I had also forgotten all of our information and maps about Tokyo, so we were kind of walking blind. Thankfully we had already planned to go to the Imperial Gardens first and Roppongi that evening, we just had to fill up the middle of the day. When we got out of Tokyo station, we saw an open air tour bus and decided to go and buy tickets for a mid-day tour. This seemed like such perfect solution because we were so tired. After getting our tickets, we headed over to the Gardens (they were very close to each other).
When we got to the gate, we found out that the gardens are closed on Mondays and Fridays. See what happens when you forget all your Tokyo literature!? Unfortunately, we still had about 2 hours to kill before our bus tour, so with my (limited) memories of things around Tokyo and a map we acquired from our concierge, we headed in the direction of the National Diet Building. On our walk to find the building, we passed the Mexican Embassy...
And found the National Diet Library...
And eventually we found ourselves in front of the National Diet Building. Coincidentally, it was being protested by, what looked like, "Free Tibet" people...we didn't stay long.
In case you haven't figured out, this isn't the center for nutrition, but the capital building of Japan, where the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors convene. Their collective name is the Diet of Japan, quite like our Congress/Capitol building.
We needed to head back to central Tokyo for our bus tour, so we got on the subway at the nearest station. Thankfully, we headed directly towards where we needed to be. The only downfall of Tokyo's subway system? The exits.
You can't even see daylight in this picture, that's how many steps there were. Think about it.
We made it back in plenty of time to grab some warm drinks and snacks from the neighborhood Starbucks and pose for pictures.
The tour was a great way for us to relax and see more of Tokyo than we could have ever shown Laurie on foot. Too bad the entire thing was in Japanese, but the views were fantastic.
Tokyo Tower and crossing the Rainbow Bridge
A lone cherry blossom tree and the Kubuki-za Theater
I think the architecture here is just amazing because it comes across so futuristic and/but modern.
In that last picture, those two towers are still being built. The tower on the right still had three cranes on the roof, while the one on the left looked like the windows were being installed. Crazy.
We ended the evening in Roppongi and because the weather was so nice, we decided to check out the observation deck at Roppongi Hills.
After getting lost in some side streets, we found our dinner location...
And yes, the Hard Rock is on the top floor and there is a Tony Roma's on the bottom...???
The next day we had to get Laurie to the airport, but we took a detour to Akihabara so Tim could show off the ultimate nerd paradise. While that part of the trip was a success, we got lost on our way to the airport and instead of taking about an hour, the trip took a good 2-2.5 hours. We barely got to the airport on time and Laurie ended up booking it through the terminal, where she made it just in time for boarding. We've definitely learned our lesson about traveling to Narita. Thankfully, the next time we're there will be the day we leave...exactly 4 weeks from today!
0 comments:
Post a Comment