Tokyo (Day 3)
When you think Tokyo, you think video games. We're off to the "Electrical District" of Akihabara to see how seriously the Japanese take their gaming. A short metro ride (and a detour past a Subway Restaraunt for a vegetable top-up) and we are there.
The first thing that hits you is the number of tall buildings that are head to toe filled with arcade machines. It's funny to see grown men in business suits settlting in for a bit of Monday morning amusements. They seem to all really like these capsule machines as well, which dispense various toys and collectables.
OK, judgment hat off - it's time to dress up like Bowser and Yoshi and play some MARIO KART!
We also play some interactive Japanese drum beating game and the Walking Dead before deciding to head to the next district on our list - Odaiba, which is on the water.
The train ride itself was pretty cool since it was the first time we could get some perspective on this city. The US vibes are back. Now Tokyo looks like Manhattan from over the water, and we cross on a bridge that looks like the Brooklyn Bridge.
We get to Odaiba and wander around and admire the view across the water.
This whole area feels pretty new and done up well - apparently its an artificial island, so that makes sense of the feeling around here. The shopping centre is massive and full of high-end stores. It's home to Japan's (and probably the world's) biggest Robot statue, Gundam (the robot in Ready Player One). They did an amazing job on this. It's huge but has incredible attention to detail. It feels like something you could get in and operate, for sure.
We heard that this is the area for good sushi - being close to the water, I guess this makes sense. We walk for about 30 mins to a place that has a few options near the Tsukiji fish market. We get there and nothing is open. Its about 7 or 8pm and the place is deserted. I guess this makes sense, people eat while the market is open and the market aint open. The walk offered some pretty cool views at dusk though.
Ok, new plan, let's aim for the nearby Ginza district. Its a busy strip so we should be able to find something. We wander around and check out a few places. We go through the familiar "Sorry, Reserved" (despite there being plenty of free tables). The guy did offer us a tip on where to go though, so that was helpful.
Around the corner we find a Nigiri Sushi place and order a massive plate of fresh raw fish sushi and a couple of beers. We have been hanging for this. It was a bit pricey, but that was because some of the dishes were "extra fatty tuna" and were melt in the mouth good. So far we don't think Aussie Japanese food is too far behind. But its still early doors, as they say.
We decide to get some snacks and head for the hotel room to put the feet up and soak in some BBC News (the only English channel on the TV).