What's with the hats? That will be explained later.
We went to Tokyo for our anniversary. This might sound funny being that we technically live in Tokyo, but we really live a least an hour away from the main city by train. We stayed at the New Sanno Hotel in downtown and used that as a base to go out and explore the city.
The New Sanno is located in Hiroo, a neighborhood considered the ritziest part of the city. It's where most of the various embassies are located. We saw around 10 Ferraris and Lamborghinis in our short time staying here. Apparently you get paid well to work at an embassy. I always find it funny to see people driving around in such expensive sports cars when nearly everywhere you go in the Tokyo area is stop and go traffic.
DAY ONE
The first day we traveled around the nearby Roppongi Hills area. Very nice area with huge buildings, lots of shopping, food, good views, and big spider statues.
Why is there a big futuristic spider in the middle of Roppongi Hills? Don't know, but it looks cool.
We went to an art gallery and saw a lot of works by Chinese modern artist Ai Weiwei. Ewww, modern art? Yuck! No, I hate to admit it, but some of his works were actually pretty interesting.
It's hard to tell, but this is actually a set of large wooden boxes with circular holes carved in them. When looked at from one end of the room to the other, through all of the boxes, you can see each of the phases of the moon.
A bunch of seemingly randomly placed logs, but when seen from above, it's actually in the shape of China. Odd, but interesting.
We went up to the observation deck of the Mori Tower to get a view of the city. It's funny, Tokyo Tower is supposed to have one of the best views of the city, but when you're in Tokyo Tower, you can't see Tokyo Tower (obviously). From this building, however, not only do you get a higher view of the city, but you also get to see Tokyo Tower in the middle of it all. Obviously a much better view. Notice the color. It's about 7:00 PM when this was taken.
We next walked around in the Sky Aquarium located in the observation deck of Mori Tower. It's basically a bunch of smaller aquariums laid out in an artistic fashion. Here some pics:
He's alive and well, just really weird. I think he's holding his breath.
Aquarium kaleidoscope.
After the Sky Aquarium, we ventured up to the heliport area on top of the Mori Tower (238 meters up).
About two hours later, Tokyo Tower has changed colors. Didn't know they did this.
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DAY TWO
We took the day to walk around Odaiba. It's basically a big entertainment area built on a man-made island. We didn't really think it through though, because this whole week was a Japanese national holiday which meant everyone and there mom was at Odaiba. It was crowded and hot.
Walking around, we ran into a monkey show. This little guy did all kinds of tricks and acrobatics. Unfortunately, videos, including ones I took showing off his skills, are not uploadable to the blog. So here's a pic of him standing, showing off. He kept standing like this for some reason.
We ducked inside to escape from the heat and found a cool little candy shop with all types of sugary goodness. This includes candy cigarettes and beer candy for kids. Japan is so politically incorrect sometimes. It's a nice change.
Going back outside, we found the famous 1:1 scale Gundam statue. I don't know much about Gundam, other than it's a really popular and been around for 30 years. I also now that this huge 18 meter tall statue is really worth seeing.
Talk about attention to detail. Check out the advertisement for the Tokyo Olympics in 2016.
Quite impressive.
Okay, so we were getting antsy for some dinner, so we walked over to the other side of Odaiba to a big mall called Palette Town. Part of Palette Town is a nice shopping area called Fort Venus (I know, oddball names. That's the norm in Japan) which is similar to the Venetian in Las Vegas with painted ceilings and stores. Very nice mall.
We found a Hawaiian restaurant called Hale Moana. As we were enjoying our meal, I looked up to see this guy come walking in. What in the world?
After this we returned to the New Sanno. We took these pictures from our room. What a view! The second one is the fountain at the hotel entrance.
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DAY THREE
Today we spent the afternoon at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno neighborhood.
It's amazing to see objects like this container that are in respectable condition. This one is from the 5th millennium BC!
Some cat-themed Ukiyo-e prints.
The most famous of Hokusai's 36 Views of Mt. Fuji.
Okay, time to explain those hats...
We returned to the hotel that night and went to the Hawaii luau. Good food, music, and hula. Fun time and goofy hats. Good way to finish up a awesome anniversary trip. I love you Crystal! Isn't she beautiful?
Japanese hawaiian music band
Japanese hula dancers
