The sights of Tokyo

We arrived at Tokyo Station and managed to get ourselves on the right train to go towards the bus terminal. We checked in at the counter and waited around for our tour to be called. The morning's itinerary consisted of visiting the Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace, and the Asakusa Kannon Temple. I enjoyed visiting the Tokyo Tower, especially since I have never been to the Eiffel Tower. I took a lot of photos from different angles, and purchased a small replica of the tower as a souvenir.

Next, we headed to the walls of the palace. I was a little disappointed with this part because all we did was stand on the outskirts of the walls as the tour guide told us some history about the palace. I was expecting to at least get a tour of the grounds or get closer to the house itself, but we couldn't even see the building from the street. Then we headed uptown to Asakusa, and visited the Kannon Temple. We were given 45 minutes to explore, and I took this opportunity to be snap happy with my camera. In the midst of our exploration, Chris noticed a parachute-type ride in the northwest, so we took a walk over to where  it was and we discovered a small amusement park. Chris, the avid coaster enthusiast, went inside the park and paid to ride their only roller coaster. I sat under a tree at the corner and analyzed the train map, trying to figure out how we were going to get from our ending point of the tour to where we wanted to go in the afternoon. When we got back to the bus, we overhead a couple asking the tour guide if they could leave the tour early because they wanted to see something in the neighborhood. Chris and I really did not have an interest in seeing the Tasaki Pearl place, so we also asked if we could depart the tour. The tour guide gave us directions to the metro, and we took the subway to the train, and made our way towards Tokyo Dome City.

We spend the entire afternoon in Tokyo Dome City, and probably would have spent most of the evening there too if  I had planned in advance to get tickets to the ball  game that night. I really enjoyed TDC, it had everything in one location and had something for everyone. In addition to the baseball stadium, there was also a park, a mall, a food court, bowling, and LaQua, the amusement park. First we walked around, taking everything in as we planned our afternoon. We decided to eat lunch at the nearby KFC (oh how healthy!), where I discovered melon soda! How delicious! We bought a ride bracelet and set out to start going on rides. The two rides I definitely wanted to go on were the big roller coaster called Thunder Dolphin, and the centerless Ferris Wheel called the big O. Thunder Dolphin went behind TDC, giving great signts of the city before descending through a hole in the wall (literally) and continuing to pass through the center of the Big O. It was an awesome ride! The other thing that impressed me was that in each of the cars on the Ferris Wheel, there was an mp3 player attached to the wall, and you could choose music from a list of 10 songs to play during your ride.

Finally, we left Tokyo Dome City just as the crowds started showing up for the game. We took the train back to our hotel, and decided to stop to ride the ferris wheel that was one stop away from the Disney Resort, and was the same one we saw from Disney the night before. I got some great shots of Tokyo Bay and the city skyline. We then went to Ikspiari and ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe (the 4th one I've been to!)  before heading back to our hotel for the night.