Tokyo from Geek to Chic

Our priority today was to explore Tokyo's Akihabara "Electric Town". This is a district that was well-known for its many electronics shops but in more recent years has gained recognition as the center of Japan's otaku (diehard fan) culture, and many shops and establishments devoted to anime and manga are now dispersed among the electronic stores in the district.

It was difficult for an almost 60 year-old woman to feel the same sense of excitement that a young man in his 20s feels who is passionate about anime (Japanese animation) and gaming. But this was his trip too and I did drag him to the art museum yesterday. So while Kevin perused the stores like a kid in a candy shop, I found a place to sit nearby and watched the mostly young men pass by.

A Big Kid in a Candy Store

After a few hours I was able to drag him away, and we headed to the Tsukiji Fish Market. This market is the largest wholesale fish market in the world and to view the early morning tuna auction is said to be quite an experience. Unfortunately one has to be there at 5am....not for us! We did however, wander the outer market selling a variety of other food and goods. We also found a fabulous sushi restaurant for lunch. This place had fresh sushi items displayed on a moving surface, and you only had to take a plate off as desired. I had promised Kevin I would try one raw fish sushi, so gamely tried a salmon nigiri and...it was very good! The California Roll, boiled Shrimp and the Tamago (egg) were excellent.

Revolving Sushi Bar

The Tokyo metro system is amazingly fast and cheap. We were now feeling confident enough with our navigation skills to head to still another district called Shibuya. The main attraction for us was Shibuya Crossing, considered the largest pedestrian crossing in the world. This huge 6-sided intersection, somewhat akin to New York Times Square, is a "scramble crossing". This means that the massive amount of vehicles feeding into the intersection stops at the same time to allow all pedestrian traffic cross safely from all directions. As we sat and watched from the sidelines, we could feel the energy from the alternating movement of people and traffic, Amazing!

One of the streets feeding into the intersection was a pedestrian shopping street, so we followed it for a bit, did a loop back and for an instant became two of hundreds moving diagonally through Shibuya Crossing.

Our last stop for the day was the Roppongi Hills district, with its stunning architecture and high-end fashion. There were a few interesting buildings and a huge shopping tower but nothing to really interest us and we were tired. Kevin wanted to take a photo of a specific sushi restaurant from a documentary he watched recently. We found it, then ducked into a pub for a few beer while we rested our sore feet.

Alien invader? Or sculpture in the plaza at Roppongi Hills complex?

Enroute home we found a recommended curry udon noodle house and had a absolutely delicious meal for cheap, then headed back to the hotel. Kevin wanted to show me an "anime" movie he had downloaded, in preparation to our visit to the Ghibli Museum tomorrow (museum of Japanese animation--Kevin prebooked this visit from home).