Today was a big day. A huge day.
We started in the morning by travelling to main Tokyo railway station (which I suppose is in the centre of Tokyo) and travelling by foot to the Imperial Palace – unlike the other Castle-type places we have been, people actually still live inside this palace so we weren’t allowed inside, but we were lucky enough to be able to stroll through the gardens. These gardens were huge, but only half of them seem to be beautifully maintained, with the other portions overgrown and strewn with fallen maple leaves.. we did find it interesting that they only looked after some parts. Anyway, a photo album of the Imperial Palace Gardens 
Whilst we were here, a bird did shit on a security guard. We both found this amusing. Jesse was brave enough to zoom in and take a snap.
We left and moved to Asakusa. This was explained to be the ‘old style’ Tokyo. I dunno, I guess it was okay, another street lined with shops on either side.. seen that before.. another tall temple, nearby a shorter temple, nearby a hall, with people praying and giving money.. seen that before.. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Before we left though some university students approached us and asked if they could film us, whilst we chose fashion items that we thought looked nice from a card they showed us. We were happy to participate.
Jesse and I saw this family and decided that not all Japanese people are aware of the side-effects of eating from the western restaurant chain ‘McDonald’s’ for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day.
As we were leaving this area, we were approached by a Chinese lady offering 15 minute massages for only 1,000 Yen – we decided this was a good price and decided to go in. The Chinese lady took us a block away from the crowd and up two floors to her ‘clinic’. Jesse got a guy, and I got the Chinese lady. They informed us they were both ‘doctors’. 
The lady actually got up on the massage table and started walking on me, and my back, and my butt, and my legs, and my feet.. (sorta like in the Simpsons episode where the little asian lady starts sinking into Homer’s back!).. it was interesting, enjoyable, but Jesse and I both admitted afterwards that we had problems truly relaxing for fear of being robbed or ripped off in some way.
We weren’t robbed, nor ripped off, only pressured to stay for a 30 minute massage each.
Ueno Park was next – a huge park next to a major train station, famous for its Museums and its Zoo. As we don’t have much of an interest in Museums, we headed for the zoo. However, Jesse didn’t quite fit..
On the way to the Zoo we found a ‘swan-cycle’ lake.. what were we to do, merely walk past and not ride around like idiots? I think not!
And of course, a video to complement..
We found the Zoo! And I saw my first real-life Giraffe, Zebra, Hippopotamus, Rhinoceros, Elephant and Lion!
It was getting late and we still had too much to do, we cancelled one of our planned activities (another street mall thing, known to once have been the place of the black market during World War 2), and transported ourselves toward Odaiba.
Odaiba is like.. an island in the bay, with a small amusement park for adults kinda, and some incredibly huge and sparkling shopping centres. It was truly awesome, we got there by going on the ‘Yukikamone’ which is a conductor-less, driver-less train that goes over the Rainbow Bridge. Yep, there was no driver.. I couldn’t get my head around it. How did it know when to break, when to speed up, etc. Insane.
Here I am at the front of the train (no driver) – we walked to the back by mistake thinking it was the front, and there was no driver there either!
In Palette Town, an ‘entertainment area’ in Odaiba, there was a Toyota showroom type thing, and an old car Museum.. anyway we looked at some of the cars and then decided to ride the E-Com (I think that’s what it’s called) which is an electric car that drives itself – no way Jose! Well we hopped in and pushed the start button, and the bloody thing fully started driving itself, steering wheel and all.. we saw the little sensor thingys in the middle of the road about a foot apart the whole way along, but it knew when to speed up and brake and yeah.
And now, some photos from sights and places in and around Odaiba!
By this time of course we were both completely tired and exhausted.. we aren’t used to walking so much, all day, constantly, but this was our last chance to visit Tokyo Tower – so we did. Tokyo Tower is Japan’s Eiffel Tower, and they tried to make it look a lot like it too. I think its even a bit taller! There is an intermediate observatory, as well as a ‘first class’ observatory which goes all the way to the top. We went to the top!
We are now home and very tired, need a good rest for Tokyo Disneyland tomorrow!
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