Let's Explore Tokyo!

Side Hall at the temple we were at

Surprisingly, it was our first day in Tokyo and our trip to Daiba that was the nerdiest trip we had and not the one to Akihabara. But before we got there we decided to head to Tokyo Tower, even though it was quite cold and rainy. We let one of our friends lead the way and she took us by an old Tokugawa Buddhist temple that had been converted from a Shinto shrine (like so many were during the Tokugawa reign). You might be wondering how I know, and there were actually a few hints to let you know. If you wash your hands before you enter the temple, it was most likely a shrine before hand. I knew the date of the temple and who built it by the crest on the very top entrance. I did not take a clear picture, but fairly often you can find a crest along one of the posts or above the entrance, which will let you know what family sponsored it.

Main Hall and Tokyo Tower

The main hall was huge, but when most knew we were exactly where we needed to be by the looming modern buildings behind it. And by modern buildings I mostly mean Tokyo Tower. We didn't stay too long at the temple mostly because there was a ceremony going on and we didn't want to be too much of a bother to those who were participating in it (I seriously walk into almost every ceremony in Japan, it's strange). So we headed off to Tokyo Tower fairly quickly. It isn't too far of a walk from where we were at, and because of the rain the streets weren't terribly crowded either. Unfortunately, because of the weather, we also could not see much from the observation deck either (on a clear day you can see Mt Fuji). It was really weird seeing almost everything under fog, especially in Tokyo. All of the larger skyscrapers, even from the second first observation deck, were pretty small. Riding the elevators up are an adventure as well, because they add in a light show and a Disney-esque announcer. As interesting as an experience as that was, our real aim that day was to make it to the life-size Gundam model, and though it took us awhile, we were able to find it. But first we had to have some childhood memories brought up.

Hey Digimon Hey Digimon!

Daiba: one of the key locations for Digimon throughout its seasons. Me and another friend are big fans of it, so we had a ball pointing out all the different locations. Actually it was kind of scary, being able to find so many of them. But that had largely to do with the skill of the animation team to reproduce the island so faithfully. Even with modernization and the new monorail, the locations were still really obvious. It was probably pretty amusing for the other fairly regular residents and even the tourists there for the Gundam and voice actress group, to see us running around so excited to see all the different sites.

Based on the original Gundam.

The island, as tiny as it was, made it surprisingly difficult to find the giant robot that we wanted. You would think that it would be pretty easy to find, all things considered, but it wasn't until we did some further on the fly google searching and navigating that we were able to get there. When you get there...its really obvious. Even more so considering its in the middle of a major shopping area. It was even more exciting than usual to be there as they were holding their Christmas extravaganza show. We waited until about six o'clock for it to start, and it was worth it getting to see the Gundam move, the Christmas edition of the video and feeling everyone get just as excited as I was about it.

Regardless if you follow the series or not, much like Evangelion, is really popular in Japan and almost everyone knows it to some extent. At the very least, they're able to recognize it and how awesome having a semi-working giant robot is. Because it was getting late and we were getting tired, we headed back not too long after seeing the show. Next time will be day three of our trip when we went to Akihabara and (briefly) Harajuku.

~Zenko~