On Wednesday we woke up and I felt a bit sad: this would be our last day in Tokyo. Of course we wanted to enjoy it to the fullest, so we quickly got dressed and went on our way to the 25th floor to have breakfast at 7:45 am.
It was strange to know that everything would be for the last time, like breakfast. I was going to miss the delicious dumplings, slightly old fries and pieces of paper saying you would either return to your table or that you had finished your meal.
We had a nice seat next to a window, where we could see the city. The weather was perfect: if we looked around the corner of the window frame, we could see Mount Fuji behind a building! We finished our lovely breakfast and went back to our room to get our things.
Then we went on our way. It was quite busy on the streets: lots of suits everywhere! We arrived at Shinjuku station and took the metro to Kanda to get to Asakusa. There we took the special Skytree train again, which was a lot less crowded than Sunday!
We arrived at the Skytree station and walked outside, into the nice, warm sun. We went up the escalators and quickly discovered, to our great joy, that there were no long lines outside! After checking with a staff member where to go, we walked into a big building and went to stand in line. Okay, so there was a line and it was pretty long, but it was in no way comparable to the lines from earlier that week. I noticed that most people who stood in line were elderly people. Coincidence? XD
We waited for quite a while, but it wasn’t unpleasant (even though I almost wrecked the sweater of the woman in front of me with my bag, ahem). The closer we got to the ticket counters, the more fun it got. On big screens hanging above the people, an animated city was shown with little people and cars moving around, showing all kinds of fun facts of cultural Japan.
We finally reached the ticket counter and bought our tickets to the first deck (if we wanted to go to the highest level we had to buy separate tickets on the first deck, very strange system). Then we went to stand in line again to get to the elevators. Yes, lots of lines!
After a while we were allowed into an elevator and went up, up, up, to the first deck: 350 meters high! The deck was quite big and had tons of windows, which gave us a gorgeous view on the vast city of Tokyo! The windows were decorated in Halloween stickers too.
you can see the Tokyo Tower in the left upper corner.
We walked around the whole deck, looking at magnificent Tokyo from every side. I could even see Disneyland in the distance! It’s not far away at all!
Suddenly, a tiny, old woman pulled my sleeve and asked if she could take a picture with me. I said yes, although I was a bit confused. She really didn’t want to leave me alone until she got her picture, haha! XD Very strange.
After the picture we continued to walk around. I think we all took pictures from every possible side of the deck. The view was so amazing! The only downside was that Mount Fuji wasn’t visible anymore, but hey.
My parents were craving coffee, so they went to get some at the Skytree Café. I got a Skytree ice cream, so good! It tasted like milk (sounds strange I know, but it was so nice)! It also had cereal in it! While enjoying our coffee and ice cream we just stared out of the windows. The view was so amazing, I can’t tell you enough!
After we had looked around enough, we went to stand in line for tickets to the Tembo Galleria, the second deck with the spinning hallway along the tower. After a short wait we bought the tickets and went to stand in the next line for the elevator. We quickly were allowed inside.
The elevator shot up (scaring me a bit, since at a certain point we could see the city outside and how fast we were going through windows) and we arrived at the upper deck, where we were welcomed by a staff member in a Skytree dress.
We joined the crowd looking out the windows and whoa: the view was even more beautiful here! We could see so far away! We took many pictures and then walked up the spinning galleria, where we reached the highest point a person could get when visiting the tower. We just enjoyed the view for a while from every side. We also watched a little while people were having their picture taken by a photographer at the official photo spot.
My mom sat down for a moment because she had gotten a little tired, when a staff member walked up to her and tried to tell her something. My mom thought the woman was asking her if she was alright, but it turned out she was trying to tell my mom she couldn’t sit there. XD
We took the elevator down to the first deck again, where we browsed the souvenir shop for a bit. The goods weren’t very special, but I still bought a key chain for memories.
We left the very crowded shop again and had a little fun standing on glass windows in the floor (thought my mom didn’t really like it that much). They really showed how high we were!
Then we went down to the safety of steady ground again.
We passed a photo corner where you could take a picture with the official Skytree mascot (because everything in Tokyo needs a mascot). My dad and I couldn’t leave without a picture!
We passed more shops, but we didn’t enter them. We left the building and while we were walking, we decided to take more pictures underneath the huge tower. My dad lay down on the ground and took some pictures of my mom and me (it must have been quite a sight)! My dad also asked for a picture with one of the staff members, because of her cool Skytree dress!
We had gotten quite hungry (which wasn’t surprising as it was lunch time) and we decided, even though we had sworn not to do it, to go to McDonald’s (XD). We entered the small restaurant, where little toy train tracks were built in front of all the windows, which looked super cool!
We ordered chicken nuggets and somehow found a free table and enjoyed our simple lunch. After some discussing we decided to go to Shibuya again, to take new pictures with Hachi and to cross the big crossing again, this time in the sun. After staring at the countless trains passing the windows we left the restaurant and walked towards the station, passing the One Two Tree! shop.
We took the metro back to Asakusa and from there we took the straight line to Shibuya, where we arrived around 2 pm. We first looked around the station for a bathroom (my mom could have sworn she saw a family member of hers walking around there XD) and then we just stood by a window to look at the big crossing getting crowded! I can’t tell you how much I love the big Shibuya crossing. Despite the fact it doesn’t really have a well known name, lots of people now it unconsciously.
