Tokyo sightseeing - 2.05.22

 Well, after more than a month in quarantine we are finally free to leave the base and explore Japan again!

 This weekend we decided to take the train to Tokyo. We had a few things on the list (see below) and we made it to all of them. By the time we arrived back on base my FitBit showed we had walked over 26,000 steps!

Our first stop was to find Andersen's Bakery. I discovered this bakery while we were in Hiroshima over Thanksgiving. I LOVE it so much! I researched and found the closest one to Camp Zama is in Isetan Department Store near the Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. I should have taken a picture of the place and of the delicious assortment of baked goods but  I was too wrapped up in finding it - next time. And there will be a next time!

After finding the bakery (and waiting in a long line for 30 minutes for it to open) our next stop was the Tokyo Skytree. A few months ago we visited the Tokyo Tower, but I liked the Skytree even more. Its in a different part of town and the view seems even more expansive than the Tokyo Tower - we could see the Tokyo Tower from the Skytree!

The day was clear and we could see quite a ways in all directions. Tokyo is incredibly vast! You can zoom in on the pictures of the city and see so many buildings - I can't even begin to comprehend the density that is Tokyo!

As you zoom in on this one, look out in the Bay and you will see Umihotaru, the man-made island/rest stop we visited in early December. There is a tunnel under the Bay that gets you to the rest stop and then a bridge goes from the rest stop the remainder of the way to Chiba.

This picture shows Tokyo Disneyland. You can see a Mountain (is it Space Mountain or Big Thunder??  - I don't know because we haven't been yet) But that's it right along the coastline.

After the Skytree, we took the train to Tokyo Station. When we were at Tobu World Square in Nikko I saw the miniatures of Tokyo Station and Diet Building but I really wanted to see them in real life. It was a Saturday and not crowded at all. Tokyo Station was designed and built in the early 1900s and its such as great looking building. It represents the change in Japanese architecture to a more western style. I love the look of it, but also the contrast with the much larger modern buildings in the background. 

We took pictures of the Diet Building from the crosswalk that goes across the road in front of it. There were police/guards everywhere around the building - and Japan is such a peaceful place!

Next we walked around the Imperial ground and then we hoped on 2 subways, and 3 different train lines to get to Odaiba where we had tickets to Teamlab Borderless Digital Art Museum. It was so weird - in an interesting way. It's super hard to describe but you walk around (no path or "course") and enter different rooms and interact with the art displays. 

If you don't pay close attention to where you have been you will miss rooms. We were there for almost 3 hours and it was closing time. Just as we were about to leave we found 2 more rooms that we had not yet found. 

If you stand in one place flowers begin to "grow" around you. Once you move, the petals fall off they blow away.

As you stand by a lantern it lights up and sets off reaction where other lights around it also turn on.

Strands of lighted crystal hang all around you and the floor is mirrored. People can use there phones to effect the light patterns of the crystals. Sometimes it looks like rain, and other times it looks like you're moving at warp speed. Hard to describe.....

The flow of light looks like water and it will move around you if you stand still. You can see the effect better in the pictures of Kimball.

Lasers coming from all directions. I think you were supposed to touch where they intersected, but we couldn't figure out how to effect this one.

Walking through giant balloons that constantly changed colors.

Obstacle course, trying to stay on the steps, but they swing as you move across them.

This was my favorite thing - there are fish and sea creatures swimming on the walls all around the room. The fish are drawn by people, then scanned into a computer and then they swim around. I drew a rainbow fish.

These are like giant mushrooms and they will bend and move as you walk through them. This was one of the places we found as we were just about to leave the museum.