Teleporting in Tokyo

Kei took Thursday and Friday off to be with me. So with a travel buddy who owned a professional camera, we headed over to Chidori-ga-fuchi for some more hanami. We stopped by a convenience store for breakfast (yakisoba, Pocky sticks, bread, and milk tea) and off we went to the park to sit and stare at the flowers. Since it was early and on a weekday, we had the park to ourselves. Finally, no crowds!

Darn these flowers for being so pretty. I especially liked the ones on droopy branches which I've come to call "Droopies."

Since we had a lot to cover before my feet started spazzing out again, we headed over to Ginza. First stop: the Sony Building for the geek in me. I swear, it's the coolest place in the world. There's a section there where kids can dress up and take a picture and test out the photo printers. Umm, feeling like kids, Kei and I took turns and came home with free souvenir pictures. HaHa! But really, those printers produced clear and crisp prints! Very nice. I was also salivating over all the DSLRs. Ugh. Must buy one when I'm employed again so I can learn how to use one and be ready for my next trip!

Afterwards, we searched for the Godzilla statue which Kei didn't know existed. After help from kobans, Japanese police boxes, we found the dinky statue outside an office building. Come on, Tokyo = Godzilla; I had to see it.

It was time for lunch and despite my asking Kei to have lunch at a food court so that it'll be a little cheaper, we ended up at a posh okonomiyaki restaurant since she kept telling me that there were no food courts in the department stores. Darn this tourist guide of mine. HaHa! We had the lunch special for $10 each, but the okonomiyakis were already pre-made. They just put them on the teppan to heat up; not fun at all!

Since Kei wanted to come with me to Hiroshima, we headed over to Tokyo Station to get her train tickets while I availed my JR Pass. My gawd, it's true: the JR Pass is really a huge saving! Kei's tickets were somewhere around $400! Crazy!

We were in the area already so we walked over to the Imperial Palace. It turned out that Chidori-ga-fuchi was only around the corner from the Imperial Palace; we could've done this earlier. There was nothing much over there for we skipped the East Garden since it was almost closing time (and we somehow missed the entrance to the garden), but again, it was nice to get away from all the crowds in Tokyo and find some peace. By this time, my feet started spazzing out so I slapped on some Salonpas while sitting on one of the benches.

Instead of heading over to Harajuku, I suggested we go to Odaiba instead since it appeared to be the most out of the way tourist spot.

Wow, this was the Tokyo that I imagined: the place looked very Jetsons-like with the Fuji TV headquarters building. We took the Yurikamome Line, which crossed the super cool Rainbow Bridge, and got off at the Daiba stop. The view of the sunset from the Odaiba Seaside Park was awesome and I wished I had the money to stay at the very nice-looking Hotel Nikko over there. After eating Happy Meals at the McDonalds in Aqua City (Kei wanted the Doraemon toys. HaHa!), we headed over to Palette Town to ride the Odaiba Ferris Wheel, which turned out to be the largest in the world. Fantastic panoramic view!

After a tiramisu crepe at Crepe Ojisan, we headed over to Venus Fort, passing by the Toyota Mega Web.

Me: Kei, is this where that human robot is located?
Kei: Uhh, I think that's a Honda thing.
Me: Oh.

HaHa! That's what I get for not researching Tokyo as much as I did for Seoul. ;P Venus Fort is like Vegas' Caesar's Palace, complete with high-end stores. Next!

Going home, we took the Tokyo Teleport. Yes, that's what it's called. I'm telling you, this side of town is so futuristic. LoL.

Once again, I hobbled into bed looking forward to tomorrow's big day.