After a good ten minutes of pretending to know how to read the signs at the bus stop in Shinenome, we boarded a nice bus bound for Odaiba. From there, Hector and I were to go down to the pier and catch us a boat that would take us from Odaiba, to Toyosu, and finally to Asakusa. But Hector needed to get his breakfast fix, so we took a short detour to the world-recognized Japanese staple, McDonald's. They had your typical Japanese cuisine: sausage and egg biscuits, pancakes, etc. But can you get a double-sausage and cheese egg McMuffin with bacon in the States? Bet you can't. Try it. The point of the whole story is that I broke one of my lenses. While removing my dual-camera sling that totally didn't make me look like a tourist, the velcro came loose and sent one of my Nikons and my 8mm Rokinon gracefully base jumping to the McDonald's floor without a parachute. The Nikon survived. The Rokinon did not. Woe is me, right?
After crying on the inside, we gathered our junk and headed out to the dock to catch our boat. Since I chose not to eat, I made a pit stop at one of the many vending machines that line the streets of Tokyo and purchased myself a beverage. What beverage did I purchase, you ask? Only the most radical burst of flavor and texture that has ever graced this peasant's mouth. I'm talking, of course, about Minute Maid Aloe and White Grape. You can purchase a 24-pack of this drink on Amazon for about $32.00 and an insignificant shipping charge of $151.00. Do it.
Onto the boat. Thanks to Hector's insatiable McDonald's lust, we missed the first boat by only a few minutes and needed to wait at least an hour until the next arrived. In the meantime, we took some pictures of "Himiko" - one of the famously bulbous-looking floaty boats. It was definitely a sight to behold. Unfortunately, we did not get to ride it. That didn't detract from the nice experience we had riding the less-interesting-looking shuttles to Toyosu and Asakusa.
Once we arrived in Asakusa, we needed to cross to the other side of the river to reach Tokyo Skytree. This short trip was rife with irritation stemming from my dropped Rokinon. It was during this walk that I discovered that the internal components must have misaligned, resulting in less than perfect image quality. Not long after that shocking revelation, as the camera hung freely from my shoulder, the chipped lens hood caught my wrist and left me with a small cut. If you know me, you know that I can't handle my own blood. If that stuff is on the outside, I will destroy a small village for the resources to put it back inside. So you can imagine how fun that was.
But we eventually reached the Skytree. The wait in line for the elevators to the first deck was about 45 minutes to an hour. Luckily for us - being foreigners with cash money - there was a counter to the side that offered a jump to the front of the line for about 2,000 yen (about $16.13 USD). We took advantage of that. Perhaps our expectations were too high. Or it could be that we were discouraged by the intense number of people. It wasn't the great experience we expected it to be. The view was definitely spectacular, but the crowd and the noise were enormous distractions. Would I go again? Probably not. Do I suggest you go? Why do you always have to copy me and everything I do? Gosh be original for once in your life. Just kidding. You should go. The awesome view slightly outweighs the negatives.
We descended back down the elevator to mingle among the poor on the dirty ground (the ground is actually very clean so don't send me hate mail). At this point, we were a bit hungry, so we caught a bite to eat at a restaurant inside the mall at the base of the Skytree. The food was good and Hector got a chance to chat it up with a pair of tourists from Mexico and Chile. As if I needed another language barrier. When we finished eating, we explored the rest of the mall and found some very neat little shops and souvenier stores. We both grabbed a thing or two and dipped out.
From there, we concluded that we had not confused ourselves nearly enough for the day and decided to take the train back across Sumida river to Asakusa to check out Senso-ji temple.
QUICK TIP: If you plan to visit Tokyo for more than a couple days, get yourself a Suica card. It's a reloadable card which you can use to quickly and easily board busses and trains around the city. They can also be used on some vending machines. You can reload them in just about every train or subway station, and it gives you one less thing to worry about during your trip.
We used the train and got back across to Asakusa. We arrived at Senso-ji as the sun was setting, so it didn't seem to be incredibly busy. The architecture is beautiful and makes any hardships we went through during the day worthwhile. Just south of the temple is Nakamise Street where small shops and venders sell all types of snacks and trinkets. Seeing as how the sun had set by the time we got there, many of the shops were either closed or in the process of closing. Nevertheless, it was great to see. Ten out of ten. Would see again.
Finally, to round out our transportation adventure and save our feet from detaching themselves from our bodies and running way on their own, we took a taxi to get home. This process was also quick and painless. Kind of like the ending to this blog post. Who saw that coming? Did you? I did. Because I wrote it. Stay tuned for more!
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