So after Matt being here for 3 days - and we had kept him busy non stop... the 4th day had to kind of be a rest day didn't it! We all slept in 'til late morning, then got up and ready to head to Sunshine City for the sunset! This was one of the most important things that I wanted Matt to see!!!!! So I was kinda nervous hoping that he would think it was as amazing as I did!
The lift up to the observation tower is really a spectacle in itself... it goes from the basement to the 60th floor in only 35 seconds, after being greeted and waved off by the friendly staff, the lift is lit with UV lights, with shadows of unicorns flying around them coupled with that, there is a little dial at the top of the lift which tells you how fast you are going - reaching over 600meters per min!!!! We hadn't told Matt about the lift, I just asked Fran to take photos of his face... pretty good reaction I think!!!!
It wasn't as clear as I had hoped it would be (but some things are hard to live up to PERFECT expectations - I really am silly sometimes!!!) but we could see plenty!
We are looking out over Tokyo across all the way to Hakone. We couldn't see Mt. Fuji yet because the sun was completely blinding!
Chilling, watching the sunset behind Mt Fuji from the best seat in the house!
Fran with a sword and crazy Anime orange hair!
We went up on the roof floor... the world looks so small from the 61st floor!!!!!
Back down in the lift! Sunshine City is a huge restaurant, cafe and shopping complex and it has lots to do. There is a planetarium and an aquarium and some other stuff. We wanted to see the aquarium but unfortunately they are building a brand new huge one at the moment, so they only had a small selection of animals... still we spent about an hour there!!!!
These crabs were huge!!! We were all quite amazed by their size!!! But to be honest, I was a little shocked at how small their enclosure was... but... suppose they are getting a huge new home built for them... hopefully, not too much longer in that tiny space guys!!!
When we got to the back of the aquarium there was a counter with a few staff stood behind and there were cages with a tortoise, a small snake and a bearded dragon in. Also there were tanks with different fish swimming around... and you could touch them all! At first I was really reluctant to touch any of them... then I have no idea what changed but I just decided right I'm gunna do it, and before I knew it I was holding the snake! (I am really getting into pushing myself to do things I don't necessarily want to do... the feeling of success, the confidence and pride after the event is overwhelming!!)
I picked up the Snake, the Bearded Dragon (above) stroked the Tortoise, touched a Jelly Fish and a load of weird fish or bug like sea creatures! Then Matt joined in!!!!
We also tried out putted our fingers in the tank with the tiny little fish that are being used in spa treatments all over the world - their nickname is Doctor Fish as they are also being used to treat patients with skin disorders! They nibble away any dead skin you have... it was a very weird feeling!!!
The story of the day goes to Fran though! There were 3 tanks next to each other and they all had electric eels in, I said I was thinking of touching it because the lady told us it was safe! Fran said if you do it I'll do it, and put his hand in! We didn't even have time to take a photo... he jumped back after screaming a little ... and was like... yup that's an electric shock... haha! Needless to say I didn't put my hand in the tank! haha!
After that we got on the train and headed back and went to a BBQ restaurant near our apartment! It's like the official restaurant of Urawa Red Football Team and I'd wanted to go in there since we moved here!!! It was sooooooooooo delicious! We'll be going back there for sure!!!!
As it was a Sunday we wanted to take Matt to see Harajuku in hope that there would be lots of young people dressed in crazy outfits!
We saw lots of people dressed very extravagantly (like the people above), but because they were walking around I didn't manage to get any good shots of them! We went for a walk down Takeshita-Dori, which is the main shopping street for young fashion in Tokyo. Also we saw a shop that was selling clothes for your dogs and cats... no matter how many dogs I see wearing clothes and being pushed around in pushchairs... it's still just as strange!! Matt was amazed at the people who stood outside their shops, either shouting as loud as they could or shouting through a megaphone to get you to go inside! Me and Fran are just used to that now!
We went into a building called the Design Studio, where there was lots of technology that you could try for free, such as phones and computers and stuff! There was a booth that had face recognition technology and from taking a picture of your face it would tell you your ideal profession... p'ha! I don't think so! haha!
The results were as follows;
Matt
Wine Selector
Celebrity / TV Personality
Web Designer
Vicki
Fashion Adviser
Beautician
Waitress
Fran
Bar Tender
Wine Selector
Web Designer
Needless to say Matt and Fran weren't thrilled about there top 3 choices, especially as there was a MUSICIAN and me and Fran getting Bar Tender and waitress didn't exactly go down well after leaving that all behind in England! hehe! Anyway, we soon got over it :-D
Matt was flagging a bit by this time, so we headed to Yoyogi park to chill and eat some Turkey sandwiches! We stopped at the front of Yoyogi Park to watch the Rockers Rock out to some 50s music! I love them to be honest and Matt had never really seen anything like it!
