Last day in Tokyo!

Our last day in Tokyo and what a doozy!

Firstly we decided to go to Haraduku to see if there were any Cosplay kids about. These are Japanese teenagers who like to dress as manga (cartoon) characters and hang out on a bridge at Harajuku railway station. The web said they pose on Saturdays and Sundays and as today was a Saturday, we thought it a good idea to check it out.

A quaint station.

Breakfast cheap and cheerful as usual, then on the train to see the freaks. We arrived to find the bridge almost empty of cosplay kids, only two or three and found that the real day is Sunday. (Sheesh), got the boys to pose with the dregs on the bridge and got onto the other matter de jour.. Kiddyland.

Kiddyland is 5 floors of fantastic toys which seemed to appeal mostly to Sharon who bought a bunch of land Ghibli stuff and an animated Japanese talking alarm clock. Funny but just one more box to cart home.

Harijuku, I have to say, was one of the prettier parts of Tokyo, The streets were leafy and wide and clean and the shopping was great. Shaz and I said on more than one occasion there that we could quite happily live there.

This public toilet has a sound effect button that plays a flushing sound if you're embarrassed by the noises you might make on the job.

After a short stroll from Kiddyland, we arrived at a section of Harajuku known for its shops filled with teen idol collectibles and fashion. It was mayhem (and a great place to pick up girls).

The shops were as crammed together and on top of each other as filled with crap. Thousands of girls milled about and we poked our way through the shops with them finding little of worth. It was all very colourful  though. Ashley loved the crepe stands which sold ice cream and cram with fruits wrapped in a crepe and twisted into a paper cone. We stopped for lunch and had a crepe to finish. The boys were the apple of a few girl's eyes over lunch and there was a lot of giggling.

Once again, we slightly stood out from the crowd.

We shopped our fill and decided that it was still early enough to catch a train to the Tokyo Tower so we walked back to the station and caught the Yamamota line to the thing. It, I learned from Ashley and Chris, was taller than the Eiffel tower. I wasn't too thrilled to be honest and my fear of heights only worsened to closer we got and the more it filled the frame.

Yikes!

As the base, there seemed to be some sort of live TV being shot and a crow milled. I could only look up. It was HUGE and I swear I could see it wobbling. We bought our tickets and swooped 45 or so flights up in a really (in my opinion) overcrowded and way too heavy lift.
At the top, the view was spectacular and unnerving. The family rushed to lean on the railing and I edged my way there. We walked the way around and looked through thick glass in the floor at the chasm between us and the tiny vehicles below. I was fine until some kid started jumping on the glass and I was reminded of the Darwin Awards and could imagine the kid falling through and yelling "I thought it was safe" as he plummeted.

The view straight down. I took this shot I'm proud to say!

You can only watch a view for so long before you sniff out a good iced coffee. After drinks, we walked the 20 minutes through the blazing heat back to the train station and took a quick trip to Akihabara, another all electronic/manga district.
It was mad! Huge crowds for a Saturday, milling and jostling underneath a barrage of calls to shop from cute girls dressed as sailors or cupie dolls or God know what. It was a little overwhelming. Most of the manga, the boys and I had never heard of and most often boarded on adult and not fit for 13 year old consumption. Kiddyland and it's Mario stuff seemed better suited. We headed home expecting to find a message from our pending GAP tour guide as to how to hook up with everyone.
I donned my usual Kimono and Sharon went to the front desk to enquire about the tour. They not only hadn't heard of it, they informed us that we should have checked out of the hotel already. WHAT?? They were right, a flustered check showed the tour leaving from the Prince Shinagawa hotel and we were in the Prince Sakura hotel, next door. The travel agent told us were were in the hotel the tour left from but he was wrong. We packed two rooms of crap in about 10 minutes. It was 6:00 and we were expected, checked in at the other hotel and in the lobby for drinks and information. We bolted!

A quick shuttle bus later and we found our rooms (much smaller rooms), threw our cases inside and raced downstairs.
We met our guide, a guy called Kit, and the others and took a trip to the edge of Ginza for a meal in a place we passed on our first day. The arches of the old rail line served as protection form the bombs in WW2 and to this day, have become restaurants and cafes offering low class but tasty food. We crept downstairs with Kit and the small crowd of tourists (feeling for the first time like cattle) and ate chicken skewers and drank draft beer and Sake (the boys had coke). The food was great, though we passed on the entrails and stomach.

Eeek!

After some polite chat, some moved on to more seedy surrounds, while a bunch of us returned for sleep, and I, to write this entry.

Tomorrow, we are thankfully heading to see the cosply kids as a first stop and it's a Sunday, then on a bullet train to Mt. Fuji. Now, I need sleep.