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Tokyo from 450m in the sky!
There is so much to do in Tokyo, that we have a list! This week we visited the Tokyo Skytree as well as a couple smaller places.
Skytree
It has been quite a while since I have been up the CN Tower but I believe it is similar to the Tokyo Skytree. Both are broadcast towers that also offer the fascinating and nerve-wracking experience of going very high in the air, although the CN Tower is hit by lightning much more frequently than the Skytree. When reading in the mini-museum below, Jesse and I were both blown away with how rarely the Skytree is hit, but it seems Southern Ontario is a bit of a lightning hotspot. However, the Skytree is a good bit higher and the area near the base is quite different. Because the outer structure is a lattice, you walk under and through the base almost without realizing it.
A few weeks ago, Jesse had cycled to the Skytree, and explored the large mall at the base, so after admiring the view we wandered a bit. From the Studio Ghibli store I bought a pretty stained-glass-esque puzzle, while Jesse got a coaster that looks like Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle. We also ended up getting some sweet potato desserts from a store that were quite good! They had done gread job with the texture of the sweet potato.
Marlena neglected to mention that there is also a cool Pokemon store and other various neat places. I've included a couple photos!
The tower is very tall. For reference, the CN Tower observation deck is at 350m. The one we went up to was 450m high!
Basically a straight down view, everything looks so far away...
I particularly like this picture with the shadow of the tower over the city
I finally visited the shrine that I pass each day on my way to the subway station! It was quite nerve-wracking worrying that I was doing something wrong, but there were lots of Japanese folk for me to follow behind. I got a fortune, as well as a a little paper doll. To get the fortune you shake a hexagonal box until a stick comes out a small hole at one end. You then read the number on the end, and take the paper from the corresponding box. The fortune I got is "best luck", so it is the best possible fortune. However, the details are written in what I assume is more poetic Japanese, so Google Translate only gives me gibberish when I try and translate the rest. While Shinto shrines are relaxed places, I didn't want to take pictures, so here is the website for the shrine, with far prettier pictures than I could possibly take myself.
I also found the house of Nogi Maresuke, who was a general during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05. He donated his house to the city of Tokyo in his will upon his death by suicide in 1912.
Kakigori!
We finally tried Kakigori, which is Japanese shaved ice. A block of ice is spun over a blade and the shavings are caught in a cup and drenched in flavoured syrup. The texture is lovely, a lot like freshly fallen snow. It isn't sharp at all and the syrup was tasty.
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