the Avengers themed junk, it appears like the Skytree and Marvel have a pretty big cross-promotion going on currently. People seemed to be really into the Avengers stuff, though I found it a bit tacky. What do I know anyway? Do you want to see more Avengers stuff? Coming up!

Avengers at the Skytree

Avengers at the Skytree

All this avenging is hungry work, so I looked for a snack in the mall beneath the Skytree. I found a food court without much hassle and settled on the first place I found.

Beef Curry Udon
It was passable, but I was determined to go better for dinner. Didn't eat it all to leave room for later...

Next, I decided to take the metro to Shinjuku (30-40 min ride away). I wanted to check out the yakitori restaurants at Shinjuku Omoide Yokocho and then walk around the Shinjuku area a bit. It was around 4 PM - 5 PM by the time I arrived at Shinjuku station, so I'd beaten the dinner rush by at least a couple hours.

Leaving Shinjuku Station

Shinjuku
One of my favorite photos of Shinjuku

Shinjuku

Shinjuku Omoide Yokochō
Such a cool little street with restaurants jammed on top of each other.

Shinjuku Omoide Yokochō

I wandered the narrow alleys for a few minutes before settling on a tiny yakitori restaurant on the main drag. I didn't catch the name of the restaurant, but it had perhaps 10 seats arranged around a counter. The chef was busy grilling, but super friendly and invited me to have a seat. Little gestures like that go a long way. I've tried to find the same of the restaurant online, but haven't had any luck. It's near Isuzu restaurant, perhaps a couple doors down.

Naturally, as soon as I sat down I found out the folks next to me were from San Francisco and Boston. Go figure.

Shinjuku Omoide Yokochō
This photo was taken while seated at the restaurant counter (on the left, reflection of the counter visible in the mirror).

Shinjuku Omoide Yokochō
First up were some pickles and a water. Didn't really care for the pickles.

Shinjuku Omoide Yokochō
Then chicken. This was delicious. Really nice flavor.

Shinjuku Omoide Yokochō
Next up I decided to have some steak. This was excellent and came with a vinegary dipping sauce, flaked salt and wasabi.

Adequately refueled, I went for a walk in the Shinjuku area.

Shinjuku
These crosswalks are nuts!

Shinjuku

Shinjuku
Red light district, basically.

Shinjuku

Shinjuku
Controlled mayhem is about to unfold. Wait for it.

Shinjuku
Is that Gojira!?!

Gojira!

Shinjuku
This area gets a lot seedier in a few hours...

Shinjuku

Shinjuku
Controlled chaos

Shinjuku
Yup, that's a lot of people. This happens every 2 minutes or so...

Shinjuku

After that, I saw on Google Maps that there was a Godzilla Statue near my hotel in Ginza. So I figured I should definitely check it out. So I took the metro back to Ginza (20-30 min) and finally found the status. As you can guess, I was rather disappointed. Not worth a visit at all.

Tiny Little Godzilla Statue

Tiny Little Godzilla Statue
Fear me! Please!?

Back in Ginza
So apparently Tim Ho Wan is a really popular dinner spot on Fridays. Quite the line, I must say. In case you've never been, it's a HK dim sum restaurant chain.

Ginza
German pub under the train tracks

After my walk around Ginza, I hit a 7/11 for some bottles of water. Next stop was Pompadour Bakery to get a small snack and some baked goods for the following morning's breakfast.

Pompadour Bakery
Had this little guy to hold me over until real dinner a bit later.

By that time, it was around 6:30 PM and it had already been a long day. I decided to take a shower and then find a tonkatsu restaurant for dinner.

Hideous Versace Sneakers
Like I said, Ginza is a fancy area.

Back to interesting stuff...

I eventually settled on Ginza Bairin main store for dinner. It was a 5-10 minute wait to get a seat, but it was well worth it. They didn't accept credit cards, so I was glad I'd brought a bunch of Yen along.

Katsudon at Ginza Bairin
Made with Kurobuta pork katsu. Absolutely delicious. I couldn't possibly finish all that rice, but I got all the important bits (namely, the pork).

I then decided to head back to Shinjuku one last time to see the neon lights, so I went to the Ginza metro station and hopped the train. A short while later I was back in a much seedier Shinjuku. Walking around the area, I was solicited for "massagi" by several women and a few men approached me and attempted striking up a conversation. I ignored all that, as it's not my thing.

Shinjuku at Night

The main thing I wanted to see in Shinjuku, aside from the neon, was the Shinjuku Golden Gai. So that was my first stop. While I don't drink, I thought it would be interesting to see this maze of tiny bars buried in a back alley in Shinjuku. It's a pretty cool place and there was a LOT of English spoken. Everywhere I turned, I could hear drunken Anglos (mainly Americans) chatting about this and that.

Shinjuku Golden Gai
Map of the area

Shinjuku Golden Gai

Shinjuku at Night

Shinjuku at Night
Under the watchful eye of Gojira

Shinjuku at Night

Shinjuku at Night
This dude really needs to stop photo bombing me

Shinjuku at Night

Shinjuku at Night
Lots of working stiffs around here. Notice the smoking corral to the left? I love that idea.

Shinjuku at Night

While I was in the area, I took a stroll back down Omoide Yokocho aka Yakitory Alley or Memory Lane. It was a LOT busier than it had been earlier, but I wasn't there to eat. Just looking.

Yakitori Alley at Night
Sorry for the blur. These guys don't like having their photo taken.

It was a bit after 9 PM by that point and I was getting tired. So, I headed back to Ginza. The goal was to grab a quick dessert on the way back to the hotel. It took some doing, as things close early around there, but I finally found a crepe store that was still open. I ended up at PARLA in Tokyu Plaza Ginza. 1,000 JPY later, I had a tasty lemon crepe of my own.

When I sent the below photo to Mrs. Swingaling back at home, she was not amused that I'd gotten a lemon crepe in her absence. I'd have to make it up to her, she informed me.

PARLA Tokyu Plaza Ginza
Delicious lemon crepe for the road

Dessert sorted, I went directly back to the hotel and to bed. There was still plenty of action in Ginza, but I'd accomplished all my goals for the day and I needed to be up at 6 AM the following morning.