Monday: Tokyo Day 3

Yesterday started with an earthquake, and still wasn't as problematic as today.  The weather claimed it was likely to rain, so I figured today wouldn't be the best day for the Tokyo Skytree, and instead set out to look at the Imperial Palace grounds.

Tokyo station.

Part of the palace from the other side of the moat.

Which has fish.

Unfortunately, I made the big mistake of visiting Tokyo: assuming things are open on Mondays.

 I don't know why Monday is the day that everything is closed, but like everything is closed.  All the museums in the area, all the other stuff I thought of doing, everything.

There's a guard on the palace side of this bridge.  He's there to tell you that everything is closed.  Everything.

 So, backup plan.

Yasukuni shrine.

You can go read news stories if you're not familiar, but I kind of wanted to visit to see for myself what it's like.

Basically, "we know you're angry, but try not to be a dick about it on the grounds of the shrine."

Really a nice looking place.

The outside is largely the same as Meiji, with the torii and gates and traditional looking buildings and all.  This was pretty much what I had expected, and thought this would be a quick trip. However, there's also a museum there that took about two hours to go through.

I'll be the first to admit that my east Asian history isn't that great for the period of about "all of history, except maybe the conquests of Genghis Khan, but not even that much there, I guess."  Still, the history presented at the shrine didn't seem overwhelmingly revisionist.  I'm pretty sure that the "Korea and Manchuria invited us, and we kind of stayed a while" bits are a stretch, and the "we totally had to go to war because the US stopped trading with us," is also really only a fully valid argument if you accept that taking colonies is the best way to run an economy.  In any case, having a large sample of translated first-hand documents (mostly letters home) adds an aspect to the history that isn't really visible in most books.

The signs all over said not to take pictures, but this is a tank, and I don't think a quick photo is going to hurt it.  Plus, I wanted to have something to show from inside.

Anyway, after wandering around trying to find a train station (due to my mistaken thought that my new train pass only worked on JR lines, and not all Tokyo trains), I took a train originally heading back for Tokyo station, so I could find a bus to the Skytree (since it was clear and sunny at Yasukuni).

That's how I stumbled on Akihabara.

But then the sky opened up and dumped a bunch of rain on everything.

 So, plan rewrite number four, back to Skytree.

Skytree!

Skytree!

Ok, so here's the secret: The Skytree is a scam, don't bother.  

First, if you didn't plan ahead and buy tickets online, you're pretty much out of luck.  I showed up, expecting it'd be like the CN tower, or Taipei 101, or pretty much any tower I've been to before.  You show up, buy a ticket, elevator up, look around, realize it's pretty much like a regular building, but higher, and then go home.  Here's how I understood the Skytree system for people who show up:

1. You're given a color coded time-card, that tells you when you'll be allowed to go up to the top.  Ok, sure.  My time was two hours in the future from when I arrived.  Crap.
2. After that time elapses, you take your color coded card and stand in a line.  This line organizes people for the trip at that time.
3. Once you've made it through that line, you enter the ticket area, where you stand in a different line to buy a ticket to the top.
4. You then stand in the elevator line to wait to go up to the top.

So I had two hours to kill.  Time for dinner, I guess.

Cabbage salad with yuzu or sesame dressings (off frame to the right).

Miso soup.  Akai miso instead of the standard shiro miso.  Instead of tofu, this had tiny mushrooms (nameko?) in it.

Katsu combination.  Tonkatsu, giant shrimp, crab/cream cheese croquette.

 That's almost an hour down, I guess I can look around the thousand stores they had there.  Here is where you realize things are a scam.  By setting the trip times two hours advanced from the current time, they guarantee you have nothing to do but wander around and shop.  Luckily, a lot of stores sold things I have no interest in (women's clothes) or things I have no reason to buy here (kitchen stuff).

Or were run by demon bears.

"ComE! Byuy! GoRge ON pRicES!"

I think I've mentioned that it's Christmas season here.

Complete with Angry Eye Snowman as Statue of Liberty Christmas.  I have no idea what you're trying to do here, Japan.  I'm pretty sure it isn't working, though.

Lights.

 This is where you're probably expecting pictures from the top of the Skytree, right?  Nope.  I played the Item 1 part correctly, even though that line was outside in the ~45 degree air, with strong winds (~20 mph).  That second fact was the problem.  They don't run the elevators when the wind is that high, so they were handing out notes to allow people to come back within 30 days to try again.  I didn't grab one, as I don't think that's going to fit into my schedule for tomorrow.

That schedule: Palace museums and Akihabara.

I went home at this point, as my feet really hurt.  There's a Skytree station on the subway line, and after looking appropriately confused for a minute or so, an English speaking station info worker came over and helped me find my way home.  She was the one who told me my Suica worked everywhere, not just on JR lines.

Transit card.  And yes, that is a Hello Kitty chapstick thing.  It was the same price as the no-name ones, and since this is the 99th trip in a row I've gone on without chapstick, only to be forced to buy one when my lips catch fire, I figured I might as well get the fancy one.  It's not much of a deal, as it has a tiny thing inside the cake outer case.

This is not lemonade.  If you're buying drinks, and think "oh, lemonade would be great," don't get this.  After investigating when I discovered "wtf, this isn't lemonade," I came to the conclusion it's some sort of malt/fake-beer/lemon flavored thing.  The 6% should have tipped me off in the store.