Tokyo Travel

Day 14 – Travelogue – Underground to Ginza, Buying, Ginza GoldFish Aquarium, and Tokyo Skytree

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2023年9月18日

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Again to Day 13 – Travelogue – Again to Tokyo – Akihabara – Shinjuku at Night time

Immediately is a Sunday and my final full day in Japan. Yesterday was a fairly large day for strolling round Tokyo and at the moment would not be a lot completely different. It is time for the ultimate large push to see stuff. Sundays are probably the most relaxed day of the week even in Japan. My plan was to soak up a couple of new sights, do a little bit of purchasing, and simply absorb all the things at a extra informal tempo.

The Yaesu (east facet of Tokyo Station) the place the bus stations are – a lot of them are underground within the constructing to your proper.

The very first thing to do that morning was to have breakfast at Anderson Bakery. Having contemporary pastries / baking within the morning is all the time a deal with. There’s an Anderson inside Tokyo Station and I used to be fortunate to get a seat as they do not actually have greater than a half-dozen tables or so.

Anderson in Tokyo Station.

A couple of savory baked items and low for breakfast. Cheese toast, and a quiche bun.

After a fast breakfast at Anderson, I walked out the underground exit on the west facet of Tokyo Station. This leads right into a sequence of underground passages linking subway stations and close by buildings. The underground passages may be fairly huge and spacious and may run for a whole bunch of metres or longer, relying on the passage. The tunnels had been principally empty this Sunday morning, however would fill as the department stores and retailers open at 11 AM. My purpose was to go from Tokyo Station to Ginza Station with out leaving the underground and staying indoors the entire time. It’s a few kilometres to stroll underground and I’ve all the time needed to do that. I had a good time exploring and documented the journey on this large submit under.

Tokyo’s Underground Labyrinth 2 – Strolling From Tokyo Station to Ginza

I popped up into a couple of constructing lobbies (staying inside!) to take footage. Right here is one other Christmas tree with a time theme.

After I arrived at Ginza Station I went as much as road degree by the brand new Sony Constructing and Waco (has clock tower) buildings. That is in all probability probably the most iconic intersection in Ginza on the primary road there. Shops had simply opened and I went into the Ginza Six Mall. It is a actually posh mall with many costly designer shops / high-end craft shops. I can not actually afford to purchase a lot right here, however there’s a very good rooftop backyard right here with views of Ginza and I all the time go to the flagship Tsutaya Books retailer right here. The shop has many English books and books solely revealed for the Japanese market. It is usually an immaculately offered retailer with many artwork / photograph / historical past books, shows and gross sales of assorted crafts (even swords!), and artwork exhibitions. There’s a good meals corridor (not courtroom) right here and a beautiful Starbucks the place I’d go to have a espresso.

Waco Dept. Retailer.

Aibo on show on the Sony Constructing.

Inside Ginza Six

Tsutaya Books

Contained in the wooden paneled Starbucks.

Implausible pastries and desserts at Starbucks (much better than North America).

Memento mugs and tumblers from Starbucks. They are not low-cost although.

Artwork exhibit at Tsutaya.

Ashura, Buddhist demon statuette.

Books about Tokyo.

Swords on the market!

It’s a stunning bookstore. The Starbucks has many tables and cubicles for folks to purchase a guide and revel in studying it there.

Chuo-dori, the primary road in Ginza. It’s empty on Sunday morning as it’ll turn into a pedestrian road for the afternoon.

I additionally visited the UNIQLO flagship retailer. It has all the things you need and plenty of gross sales shows. There’s a printed T-shirt flooring right here and I all the time purchase one thing because the shirts are fairly priced and a few are Japan solely.

Winter put on show as I used to be there in December. I didn’t put on something greater than a light-weight jacket for the entire journey. Highs had been within the excessive teenagers and lows had been within the low single digits, particularly in Kyoto.

By the point I left UNIQLO, the road was starting to fill with pedestrians.

New Sony Constructing.

After UNIQLO I headed over to the Ginza Artwork Aquarium situated in an higher flooring of the Mitsukoshi Division Retailer (a venerable previous establishment). An artwork aquarium has appeared in Ginza on and off through the years and it appears to be again for awhile now. I’ve examine it and actually needed to see these incredible displays of fish displayed in a creative vogue. You’ll be able to both blow by means of the exhibit or loiter to benefit from the varied scenes and absorb all the gracefully swimming fish. Not likely well worth the worth of admission (which is not low-cost) in case you blow by means of, however I actually loved this exhibit. It was a beautiful photograph alternative too and and I took a number of footage.

Hi there Kitty and a fortunate cat welcome you to Tokyo. Hi there Kitty isn’t a cat based on Sanrio.

The doorway corridor with floating lanterns.

Stars and tubes of lighted fish. The colors shift over time.

Bulbous eyed goldfish.

Extra goldfish. All blue, however the colors shift.

That is certainly one of my favorite photographs.

Each goldfish tank is an artwork piece.

Goldfish tank and rock backyard.

This illuminated polyhedron is certainly one of two large middle items for the exhibit. It is rather fairly.

