After we’d taken a bit of a breather (neither of us were still 100%, and not used to walking, which wouldn’t really be an issue ’til tomorrow) we headed out down the main drag, Koshu Kaido, the other direction, towards the glass towers of Nishi (west) Shinjuku.
And again, we were in yet another world from where we were this morning. The chaos and visual assault from earlier was replaced by a fairly serene and non-busy landscape of skyscrapers, statues, random installations of modern art and thoughfully constructed lightposts and the like.
Our primary target was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, aka the TMG Building, and the observatory on the 45th floor therein. The building itself is a towering behemoth, installed on a rock wall base meant to remind you of the castle and fortress foundations of old Japan.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
Inside, we located the elevator, and after the guard had a brief look in our bags, let us on the express elevator to the top. That’s a feeling I’ve only experienced a few times, once in the Sears Tower, and once coming up from Carlsbad Caverns… the acceleration and ear-popping of the express elevator.
The observatory itself was fairly quiet, a small restaurant occupied one corner, while two others held areas where you could buy souvenirs of Japan.
The view, wow. Tokyo. does. not. end. As far as the eye could see was nothing but city, in all directions. You could see Yoyogi Park, Shinjuku Gyoen, our 14 story hotel was visible, shrunk down to size.
After we shot numerous photos and video from the various windows it was time to go. No problemo. We left and chose a more northerly route, past more skyscrapers, including the famous Animation College building.
On the way back we wandered into the “Electric Town” area, which is directly west of the station, just north of Koshu Kaido. Beckoning us was the immense and chaotic Yodobashi Camera. We needed to get some batteries for the cameras (already!) and while we were there, I figured I’d look for a Japanese keyboard. Finding the batteries was the easy part. Finding the keyboard, not so much.
Yodobashi is (about) six floors, packed floor to ceiling with about every kind of electronic item you can imagine. An entire floor was TVs, another Apple products, yet another was PC parts. We wandered around aimlessly until finally we found the keyboards, and I picked up a smallish one for about ¥1500.
Yodobashi Camera
Leaving Yodobashi we poked around for someplace to eat dinner. Most every place that seemed appetizing was packed to the gills. One of the great things about Japan is that the restaurants for the most part have either a menu displayed out front, or a window with the famed plastic replicas of their dishes.
We came across one that looked good, and decided that we’d come back there after we dropped our stuff off at the hotel….
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