Japan Day 5 (go)

FRIDAY

Today we went to Mori Tower, which sits atop the Roppongi Hills mall area. We took an express elevator up to the 52nd floor to the observation deck.


From there you have a great 360 degree view of all Tokyo. I've pointed out our apartment tower in this picture.


Here's a sense of scale. These two buildings are pretty high, and we are looking down on them. Their helicopter pads seem to have grass on them. Putting greens? I don't think the residents would be very popular with those down below if they decided to break out the drivers....


That skyline is Shinjuku out in the distance. We plan on hitting up that area tonight.


Also on the observation level was a very cool aquarium. We could only take pictures of the entrance, as no photography was allowed, and they had little security girls patrolling the area.



I really wish we could have taken pictures inside. The first room was painted black, and the only light was from the aquariums. Along one side were salt water tanks, along the other, fresh water. The design of the tanks was so neat it made me want to run home and set up a fish tank again.

The salt water tanks all had amazing varieties of living coral. In addition to the fish, they had clams, anemonies, shrimp, feather dusters, and sea snails. All of the aquariums were in the 50-75 gallon range, so all the fish were small, like you would see hanging around a coral reef.

The fresh water tanks all had wonderful live plants in them. Ferns, mosses, lilly pads, the works. They had varied bottoms, sand, gravel, and rocks of different natural colors. They were all very well designed.

The remainder of the rooms were dedicated to artistically designed fish tanks. No normal rectangular tanks here. There were very long and thin tanks that would mount on a wall and maybe have one decorative goldfish in them. There was a tank built into the headboard of a bed. There was one that looked like an enormous vase that had hundreds of the big decorative goldfish in it, probably a few hundred gallons-worth. Some were lighted in a neat way; there were slim plastic tubes that rose up out of the gravel and bent over at an angle, like a bendy straw that's been bent down, each with a light underneath the tank. They acted as a light tube, directing the light out the end of the tube, like fiber optics. It looked like little street lights in the tank, a little cone of light descending to the bottom. A very neat effect.

Once we finished with the aquarium, we went to an art exibit on the next floor up. The top of this building is big! Here's yet another shot I got away with right before a security guard started after me making clucking noises, shaking his head. No pictures here either.


After the fun of the tower we went back down outside and hung out at a little pond between Mori Tower and the TV Asahi building.




Next we went inside the TV Asahi building lobby. Nothing much to see here. Lots of displays for Japanese shows that I've never watched or heard of before. There was one display that had an autographed pair of Tiger Wood's shoes. Go figure.


As we were leaving I snapped this sign. Don't know what it says, but it looks funny. The Japanese are fond of cutesy little characters.


As we were walking back to the apartment, we saw this Coldstone. It would have been wonderful to have some ice cream considering the heat, but the line went outside, and around the building, so we soldiered on.


Anyone want to stop at the Lubie Hot Yoga Salon? I didn't think so.


On the way back, we thought we'd be ugly Americans, and grab some McDonalds. In our defense, we did get something you can only get here, a Filet-O-Ebi (shrimp).


He went back to the apartment, had some cool-down time, and then headed out for Shinjuku to check out the scene.


Shinjuku has a pretty large train station, so I think it's sort of a hub of travel activity. Lots of people scurrying from place to place, lots of people standing around waiting for buses, and lots of people just standing around. We also saw our first Japanese homeless people here. This place was lined with restaurants, bars, vendors selling god knows what, karaoke bars, pachinko palaces, arcades, and lots and lots of neon.


We even found a fishing supply store. Have you been here Craig? The guys inside started laughing at me for taking this picture.


When we finally got back to our neighborhood, the restaurant we were planning on going to was closed so we went to our trusty Hanamasa 24 hour market to pick up some grub. Had some nice yakitori and snap peas.


Mo Pics