Matt confidently did some jiving for a few seconds! HEHE!!!
Well I had to get a photo of these cuties didn't I, their owner was sat to the left of them chain smoking whilst tourist and anyone with a camera or camera phone took photos of them! hehe - adorable!
He's got the Rock N Roll thing down to a tea, hasn't he... that leopard print floor length fur coat on the chair was his too!
Matt went for some free hugs...after all you never know when you'll get your next free hug ... ha!
We headed to Shibuya for some shopping and mooching around... Matt was completely blown away by the crossing!
Oh yeah - and we finally found the Pink Cow!!!! It's a bar about 10 mins away from Shibuya station. Me and Fran have tried to find it a couple of times (granted - we didn't have a map!) and we finally found it with Matt! It was a totally cool, chilled out, relaxing bar and whilst we were there, there was a jazz band sound checking. If we hadn't all been so tired we would have stayed to listen! Me and Fran will definitely be going back there FOR SURE!
We didn't think it was possible to have a real Christmas day in Japan, but Uncle Dave and KT definitely made it happen!!! We got up and headed to the Foreign Correspondence Club in Yurakucho to pick up the already cooked turkey - you see, the only places that have ovens BIG enough to cook turkeys in, are at the restaurants... Japanese apartments just aren't big enough for those massive ovens!
As soon as we had picked up the turkey we headed to Dave and KTs!!! It was such a nice day, just chilling out and chatting away!
Uncle Dave beginning the Yorkshire puddings.
It's dinner time!!!!!!!!!!! It was absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!!
KT's delicious Apple Pie - it smelt AMAZING!!!!!
After food we chilled out - wished the family a Merry Xmas on Skype, then played an awesome game!!!
We went to the station via Ebisu Garden place, which was all light up with beautiful lights!
We had already prepared ourselves for the fact that Matthew might not make it to Japan because of the snow, so when he walked through the airport, I was honestly SO HAPPY!!! Before he had come out I had watched a girl greet her parents... they stood there hugging and swaying... they were crying ... (and I was crying). lol I'm so soppy!! God knows what it's gunna be like when my parents come to visit me... I think I'll need to pull out the waterproof mascara! haha. Anyway! MATTHEW'S HERE!!!
We came back from the airport by the skyliner (kind of like the Shinkansen) and we saw rice fields and beautiful scenery!! It was really nice! We stopped off at Ueno and went straight to TGIs for some food!
We decided to take a walk down Ameyoko market street and we found a little shrine hidden away,
which had autumns leaves! Can you believe 24th December and there are Autumn leaves? hehe
It was funny walking down these streets because Japanese people keep their heads down and go straight to what they are looking at, where as we were looking all around us and as soon as you make eye contact with the people working on the stall, they start shouting at you to go and buy their food! It was so funny;
"Sushi!!!" "Fish eggs!!!" "Please try"
And they all compete with each other, who can shout the loudest!
We put Matt's suitcase in a locker at the station and headed to Akihabara Electric Town!!!
These cut outs were outside this adult entertainment store called Legs Avenue! This was hilarious trying to take this photo because everyone was looking at us!!! We went into the Sega building which was filled with Sega Arcade game,s with lots and lots of Anime characters everywhere!
We went to a couple of random shops in Akihabara, then we decided we would take Matthew to a Maid cafe, as we hadn't been to one yet and we thought we should go at least once whilst we are in Japan. There were so many girls stood on the main street with flyers for their maid cafe, some dressed as maids, some in cute animal costumes and some in Santa outfits! We decided we didn't want to go somewhere mainstream, so we headed down a random back street and found this cute little cafe called Pinkys. The girls were dressed up in santa costumes and when we went in the room, all the lights were off and there was a disco ball spinning round and some people were waving glow sticks and in the corner was a little stage with one of the girls singing on and another girl was kneeling in front of the stage hitting the tambourine intime with the music... all I can say was it was soooooooooooooooooo typically cute Japanese!!! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside the cafe, but our waitress was lovely and we got a Polaroid photo taken with her!
It was really nice in there, but I'm not sure I would go back to the same one because that might be a bit creepy, although I did have a points card - haha. Matt was totally knackered, so we came home!!! Really great first day :-D
