Adventures of David and Paul: Roller Coaster

The final stop on our Asian city vacation was Tokyo. We've both been here before, but since we had to connect here anyway we set up our flights to spend a few days in this Japanese mega-city. The flight from Kuala Lumpur is long (about 6 hours) so we didn't arrive until early evening. Landing in Narita, it was quite confusing trying to get the express train into the city. The airport station was very crowded, with lines of tourists waiting in various queues for the different train systems. We eventually got in the right line, and got tickets for the Narita Express. After transferring to local rail (which was also a bit confusing), we had a short walk to our hotel.

We stayed at the BnA Studio Akihabara, which was a really cool small hotel where each room was designed by a different artist. Our room, the "Hailer" room, was really large and even had a little kitchenette. It was themed to Raijin and Fujin, the gods of thunder and wind, and had a really cool dark atmosphere. It was already evening, so we took a walk around our neighborhood to find dinner. We found a little hole in the wall restaurant (they're all over Tokyo) and shared a bento box and some tempura. After dinner we walked around Akihabara for a while and visited some stores, including Don Quixote with its catchy song. Many of the stores were closing at 10pm, so we called it a night and went back to the hotel.

I mean...come on Japan...with the Pokémon right off the plane?!

Art above our bed.

Nice first dinner in Tokyo.

Akihabara is... a bit much. 😂

David is either happy or terrified. Or both.

Our first goal on Thursday morning (Feb 29! Bonus day!) was to get Paul a transit card. Tokyo has a complex web of train systems, but luckily there are transit cards ("Pasmo" and "Suica") that work on most of the systems. David was all set because with iPhones you can pay by phone - but Paul has an Android, and this feature isn't available for non-Japanese phones. To make things more difficult, Japan is currently experiencing a microchip shortage, so you can't buy transit cards at any of the machines in the stations. We did some googling and found there were a few locations where foreign tourists can buy Pasmo cards, and luckily one was in a train station a 15 minute walk from our hotel. We walked there and found the office, but they required a passport to buy the card. So we walked 15 minutes back to the hotel to get Paul's passport, then 15 minutes back to the station. The worker escorted us to a back office where it took just a few seconds to buy the transit card. Everything in Japan this trip was just a bit harder than similar experiences in Seoul, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (from restaurants, to transit passes and just getting around in general).

With that all set, we had a quick 7-11 breakfast of iced coffee and a maple pancake, then took the train to the Odaiba neighborhood. This is kind of a tourist attraction neighborhood on reclaimed land, and has some unique attractions. We were there for Joypolis, an indoor video game theme park. Paul visited way back in 2007 and rode the Spin Bullet coaster, but that was removed and replaced in 2012 with the Gekion Live Coaster. We arrived right at opening, and Paul got in line for the coaster. Due to low capacity and slow operations, it was still about a 20 minute wait. The coaster was bizarre - in fact, probably the weirdest roller coaster Paul has ever ridden. It's a spinning, launched coaster with an upside-down barrel roll and a lengthy rhythm game section where you follow moving screens and use buttons on your restraints to play along to the music. On top of that, it's currently themed to both Sonic the Hedgehog and the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's a unique and fun ride.

Leaving Joypolis we walked through the attached mall, and went to the "takoyaki museum" and had takoyaki with spicy sauce. Overall, this iteration of the Takoyaki Museum was not as good as the one we visited in Osaka in 2011. We jumped back on the train and went a few stops to our next stop, teamLab Planets (yes, that's the capitalization scheme they use).

Waiting for the roller coaster.

There was nothing educational about this "museum" it was just takoyaki venders.

View of Tokyo from the mall in Odaiba.

Takoyaki time!

The train in Odaiba is technically a bus in a concrete guideway.

TeamLab Planet is best described as an interactive art exhibit. It's a series of large rooms, each with a unique immersive exhibit. It had rave reviews and had to be booked ahead of time, so we decided to check it out. Paul was worried it might just be pretty sets where people take pics for social media, but it was actually a really cool experience. When you enter, you have to take off your shows, and you go through the entire exhibit barefoot (kinda eww, but also the first exhibit essentially washes your feet so that's helpful).

