ME :)

Sat 25/07/2009

Today was the busiest day in Tokyo, I wanted to do so many things before leaving Tokyo and luckily the weather today was perfect; hot and sunny.

First stop was back to Roppongi to visit the Sky Deck. I had actually called them in the morning to confirm it was opened otherwise I wouldn’t have been. The view from the Sky Deck of Tokyo is amazing, it is so DENSE! It seems like there is no room left to build anything whatsoever.

On the way to Yoyogi Park, my friend suggested I visit Meiji Shrine. This park/shrine is a welcome sight from all the apartments, skyscrapers and people crammed in Tokyo. It is particularly nice on a hot day like today to walk amongst the trees and shade. At Meiji Shrine I witnessed a marriage but it felt like a funeral procession, cheer up people!

I wanted to check out the freaks or should I say the EMO’s at Yoyogi Park dressed in their Manga attire. I know Sundays are usually when they’re out and about but I was hoping some would appear on Saturdays. Sadly, they’re only out on Sundays as I couldn’t find anyone around dressed up.

Instead I witnessed a show involving skaters and bike riders in a game of reverse limbo whereby the skater/biker would jump the pole and slowly the height would increase until everyone who participated was eliminated. This was all on a stage, with a DJ spinning the decks in the background. I don’t think it was an organized event; it was like these guys rocked up, set up some decks on a stage sitting in the middle of nowhere and began to draw the crowd including skaters and bikers.

It was an entertaining event nonetheless with the BMX easily clearing the bar and eliminating his opponents. I’m not sure what he won in the end, probably a sushi set.

Next up was the shopping district mecca of Harajaku and also Shibuya. I have never seen so much people in my life just wandering up and down the streets in the same vicinity. I thought London was congested, this area and Tokyo in general was like a global gathering.

Here I did see some girls dressed up in Manga costumes but it seemed to me like they were there to make money, i.e. take a picture with me and pay me X amount of yen but I could be wrong as I didn’t approach them. I couldn’t help but do some shopping myself so I entered this cool T-shirt store and bought about 3 T-shirts just to fit into the crowd (I’m joking).

I’m waiting to see how the Oxford Street / Regent Street crossing is like when it becomes transformed into a street crossing like in Tokyo. I want to see if it gets as busy as Shibuya. Somehow I don’t think it can compete to the sheer number of people crossing the road in 20 different directions dodging each other in the process. It would have to be the longest wait in front of the traffic lights for someone driving a vehicle.

That night I headed to Daiba, where the Fuji TV station is situation and also Rainbow Bridge. I was here mainly to take some night photos of the bridge and as much of the Tokyo city skyline as possible which was dependent on which buildings had their lights or rather neon lights on.

Daiba is on an island that is connected to Tokyo via the Rainbow Bridge. It’s quite a nice place to chill out by the water on a summer night and relatively easy to get to on the Tokyo Metro trains.

smiles