Tokyo Tower and other Shenanigans

On Saturday George, our friend Adam and I went exploring in Tokyo and went to Tokyo Tower! It's a replica of Paris' Eiffel Tower. The one here in Japan is several meters taller (I don't remember exact measurements), and it's painted orange and white. We got a very late start to our day and I don't think we left the base until 2ish Saturday afternoon! We usually drive to the other side of the base, park our car there and then walk the 15 or so minutes to the train station. We decided since we were already running so late to try to park down near the station. We failed to find a spot to park and ended back at the base where we walked anyways. Ha.

We rode the train into Tokyo, which was about 70 minutes. Sometimes if you catch an express train it's a little shorter, and if you have to change trains, sometimes it's longer, but we made average time. And we are getting SO much better at using the trains. I am really proud of us!

The Zojoji Temple is next to Tokyo Tower, and it's beautiful! I had read on my favorite Tokyo travel site to visit the tower and temple in the same day because they're so close to one another. So we did. We washed our hands at the entrance to it, following suit of the people before us (we're still learning all the customs and courtesies), and went in to view it. You could smell the incense burning from far away! :) We finished with the Zojoji Temple pretty quickly. Besides the beautiful architecture, there isn't a whole lot to see or do at the temple's we visit, but I can always appreciate the time we spend at them and the experience gained from it!



We waited in line for about 20 minutes to get tickets to go up to the observation deck of the tower. 20 minutes was nothing because when we got in line there was a man holding a sign that said it was a 50 minute wait! We were very pleased with the 20 minutes! They had a "combination ticket" where you got to go to the observation deck, see the Guinness Book of World Records Museum, a 3D show, and a Wax Museum for 2100yen, or 24ish dollars. George and I talked Adam into the combo ticket (poor Adam).



We made it to the deck and observed the sights. This was our third tall building observation deck in 3 months, with the Seattle Space Needle and Yokohama Landmark Tower being the first two. So while we enjoyed the view at the Tokyo Tower, it was nothing spectacular compared to the other two we'd recently seen. And I may not be giving Tokyo Tower a fair chance because it was a very hazy day, late in the afternoon. One thing this did have was a glass floor! You could stand over the glass and look straight down. I was really excited about doing this, and it made me feel as much anxiousness as you would think it would make you feel!





There was a line to get back on the elevator and someone (ahem... George) suggested we take the 600 stairs down. We contemplated it and then all of a sudden, we were doing it. It really wasn't that bad. Just when I was thinking "Why didn't we wait for the darn elevator?!" I saw a monkey. No joke. A monkey... wearing a dress. I've already told you in previous posts how much I like monkey's. And throw clothes on one? Score! This made me hurry along and I don't even remember the last few flights of stairs! There was a monkey show that was ending by the time we made it down, but they were really cute and I got to take a picture of them!




We did the wax museum next, which was pretty awful. :) George and I had never been to one! There wasn't a single sculpture in there that was terrific but I did see get to see wax Beatles and I found that to be VERY exciting! Paul and Ringo were decent but I couldn't even really tell George and John apart. But it was still cool and they had a lot of Beatles paraphernalia to look at, so overall, I was happy. Also, I recently watched a youtube video of Ozzy Osbourne standing in a wax museum and when people would try to take pictures with him he would come to life and scare them. I had this in the back of my head the whole time. So while I was looking at one (maybe the Alice in Wonderland people) George grabbed me and made a "Rahr" noise that made me scream and jump. He never tires of scaring me. I'm skiddish. What can I say?

Me and the Fab Four. :)


This was supposed to be Julia Roberts. That's Jodie Foster in the foreground.


A full replica of The Last Supper, this one was really neat!




Next we viewed the worst 3D movie I'd ever seen. 3D makes me feel dizzy and ill in general, but it came in the combo pack so we did it. It was in Japanese of course but even if it had been in English and we'd understood it, it still would have been awful. There ghosts and zombies and floating people and blood and it was really weird. Thank God it only lasted about 10 minutes! After that we walked through a very silly haunted house.

George and Adam with their super cool glasses on!


We walked through the Guinness 'museum' next. It was pretty outdated. It still had Hank Aaron listed as holding the most home-run record and a few others we found that we knew were no longer accurate. It was still fun to read through them. They had a few objects from movies and whatnot, but overall, I'd recommend if you go to the tower, see the view then head somewhere else! I felt bad we made Adam pay for those tickets. He was wiser than us but was a great sport about it all! :)

We found a little Irish pub on the way back to the train station. Adam got a chicken pizza and George and I both had fish and chips. The food was pretty good! We took the train home and made it back safe and sound!

After we got home I went out and had a girls night out, complete with dancing! It was a good time! We spent Sunday hanging around the house!

We have the Friendship Festival this weekend and there is an estimated 300,000 visitors coming to the base. Everyone keeps saying this, but I don't know if I can believe it until I see it! Then Monday I am getting my tonsils removed! I will probably blog plenty that week because I'll be home in bed, but George has promised to take good care of me! So please keep me in your prayers and good thoughts for a speedy recovery!

Much love,

Chelsea

A good shot as we were heading home for the night!