Our favorite part was a huge room with calf-deep warm (stick with us), white (hang in here), water with projected fish swimming around. There was also a room with thousands of orchids hanging from the ceiling that slowly moved around. It may sound odd, but it's definitely worth a visit.

This is where they secretly wash your feet at the beginning of the experience. They provide towels at the top.

There were a lot of dark corridors between exhibits.

A giant pillow room. Also, a blurry Paul.

This area was like a maze of crystal lights and mirrors.

Here we are!

The fish room was spectacular.

We stayed in the fish room for probably half an hour.

David catching a digital fish, which then turns into flower petals.

The multi-color ball room.

They changed color every few seconds.

He's like those ipod commercials from the 00's!

David holding up the balls.

This room had a huge domed ceiling with flower projections.

Looking at the ceiling. This was super trippy and very cool.

Alien eggs?

Paul definitely not about to be attacked by a facehugger.

The orchid room. The only part of the entire teamLab Planet experience that your time was limited.

Paul among the orchids.

After leaving TeamLabs, we took the train and had a late lunch at Fukki ramen near Daimon station. It was simple but delicious. Paul thought the ramen was one of the best meals of the trip, and the gyoza were great too. Like many small restaurants in Japan, you order at a machine before sitting down and there were only about a dozen seats total. We added an egg to our ramen, not knowing it already came with one. Double egg ramen!

Yummy gyoza with the crunchy skin.

Ramen time!

Small cozy restaurant.

After lunch we walked to the nearby Zojo-ji temple. This is a large temple right in the heart of Tokyo, near the Tokyo Tower. We had some nice views despite the overcast weather, and then checked out a couple of early blooming cherry trees in the adjacent Shiba park.

Gates leading up to the temple area.

The main temple gates.

The temple with the Tokyo Tower and the Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower, which is the tallest skyscraper in Japan.

Inside the temple, where the monks were running around.

Little red hats to ward off bad spirits for children.

Blossoms and roofs.

Yay, cherry blossoms!

Next, in the day that apparently never ends, we took the train to Shinjuku, on the west side of the city. The areas around Shunjuku and Shibuya have a much more modern and contemporary feel than the eastern side of the city, with glassy skyscrapers and vibrant public spaces. Despite making sevearl trips to Tokyo, we've never spent too much time in this neighborhood. Exiting the train we were in a large sunken plaza between office buildings that had a clean and cool vibe. Our goal here was to go shopping at Café Artnia, a Square-Enix themed store and café in an egg-shaped structure. After David picked up some cool souvenirs, we walked around Shinjuku for a while, stopping by the Hanazono shrine. We went through Omoide Yokocho street, a cute alleyway bar street that is crowded but atmospheric. Generally the Shinjuku area is vibrant and bright, and is what westerners often think of as "modern Tokyo." We next walked over to a craft beer bar called the Watering Hole, where we relaxed for a bit and waited out some light rain.

Davis with his goodies.

A nice little pedestrian walkway.

Why is there a bucee's sticker in Tokyo!? 😅

This area had lots of bars, including one called "troll II."

Hanazono shrine.

A row of torii gates.

Who doesn't love a good torii shot?

A fox at the shrine, typical at shinto shrines.

A cool pathway leading from the shrine.

Giant crab? Why not!

Godzilla poking above the buildings!

People drinking at a bar in Omoide Yokocho.

Omoide Yokocho street is super cute! So Japanese.

Craft beer time!

DRINK BEER DRUNK BEAR

They had a sign from Terrapin, one of our local breweries in Georgia!

After having a drink, it was already dark so we took the train back to our hotel area, then went out for some shopping and dinner. We started at the Square Enix Cafe to get some souvenirs, and continued on to the Yodobashi Akiba store, which is a huge department store with seven floors. One floor had tons of video games, hobbies, and toys.

After shopping we has a small dinner at 9:30PM at Nakau, which is a chain place with simple food. We stopped for some dessert taiyaki (pastry shaped like a fish filled with custard or red bean) to go from a corner window shop. Heading back to our hotel we noted this was the biggest walking day of the trip so far - David had 29,700 steps (13 miles). All in all, not a bad way to spend a leap day.