We got up this morning around 7am. Spent a far amount of time on a train heading to central Tokyo to visit the Empirical Palace. We walked around the grounds for a while, saw a bunch of really neat traditional Japanese architecture (and real anti-ninja walls!)
From there we moved on to a very traditional marketplace with a very old Buddhist temple and a recreation of ceremonial buildings (the pagoda was built in 1973).
Each of the shops had very unique items from baked goods to real ivory keychains (a half inch sculpture of a monkey was going for $800).
Then we took an hour boat ride down the river to see the new “Rainbow Bridge”, saw the Fugi Television Network HQ, and a copy of the Statue of Liberty which Avid told us the French made for the Japanese shortly after making one for the United States, but this one is much smaller.
The boat had VERY low ceilings.
We also saw a tower for a brewery, modeled to look like a mug of beer with foam at the top. How tacky… yet interesting…
We then spent most of the rest of the day at Joypolis, Sega’s version of Gameworks (a REALLY big arcade). The fun thing about Funpolis was that they specialized in unique attractions which involve your whole body. Our favorite was a virtual halfpipe where pairs were strapped to a harness and a board and they had to work together to continuously turn the board going up and around the two-story halfpipe.
We stayed at Joypolis until they closed at 11pm then took the monorail / subway home. Which we are now getting ready for bed, as people on your side of the world are just getting up (7:58am according to Brett’s clock). So good morning and good night!
Coming up for tomorrow: The Technology District!
We have a LOT more pictures but have no energy to post everything now. But they will up soon.
- Mike
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