You’ll be able to see that the colors shift right here too and there’s music taking part in within the background.

These fish tanks appear like they’re floating!

A mix of tanks and hanging sculpture.

A set of fish tanks set into little shrine lantern kind constructions. Be aware the Christmas theme above.

One other large show of of a Christmas tree surrounded by pillar fish tanks. The sunshine slowly shifts over time once more. You actually need to take your time to benefit from the atmosphere. It was good after I went because it wasn’t too crowded or scorching due to crowding.

A floral association sculpture incorporating fish tanks.

One other view of the floral association.

Floating lanterns. I actually appreciated this and spent a while establishing photographs.

The hanging lanterns on this present make it look form of mysterious and ghostly.

After ending the exhibit I walked additional north on Chou-dori previous all the large identify designer retailers. You’ve got Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Cartier, and many others. There are some incredible stationary shops too. I went into Itoya, however it was soo crowded that I ended up leaving as I did not need to wait in a protracted line to purchase something. I’d purchase pens / stationary at Loft as a substitute.

Scene on Chuo-dori

Good jewellery

Loft for stationary and residential stuff.

The well-known MUJI flagship retailer in Ginza – actually near Loft. Residence furnishings, baggage, furnishings, stationary, meals, clothes can all be discovered right here. It may be fairly crowded as it’s fashionable and a few meals gadgets promote out right here, however not at different shops.

Nice collection of retort meals and curries. I purchase varied freeze dried soups and different snacks right here.

Clothes at MUJI

After MUJI I walked again to my lodge that was solely about quarter-hour north. I finished in at Tokyo Midtown Yaesu to purchase a late lunch at Pork Tamago Onigiri. It is a specialty chain out of Okinawa.

They make tasty onigiri which might be extra like sandwiches. And so they use fried SPAM identical to in Okinawa.

The SPAM onigiri I had (Hawaiian Musubi-like). It has fried SPAM, fried egg onmlet, veggie tempura, a candy soy sauce and a few veggies. It was very tasty and filling.

I had the onigiri and a few pastries from the MUJI bakery again at my lodge room.

Skytree at evening.

I spent the late afternoon on the lodge resting after which headed out within the early night to the Skytree and the Solamachi mall at its base. That is certainly one of my favorite little malls in Tokyo and I really like trying up on the Skytree. I took a direct prepare up there however then took the mistaken exit out of the prepare station on the Skytree (I had an issue this journey for some purpose studying indicators). I ought to have identified higher. I ended up a couple of blocks away from the Skytree. I ought to have circled and doubled again, however I believed I simply stroll to the Skytree on the floor, however I could not due to a mixture of building and prepare tracks. I ended up in all probability strolling an additional kilometre to get across the obstacles, however did get some good evening photographs of the tower.

I lastly made it again to the tower! That is the east finish of the advanced. There’s a flagship Kura Sushi conveyor belt restaurant right here and LIFE, a really good grocery store to purchase any meals souvenirs. The basement flooring is fairly enormous for the grocery store.

Freeze-dried soups. I all the time top off on these.

There are piles of cup noodle you should buy right here together with common packaged noodles. You could possibly additionally choose up varied dried items and condiments like Japanese chili oil, seasonings, and many others.

Solamachi Mall exterior.

Large catbus standing at Donguri Republic at Solamachi.

Large Totoro statue additionally at Donguri Republic promoting Ghibli merchandise.

Howl’s Transferring Fortress.

Laputa, Fortress within the Sky.

The rooftop of the mall had a Christmas Market the place you would purchase ornaments, meals, and drink. It was fairly fashionable.

One other large Christmas tree, however it’s dwarfed by the Skytree.

Be aware walkways up the tower!

The inside of Solamachi has a robotic museum within the workplace tower, many memento retailers and extra critical clothes and housewares shops too.

Iron Man!

One other Leap Retailer and one other Luffy!

Doraemon pop-up retailer.

Pokemon Middle on the Skytree with Rayquaza.

One other legendary Pokemon.

The newest starter Pokemon on the time.

Kirby!

A retailer that does stunning sugar sweet sculptures. Decide up a goldfish that appears like it’s manufactured from glass.

Knife retailer. I exploit stainless solely as I can not all the time preserve it maintained to keep away from rust.

Lastly, after purchasing, loading up on meals souvenirs, and trying out the mall I finished of their meals courtroom for dinner. I went to Ippudo Specific there. The ramen was a bit dearer right here, however it was handy.

I had a tonkotsu ramen with gyoza. It was good. You get your meals on actual tableware and you could return it to the shop after ending.

It was quickly time to depart and I headed again to the prepare station, a brief stroll to the south of the tower.

The ultimate Christmas lights photograph I am displaying.

It was an excellent final day and I used to be prepared for the ultimate morning/afternoon in Tokyo the following day. I wanted to start out packing my suitcase for the return journey dwelling.

To Day 15 – Travelogue – Museums Shut Monday – Ueno Park – Narita – Flight Residence

Again to Day 13 – Travelogue – Again to Tokyo – Akihabara – Shinjuku at Night time

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