Around the world in Tokyo

It’s a title that may sound strange, isn’t it?
Not so much!

This morning, we went to pick up Valentin at the Shijuku bus station, who is still working on the Fujiyoshida site but who, for his day off, decided to join us in Tokyo.

We take the direction of the Tokyo Tower, in the Minato district in the south of the capital. This 333 m high tower is one of the highest metal towers in the world before the construction of the Skytree. Built according to the structure of the Eiffel Tower of Paris in 1958, it has 2 observatories, one at 145 m and the second at 250 m. Recognizable from afar with its red and white colors, it falls into general disinterest since the inauguration of the skytree in 2012 .

It symbolizes the reconstruction of Tokyo after the Second World War.

The entrance of the first observatory is 900 yen, equivalent to less than 8 euros, the two, 2800 yen.

We choose the first access and take the glass elevator which gives us a feeling of vertigo to go up so quickly.

When we reached the second floor, we discovered a breathtaking view of the Tokyo skyscrapers. We spend more than an hour looking at the horizon and taking pictures. That’s how we discover our next step of the day, the Tokyo bay in the distance, its gigantic bridge as well as what seems to us to be an old balloon the Atomium of Brussels.

While going down one floor of the platform, we cross many courageous people who climb the 600 steps in sportswear.

In some places, there are windows on the ground to give a feeling of vertigo to any foolhardy person who tries to stand on the glass at 150 m from the ground.

Finally, we take the direction of Odaïba, the beach of the capital. Nearly 30 min of travel and a passage by the rainbow bridge in subway please.

When we arrived, we were hungry. We headed to the shopping mall which offers a view of the Tokyo Bay. The few restaurants in the mall are too expensive without being appetizing. Finally, we came across a fast food restaurant in Japan.

We had a menu that included a soup, a rice dish and a fresh tea drink. It only cost us 10 euros and it was delicious.

We go down to the sandy beach of the bay with a panoramic view from the bridge.
It is at this moment that we see fishes spouting out of the water! Impressive! We spend a good while wandering aimlessly, just walking along the beach to admire the endless horizon of skyscrapers beyond the water. (I couldn’t take a picture of them! )

Odaïba designates the artificial island, it was built in 1853. In reality, it is a set of 6 fortresses intended to protect Tokyo from any invader coming by sea, and more particularly against Commodore Matthew Perry who imposed the opening of commercial ports for trade with the outside world. In fact, the place where we are located had been renovated and opened to the public since 1928. Its modern development began with the 1985 World’s Fair and will continue with the 2020 Olympic Games.

Its architecture with its corridors built with modern broadcasting mechanisms is forward-looking. Thanks to its atypical shape, the building quickly attracted the attention of the public and became a point of the area and a landmark of the capital.

In front of this building stands a smaller replica of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Originally erected temporarily to represent French-Japanese ties, it has since become a tourist attraction.

We found a Jump Shop in the mall next to this statue. Jump Shops are stores selling manga hoodies, but we were looking exclusively for Dragon Ball products, being diehard fans.

Finally, the day is coming to an end, Valentin has to go back to Mount Fuji. We take the bus boat to go back.

The trip took a little more than forty minutes, crossing the whole bay to bring us as close as possible to a subway station.

We were going to drop Valentin in Shinjuku but on the way back, we had to pass by the famous Shibuya Crossing and experience it at least once in his life.

We went up to the Starbucks Coffee across the street to get a bird’s eye view of the whole street and the chaos.

After drinking matcha colada cocktails, we dropped Valentin at his station and we walked around, we went back to Hakihabara at the end of the day to find the famous Mandarake, the den of used and new mangas present on 8 floors, with corridors of narrow and endless windows proposing books, cd’s, dvd’s, figurines of all mangas since the beginning.