Tokyo is a major port stop. Over 250 guests are leaving and new ones arriving; in addition, many crew are also swapping out. On top of that we are still in the middle of Japan spring break, so there are not many tours being offered. The 9-hour (five of it on the bus) tour to Mt. Fuji and the very short 3-hour “Views of Tokyo” – you only drive-by stuff rather than exploring it. The Mt. Fuji tour was changed ad-hoc due to last week’s snow storms and I didn’t want to spend five hours on a bus, so short tour it is.
During a 90-minute roaring bus sprint, we drove by:
- The Imperial Palace (which I visited in 2019 – at least today it was not raining)
- The Tokyo Train Station, which has a cool brick exterior
- The Tokyo Kabuki Theater
- The Japanese Diet (parliament building)
- The Tokyo State House (aka Akasaka Palace), which houses visiting heads of state
- Roppongi, which is an upper-class night-life district; which we drove thru on a Sunday morning
- Tokyo Tower
All but Tokyo Tower we drove by, so my pictures are trash. Look at the wiki links to see better photos. However, we stopped to visit the Tower, which I did not get to do in 2019.
Our guide told us that while the Tower is about the same size as the Eiffel Tower (which it is obviously inspired by), it weighs less than half as much. There’s 100 years of engineering advances for you. We took the elevator to the main deck, which is 150 meters above the ground.
They even had windows on the floor for the brave to stand over.
Culture thing: on the observation deck there is a shrine, which was added for the twentieth anniversary of the tower and refurbished for the fiftieth. You can buy “lucky charms” at the near-by shop to donate to the shrine, and next to it was a rack to leave wishes (like at the temple in Osaka I visited in 2019). Maybe it’s just me, but I find the idea of a shrine to help keep the tower safe a bit… unsettling.
Of course, you go thru many shops before getting back to the bus. Which is a culture-shock adventure of its own.
Tokyo Banana essentially sells Twinkies with banana custard filling.
Here, Hello Kitty and Micky & Minnie Mouse are selling seaweed snacks.
For more examples of the Cult of Cute, they are selling a plush tower key chain. The giant, striped cat-tower is sold out…
And who doesn’t need Japanese-art-themed socks?
Finally, it seems Tokyo Tower is supporting a Tower-themed anime. There were stamp-stations all around the tower where you can fill up your form to get something free at the main location at the shops. Naturally, the anime includes a bunch of cute anime waifus.
Tidbit: Japan has over 95,000 centenarians, aka over 100 years old. Women are 88% of the total.