Day 2: Palette Town (Odaiba), Sengaku-ji, Zojo-ji, Tokyo Tower

Today we set out to see a lot of different sites all around Tokyo.  I believe today will be the day with the most walking and getting about, we tallied 11 miles of walking according to GPS today.

Palett Town, Odaiba:

We started the day out by traveling to Palette town which is in Odaiba, that extends south of Tokyo into Tokyo Bay and is actually an artificial island and a big one at it.  We went to the famous Daikanransha, a 377 ft (115 m) tall ferris wheel.  Unfortunately it was closed for inspection while we were there due to the typhoon yesterday.  Time permitting we will try to get back there later in the trip as it offers a beautiful view of Tokyo and the bay.  Here are some pictures:

At the base of the ferris wheel, there was a Honda car exposition so we walked around it and sat in a car with the steering wheel on the right side of the car, it was definitely different than what we are used to.

We then walked further south and entered a mall there.  The Odaiba area has many large malls.  What was neat about this mall was the ceiling of it looked like the outside sky and changed from a dark blue to a light blue; the change happened at noon.  You can see the two in these pictures:

We walked around the mall checking out the various shops and restaurants before deciding to head on and skip lunch.  We had had a pretty fulfilling breakfast anyway, so we pushed on to Fuji TV.  Along the way to Fuji TV we came across the large Gundam from the anime and mangas:

From our last trip we had to skip Fuji TV since we ran out of time as Odaiba is a bit out of the way when getting around Tokyo.  Fuji TV has a really cool observation deck, but again, due to the typhoon it was closed for inspection.  We got as close as we could to it however and decided if we get back for the ferris wheel, then we will check the observation deck out again too.  Here are three different views of Fuji TV, the sphere in the center is the observation deck:

Just beyond Fuji TV, we got a nice view of Tokyo Bay and the Statue of Liberty… and yes we are aware we did not need to travel to Japan to see the Statue of Liberty, nevertheless we did and here it is:

Just behind the statue then was a waterfront park that over looked this section of the bay:

We then turned back and headed all the way to the eastern side of Odaiba to the science museum, which happens to be the home of Asimo the robot created by Honda.  By the time we had walked all the way there the show to see Asimo started in only a few minutes and the museum line was quite long to get tickets.  Since we only really wanted to see Asimo and not spend too much time in the science museum we decided to not risk the line.  Again if we come back to Odaiba later in the trip we plan to see Asimo’s how and know to check his scheduled performances ahead of time.

Sengaku-ji:

Next we headed back to the Tokyo Teleport train station to travel to Sengaku-ji temple.  In the station we waited for our train about 5 times.  You may be wondering what that even means.  For some reason, unbeknownst to us since the loudspeaker messages were only in japanese and beyond our level of understanding, our train would appear and people would get off, but the station guards held everyone back, the train doors closed and then moved onward devoid of passengers.  This happened for 5 trains or so.  After 20 minutes, we were allowed on and we only had to get one station down the line, but it would’ve been a fair walk.  Once we got off at our next stop we walked down a small street about 1000 feet or so from the station exit and there was the entrance to the temple:

The temple is known as the burial place for Lord Asano Takumi-no-Kami Naganori, who was appointed by the shogunate around 1700 to entertain imperial envoys from Kyoto.  His advisor, Kira Kozukenosuke, had angered him offended his honor as a samurai so he drew his sword on his advisor, but did not kill him.  It was at the time illegal to do this and he was sentenced to death by seppuku (ritual suicide).  Asano’s retainers were angered by this and entered a petition to change the ruling but to no avail.  Asano committed seppuku.  To avenge their master, the retainers sought out Kira, beheaded him washed his head in while at the temple, which is there today, and placed the head before Asano’s grave.  The 47 retainers were then punished by seppuku and buried by Asano too:  Here is a picture of the graves:

And here’s another building within the temple grounds, although I don’t remember its purpose the large kanji characters above the door read, “Lion’s Roar” as stated by a nearby sign:

Zojo-ji:

When we left Sengaku-ji, we headed just a few stations north to Zojo-ji temple.  This was situated just near Tokyo Tower, which you can see in the background:

Inside the building above, was a very ornate buddhist chamber.  The room was very quiet, barring even the surrounding city noisescape, and leaving a sense of serenity.  We sat down in the chairs for a few moments and watched a monk tend to the alter where he meticulously made small adjustments to the ornaments and candles laid over it.  We then ventured back outside and found these statues, which were a symbol to aborted babies and miscarriages:

There were hundreds of these statues lining a walkway around the temple’s side.  When we had finish viewing the temple grounds we walked out the way we came in, re-entering the bustling Tokyo streets we made a quick left and followed a narrow road up to the base of Tokyo Tower.

Tokyo Tower:

We had visited Tokyo Tower our first time to Japan but really enjoyed it so much we went back, however this time we went all the way to the top observation deck.  We took an elevator to the main deck at 492 ft (150 m) then transferred to another elevator that would take us the very top which is at 820 ft (250 m).  We crammed into a small elevator with about 6-7 others.  The elevator went up the center of the tower but was windowed so we could see out and view the cityscape and the tower’s surrounding rebar.  The view is absolutely amazing and you could even feel the sway of the tower when you stood still.  We got there at the perfect time, just a bit before sunset and were able to stay for the sun to go down.  Here we are before the sunset at the top:

Here’s the view of the sun setting:

Here’s the view as the sun finally set and if you look at the horizon in the center you can see Mt. Fuji:

After a while, we headed back down to the main deck and looked around a bit more before heading to the ground level.  Once back at the bottom Sara wanted to try the famous Tokyo Banana which are little cake treats, similar to a twinkie with a banana filling.  We got some of those and a strawberry version too.  Here they are:

Finally we headed back to Shinjuku and grabbed dinner at a curry restaurant along the way.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) we head to Nikko.