Previously, I had a picture of the Tokyo Tower, taken from the Roppongi Mori building. Now it's the other way around.

Hello beautiful.

In the lobby, there is a scale diorama of the neighborhood from the Always Sunset on Third Street movie series. The lighting changed to show the diorama in different times of the day.

And naturally, old photographs of the tower building built.

Back outside, I took one more opportunity to get some dramatic/artsy shots before we all crammed into a taxi and headed for dinner.

Saying goodbye to the Tokyo Tower was like saying goodbye to an old friend I had just met.

Got up the next morning, and my friends announced that it was Road Trip Day. We were going to Mt. Fuji!

First, we just had to get out of Tokyo.

Unfortunately, it was a wee bit cloudy.

In fact, there's Mt. Fuji.

No, really. That's all we ever saw of it.

All was not lost, however, as we found this great little nature center.

And this lovely little restaurant...

..with fantastic ambiance.

We also found a Yamaha dealership, and one of the employees pointed us to an old motorcycle museum in the area. But those pictures will be posted on the "cars" thread.

Back in Adachi-ku, we had dinner at a little cook-your-own-damn-okonomiyaki diner.

There's a fair bit of waiting involved.

Meanwhile, the hostess brought me this tasty treat... whatever it was. After my third day in Japan, I stopped asking what things were and just ate. It was times like this I'm glad I did.

Although if the condition of my stomach the next morning was any indication, we probably should have cooked this a bit longer. That, or my digestive system just doesn't like squid.

Another new day, another new quest. This time, we were looking for the elusive Rabbit and Grow Fat )Ra.a.g.f.) bunny cafe in Harajuku.

Mind you, shops can be difficult to find in Harajuku.

But the wandering is part of the fun.

Finally, after a bit too much wandering, we found it!

But it was full, and we had to wait an hour before we could play with the bunnies.

Fortunately, Harajuku is full of pleasant distractions. Like a candy store where you can watch the candy being made.

It was full of eye candy too. The young woman in the orange shawl was incredibly, achingly, jaw-droppingly, bite-the-back-of-your-hand beautiful. I've got video.

Focused on the job...

From what I gathered, the two girls rolled the not-yet-hardened candy "bat", and stretched it out until it was jsut the right diameter, then the guy on the far end chopped it into bite-size bits. The fun part was the designs they put in the middle of the candy, only visible once it was chopped into those small pieces.

Back at Ra.a.g.f...

This is Mitsue. She was born 11/03/11, the day of the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami.

This little fellow is getting a brushing and pedicure from the owner. And the owner is, ahem, quite cute too. Did I ever mention that I love Japan?

This little fellow looked exactly like a bunny that I had years ago, and still dearly miss.

So of course I had to give him some love. Such a shy, sweet little guy.

In case you're wondering why I had to visit a bunny cafe... I've always had rabbits for pets. Going back to my youth. Two nights before leaving on this trip, my last bunny passed away. He was quite old and had some health problems, but was still hopping around and eating right up until his last couple of days. He went fast. So one morning I was burying my beloved pet, and the next morning I was on a flight to Tokyo. It was all quite hard on my old mother, as she was very attached to the bunny too.

So this was a very therapeutic visit for me. I was "grounded" once again, and knew I had a place of comfort to come to in Tokyo in case I missed home too much.

After leaving Ra.a.g.f., it was just a couple of turns and we found my other Harajuku destination: The Tintin store!

I'm not kidding, it was all I could do to keep myself from skipping all the way to the store the moment it came into view.

Suddenly, I felt like an eight-year-old kid again! I bought much stuff.

Then it was time to bid Harajuku farewell, as we had one more destination on our agenda that night...

Ginza!

My friend once again demonstrated her amazing ability to memorize where all the best restaurants in Tokyo are located. Somewhere along this strip, we enjoyed a great place to refuel with great food and beer.

And then we waddled back to a train station to make our way home, capping off another amazing day.

WhiteHawk wrote:

It was full of eye candy too. The young woman in the orange shawl was incredibly, achingly, jaw-droppingly, bite-the-back-of-your-hand beautiful. I've got video.

What was Yonekura Ryoko doing at that candy shop?

bmwracer wrote:

What was Yonekura Ryoko doing at that candy shop?

Looking absolutely fantastic, naturally.

WhiteHawk: After that, it was time to tour the Edo-Tokyo Museum.

Tourist shot!

The museum has many scale diorama of Edo life. This is actually one of the simpler ones. All were fascinating.[/quote]


WhiteHawk:

The Edo-Tokyo Museum should be on every tourist's must-see list in Tokyo. The museum is wonderfully laid out, and there are neat touches like the replica of the Nihonbashi bridge and the Edo-period stage. Having many of the explanatory placards of the exhibits written in English was very helpful. An added bonus for me was the fact that it was located near the Kokugikan, so I got a chance to see, albeit from across the street, the sumo arena.

WhiteHawk wrote:

Back in Adachi-ku, we had dinner at a little cook-your-own-damn-okonomiyaki diner. Although if the condition of my stomach the next morning was any indication, we probably should have cooked this a bit longer. That, or my digestive system just doesn't like squid.

In Hiroshima we had lunch in a building that was called Okonomiyaki Republic. It was full of okonomiyaki restaurants. We made our own okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style naturally, under the tutelage of an okonomiyaki chef. Basically we followed what he was doing, step by step. Turned out pretty tasty, no one got sick, and everyone had a lot of fun. We even got to take home the aprons we wore while making our lunch. On the front of the apron, in Japanese, was written "Hiroshima okonomiyaki."

WhiteHawk wrote:

[ How many episodes of Taiho Shichauzo (You're Under Arrest) were set around the Tokyo Tower or the Rainbow Bridge? I never counted, but it was a bunch.

I think the most notable dorama (certainly the most popular) with Rainbow Bridge as a backdrop was Odoru Daisousasen. In fact, in one of the OD movies, it played an important role in the climax of the plot.

shin2 wrote:

WhiteHawk: The Edo-Tokyo Museum should be on every tourist's must-see list in Tokyo. The museum is wonderfully laid out, and there are neat touches like the replica of the Nihonbashi bridge and the Edo-period stage. Having many of the explanatory placards of the exhibits written in English was very helpful. An added bonus for me was the fact that it was located near the Kokugikan, so I got a chance to see, albeit from across the street, the sumo arena.

Yes, I highly recommend the Edo-Tokyo Museum too. Especially for first-time visitors to Japan. But even expats who have lived in Japan for years could learn a lot there.

I hope to see sumo in Japan one day. It doesn't have to be at the Kokugikan, but that would be nice. I recognized it from an episode of Top Gear as well.

shin2 wrote:

In Hiroshima we had lunch in a building that was called Okonomiyaki Republic. It was full of okonomiyaki restaurants. We made our own okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style naturally, under the tutelage of an okonomiyaki chef. Basically we followed what he was doing, step by step. Turned out pretty tasty, no one got sick, and everyone had a lot of fun. We even got to take home the aprons we wore while making our lunch. On the front of the apron, in Japanese, was written "Hiroshima okonomiyaki."

That sounds awesome!

shin2 wrote:

I think the most notable dorama (certainly the most popular) with Rainbow Bridge as a backdrop was Odoru Daisousasen. In fact, in one of the OD movies, it played an important role in the climax of the plot.

I started to watch that series. Got distracted by another series and never made it past the first couple of episodes. Perhaps I'll have to go back and watch it. Oh, and when I was talking about Taiho Shichauzo earlier, I was referencing the anime. It's one of the very few anime I've ever watched.