| 09-May-2014 |  Wide awake at 6am. We wake up way too early as it is and that seems to carry over to vacation. We decided to start our day at our southern most stop, Takanawa, home to the graves of Lord Asano and the 47 Ronin.  If you haven’t seen the original film, “The 47 Ronin”, you should. Yes, it’s sub-titled. Anyway, that adventure included 2 subway lines at a pretty busy hour. The trains
were full, but not packed like we often see on TV at home.

Sengaku-ji

After viewing a morning service at the grave sites, we hopped back on the subway for a few stops north to Tokyo Tower.

 
Between the subway station and the Tower is Zōjō-ji, one of the most important temples of the Jōdō sect of Buddhism.We had the massive compound almost entirely to ourselves so we strolled around before going on to the Tower.

Like everything else in Tokyo, the Tokyo Tower was well-staffed so elevator service to both the main deck and the upper deck was swift and polite.  The morning was clear and sunny – the smoggy layer likely blown off by last night’s wind storm. We lucked out – the views were spectacular!

Suntory sponsors the “Highball Garden” at the base of Tokyo Tower.

“For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.”

We strolled around the swanky shops of Ginza before stopping at a cafe in Mitsukosi, a huge department store, for lunch.  Ginza is also home to “Ginza Hands”, a branch of the famous Tokyu Hands – a miscellaneous goods store. Similar to Loft, the 9th floor had some nice souvenir shopping. The guys posted up in a fancy-lady cafe on the 4th floors and enjoyed a beer while fancy ladies lunched around them.

We took the subway back from Ginza and emerged from Ueno station into the beginning of a 45 minute thunderstorm. We dashed through the park and got from station to apartment in under 10 minutes so we missed the worst of it. It was interesting watching the storm roll across the city from our 22nd floor vantage point. Lighting, thunder, the works!

For dinner the guys picked up takeout from a Nepalese restaurant in an adjacent residential high-rise.

Off. The. Charts. We may have to hit this place again before we leave!

In an effort to walk off the post-dinner lethargy, we walked to another Disk Union outfit about 15 minutes from our apartment. Jeff picked up a few records including some Scandinavian punk.  I was observing that it seemed like every dude in the store was wearing a navy blue suit when it hit me – there were three women in the entire place (maybe 30-40 customers) …. and two of them worked there. Weird.

Another successful day in Tokyo – hope you’re enjoying the trip too! 🙂