Mostly because this was the day we did the things I wanted to do hehe.
It even ended with a nice romantic evening. I do like to stress that when you are traveling with your significant other, make sure you make room for a date night or nice romantic dinner. It made the trip so very special.
I digress so what made this day to special - I got to visit two things: Tokyo Tower and the Japanese Diet! As a geek, this touched on so many levels of my identity that I could not contain it all in. I'll try and channel it for this post.
So let's begin with Tokyo Tower. Yes, it does look like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In fact, the architecture took his inspiration for this tower from the Eiffel tower. As such, Tokyo Tower is taller by 13 meters. This tower is 332.9 meters (or 1,092 feet) tall and serves as a communications tower, and a tourist destination. It's the second tallest building in Tokyo, after the Tokyo Skytree.
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| On our way to Tokyo Tower |
As we started the trek to Tokyo Tower, I was so excited I was sure I would scream when I saw it. I did not scream, but I did do a little jump. Even though I was seeing it in person, I had known Tokyo Tower from all of the manga and anime I would enjoy. You see, Tokyo Tower, much like the Eiffel Tower, is present in Japanese pop culture.
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| Getting Closer! |
Tokyo Tower was the backdrop for the final battle of the first season of Cardcapture Sakura (one of my favorite anime's) and was very present in Digimon. It's featured in so many more anime, including Sailor Moon, that was I just over the top when I saw it. I thought to myself: "wow. I grew up watching anime that featured this great tower, and now here I am in front of it".
I had to stop myself from running to the tower, I wanted to be there so bad! I stopped myself when I saw two teenage western girls dressed in kawaie clothes running to the tower with the mom behind them. I decided I would not act like a teenage girl, though I did think the mom was cool for letting bringing them to Japan. The girls were so excited the whole time and it was so adorable. It was funny cause they were like "thanks mom! You're the best" and the mom was like "You're obsessed with this cause of cartoon?"
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| The base of the tower. |
So when you enter in Tokyo Tower, you take the elevator to the observation deck. They had a special going on with a One Piece exhibit (I don't like One Piece, but it's popular) so we skipped the One Piece exhibit and went straight for the observation deck.
Riding the elevator to the observation deck gets you pumped up for the entire visit. There are windows in part of the trip up so you can see the view as you rise. When you get to the observation deck, the view is breath taking.
As Tokyo Tower is around the center of the city, you can see all of Tokyo. Buildings as far as the eyes can see. You can see all of the usual landmarks: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Roppongi, the Skytree, the Imperial Palace, etc.
The fun fact with Tokyo Tower is that there is a shrine in the tower! I love that they have this very modern tower, but keep their traditional culture in the tower. Many people come to pray when they need to do something major - big presentation to your boss, sealing a deal, or about to profess your love.
Following the tower, we decided to walk around for a bit and head to the Japanese Diet Building. The Japanese Diet is Japan's parliament. It's the seat of government, and where the decisions are made for the country's inhabitants.
The Diet building doesn't look like traditional Japanese architecture, it's inspiration came from pyramids. As we walked around the government district, we noticed how calm it was. We went to go sign up for a tour, and saw some protestors outside of the building. Democracy in action!
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| Japanese Diet |
We walk in to sign up for a tour, show our passports and the officer hands me a piece of paper that says "Diet tour in Japanese only. No English Tours. Sorry. If this is okay, please sign below". We figured, why not, and we signed the paper.
No photography is allowed inside the Diet, but they have a special area you can take pictures of some of the important pieces.
As a government geek, I was so excited to see what was going on. Parliament was in session, but we did not get to see any debates. However, we did see some press conferences going on and several members of parliament walking by.
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| Where members sit, small chair for staff |
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| The Emperor's Seat |
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| The Prime Minister and his party. |
While the tour was in Japanese, we were able to follow along and listen to the instructor. It's funny how you may not understand a language, but from the body gestures and clues we figured when it was time to move to the next section.
The tour lasted about an hour. Most of the AC is turned off as only part of the building was in use, but it was still a good break from the heat. As we were leaving, we did get stopped by the police as a motorcade crossed by. Here's to hoping it was the Prime Minister!
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| I'm standing in front of the Diet. |
We went back to the hotel, soaked in the onsen for a bit, and then we went walking to find dinner. Here's the thing with Tokyo - it's home to 9.2 Million people. Thus, it is a culinary capital. It is filled with food from all over the world. It has more Michelin star restaurants than any other city.
So when you walk for dinner, your options are endless. Not only do you have Japanese food, but western, European, Chinese, Indian, all over the place. To help decide where to eat, you just need to look at the menu and decide how much you want spend.
Well, for some reason, Akihabara (where we're staying) is full of Italian restaurants. So we decided to have some pasta. It was actually a very romantic setting. Couples everywhere, candle light tables. Very nice.
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| Josh looking cute in this picture. |
The food was delicious as well. I'd never thought I'd have some really good Italian food in Japan, but I sure did! Following our meal, we walked for a bit looking for a place to drink. I did a quick google search and found a wine bar in Ueno, only one stop away.
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| I love Tokyo at night. |
We hopped on the metro and followed the directions to this wine bar. The wine was named: "Wine Bar Petit Ma Cherie" a French-inspired wine bar, it was down the street from the Centurion Hotel Ueno, a very exclusive luxury hotel.
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| This place is huge! |
We walked in and noticed how small the room was. It was very cozy, however it was so romantic. Only one other couple was there. We ordered a bottle of wine (thanks to Google translate for the help) as the bottle game with some snacks.
We had some delicious red wine from France, and the snacks were delicious. It was like a little potato salad, an orange peel dipped in chocolate, and some sort of rice pilaf.
We had a great, broken English-Japanese conversation with the bartender. She was so excited to be meeting Americans, and was wondering how we found her little bar in the middle of Tokyo. We just said "google" and she was so happy.
We reluctantly left, as we knew we had to go go back and get some good sleep for the next day. We really wanted to stay and continue chatting, but we had so much to do. We will return one day!
After an amazing day and night, we promptly fell asleep when we got to the hotel. Tokyo at night is so beautiful. The streets are clean and safe, and the nights all around give it a very distinctive glow. Our adventure continues, but our time is running short!!
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| Our memory of the day! |
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