Yesterday we visited the symbols of modern Tokyo. First we checked out Tokyo Tower. Picture a red and white version of the Eiffel Tower. You can see the tip of it from all over Tokyo piercing the blue sky between dozens of average looking high rises.
But what use is a tower without an observation deck? Grant and I spent about twenty minutes up there trying to pick out landmarks from the slurry of buildings below. We could see as far as Yokohama in one direction and the outline of Mt. Fuji in the other. Sadly Mt. Fuji was too far away to photograph.
Then we vied with a bunch of Japanese kids for our chance to stand on a glass panel that looked down at the base of the tower. Finally, we crowded into an elevator with about twenty other people and headed down to the fourth floor.
Like any modern Japanese tourist sight, Tokyo Tower has gift shops, a food court and a series of attractions. These include a wax museum and a Guinness Book of World Records museum.
At the wax museum we saw Marlyn Monroe, Gandhi and the Beatles. I took a picture of Grant standing with Chairman Mao.
At the World Records museum Grant pretended to be the world's fattest man,
and I tried on a ring made for the world's tallest man.
Oh and did you know that the world's tallest snowman was built in Bethel, Maine? Well now you do.
After Tokyo tower we went back to the hotel for a nap and then it was off to Shibuya. Shibuya is modern Tokyo at its finest. Have you ever seen footage of crowds of pedestrians surging through a four way intersection in Tokyo with giant television screens showing advertisements in the background? Well that's Shibuya.
This section of Tokyo has more energy than anywhere I've ever visited. People perch like pigeons on every possible surface, no step or planter or railing is safe. Giggling Japanese girls stagger around in much-too-high heels. Metro Japanese boys fiddle with their cell phones as they drag shopping bags through the streets.
Grant and I found an Italian restaurant in a basement. It was one of those restaurants where you order your meal from a vending machine but it's brought to you by a girl.
Halfway through the meal Grant said, "I just realized that we're eating spaghetti with chop sticks."
On the way home we stopped for doughnuts at a Krispy Kreme. We watched donuts being made on a conveyor belt behind a plane of glass as we stood in line. When we finally reached the counter the girl handed us a pair of donuts fresh from the belt. "A present," she said. That's right, free donuts.
I leave you today with a quote from the sampler my great-grandmother had on her wall when I was a child, "Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday."
Tomorrow, I'll tell you about yesterday...or something.
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