We watched for a while and then decided to go outside. We walked up to Hachi’s statue, where we took some really nice pictures together with him. My mom loved him so much! ♥
We decided to take come pictures at the big crossing, so my mom and I walked to the other side when the lights turned green and my dad waited. When the lights turned green again, we walked back and my dad took pictures. We did this a second time, to make sure we had some nice pictures. It was a lot of fun! ^^ Then we walked to the other side, together with my dad. Suddenly we heard a weird sound of rolling wheels and two (Western) skateboarders maneuvered through the crowd of people, one holding a video camera. I thought it was pretty dangerous and apparently so thought the police, because later I saw a couple of policemen talking to the skateboarders and their faces were not so happy.
We decided to just walk around Shibuya for a bit. My dad wanted to visit the Spanish Slope again, a Spanish-like winding street, which we found after a while.
We looked around the little streets, enjoying all the shop fronts (and also those that covered the second floors of buildings with pretty stairs leading to them). We passed a wonderful Bershka (I don’t really care for the shop, but the store front was made of neon green glass, really cool). We passed a cute shop where they sold the sweetest animal plushie slippers. When I noticed a sign that said ‘3 pairs for 1050 yen’, I didn’t hesitate for a moment and chose two pairs of dog slippers (one white and one brown) and one pair of bunny slippers. Inside they also had a lot of those gorgeous skin coloured tights with prints on them and as they were also 3 pairs for 1050 yen, I chose three pairs: one with hearts, one with stars and one with love on it. My mom bought a really nice cap in the same shop too. ^^ We also briefly visited the Disney Store.
It was 3:30 pm by now and we decided it was time to go back to the hotel to start packing, as there wasn’t any opportunity to do that the next day. We walked back to the big crossing, when I suddenly got an idea: I really wanted a jumping picture on the big square! I told my parents to get ready and as soon as the traffic lights turned green, I ran as fast as I could to the middle of the zebra crossing and started jumping like an idiot! It must have been quite a sight, but at least we got some really great pictures! People did laugh a little, but hey: I laughed too! XD
We walked up to the station when I suddenly saw a girl wearing a ‘free hugs’ sign. Call me crazy, but I just love hugs! So I walked up to her and we hugged, haha! XD She was so happy and sweet. ♥
I took a last good look at Shibuya. The buildings looked so beautiful in the light of the setting sun.
We entered the station and bought tickets so we wouldn’t have to recharge our Suicas (I bought an extra ticket for memories). We took the metro back to Shinjuku, passing Harajuku for the last time (*sniff*). We exited Shinjuku station and bought some bread rolls at Hokuo for the next day, as there wouldn’t be a chance to have breakfast at the hotel.
We arrived at the hotel, where my mom and I already went to out room while my dad took some pictures of the outside of the building. He had wanted to do that before but forgot, so now was his last chance.
When we arrived at our room, my mom and I started our almost impossible quest: packing everything into our suitcases! We had bought so much (well, I had bought so much) that it was a big adventure to find a place for everything. Luckily both my mom and dad are pretty good at packing. We managed to divide everything well and we only had to leave superfluous things behind, like shampoo and toothpaste.
We decided to eat at MyLord for the last time, so we grabbed our bags and left the hotel. It was strange to know this was our last night in Tokyo. Every day we discovered new and interesting things, but the streets we walked every day to the station had become familiar and even a little at home to me. Realizing this was the last time for who knows how long made me a little sad.
We arrived at MyLord where we decided to eat for the last time at Café Est! Est! (we really liked that café, haha). My mom ordered a bowl of something I really can’t remember, I chose a salad with chicken wings and smiles and my dad ordered the 15 inch long plate filled with different kinds of food. While we were waiting for our orders to arrive, I noticed one of the waiters, who was so incredibly cute! ♥ Oh my God, I fell in love with a Japanese guy for one night. *_* He was so good looking! I really had to make sure I wasn’t staring at him, ahem.
Our food arrived and it was so good (meanwhile I still secretly looked at waiter-kun now and then). My mom didn’t really like her dish unfortunately, as it was really hot.
When we had finished, I asked if I could have one of the big ice creams from the shop window. They looked so good and I really wanted to try, plus they weren’t that expensive at all! My dad said it was okay, so I went to pick one from the window. My mom also ordered a crêpe.
there are two pieces of cake on it!
My ice cream and cake were sooo good! ♥ Ugh I could eat one again right now!
After I finished my ice cream, my dad went to pay (I stood outside of the restaurant, too shy to stand close to waiter-kun). I really wish I had asked his name. I would have loved to know.
We left MyLord again and walked back to the hotel, where we packed our last things. We wrote a little note to the cleaner (I wrote ‘thank you’ in my prettiest katakana), uploaded pictures to Facebook and Skyped with my brother. Even though we had to wake up very early the next day, we just couldn’t lie down to sleep. Around 12 am we decided we really needed to rest for the next day and went to sleep after all.
Hi Rosalynn, I've had a great time reading all of your Tokyo trip posts and think that they're fantastic! Love that jumping shot of yours in Shibuya crossing, it's so cool XD
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you have such sporting parents to go with you on the trip and glad that all of you have had a wonderful time :)
Hope I get to read more of your trip reports in the near future ^^
Hello! ♥ I am so glad you enjoyed them! There will be one more post, but it won't be very interesting though. XD
DeleteHaha, thank you! ^^
My parents are truly amazing. They would never have gone to Japan if it wasn't for me, but they loved it so much!
You are too sweet, thank you so much for your kind words! ♥
Ok yes it might have been "Odd behavior" but those shots: the tower one with your mother and the crossing jump one are fantastic. Even if you were never to go to those places again it wouldn't matter photo-wise because they truly are absolute perfect shots to remember forever.
ReplyDeleteOh you are too kind! I am so glad you like them! =D
DeleteThe one with my mom actually hangs on the wall at home now. ^^
I totally understand why it would be, it really is the best trip photo ever. <3
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