Sept. 4th, Tokyo Tower and Shinagawa Aquarium

After yesterday I had not much drive to look at Anime and Manga and Games and decided to do some proper sightseeing.

Tokyo Tower and the Aquarium in there for a start!

Or so I thought. You know the drill: All plans...

All starts in Akiba Station again:

Nice Anime ads.

Tokyo tower is the old Tokyo TV tower and built in the style of the Eiffel tower, just in red. it is far smaller than its successor and heir, the Tokyo SkyTree, But then everything but the Burj al Arab in Dubai is smaller than the SkyTree. No need to get depressed, Tokyo Tower.

The tower is a complex of shops and stuff and the viewing platforms. You go up in a transparent elevator and have a nice view already. The lower platform is at 150 meters, but the upper is triple the price and only bookable with a tour. he price would have been OK, but a tour? No, thanks. 

Tokyo Tower from the ground.

And as a still.

View from the platform. Far in the background is the SkyTree and in the foreground some skyscrapers which are on par with the platform in height.

Temple and shrine in the neighborhood.

View towards Tokyo Bay. The weather was partly cloudy today, but no rain.

Some more skyscrapers.in the background is the municipal building where you can go up to a viewing platform, too.

A shrine in the tower. The deity must have nerves of steel.

This optical illusion carpet is irritating as hell. I want that for my house.

Looking down through one of the windows in the floor.

You can make a sports field everywhere. Optimal use of space.

After going down you land in the 3rd floor and are more or less forced to traverse a couple of souvenir shops and overpriced cafes. A tiny lump of soft ice was like 3 EUR. But it was blue and colored the tongue, so some girls had fun.

No idea what the man is talking about. I guess the history of the tower. The enthusiasm of the masses is not overly extrovert.

A replica of the tower and a live pianist.

A small gaming arcade.

After a while I left and went over to a little park directly at the tower. Google maps told me about the snake mound and a waterfall.

The snake mound. The cicadas are a nice touch.

The little park has some nice views and details.

The Momiji waterfall.

All in all nothing breathtaking, but a nice and well kept little park.

The aquarium in the tower closed arond 2 years ago it seems. But I wanted to see marine life and so I went for the Shinagawa aqua world. It gets late, so I will keep it short.

Whatever is naked here will stay a secret. I don't dare to translate the Japanese text with Google translate.

Last short clip for today. Nice electronic fireworks.

An octopus lazily hanging around watching people go by and by.

Mudhoppers.

This one was nawesome, a completely mirror clad room for the jellyfish. They did light-shows with changing colors etc and I took a video. But there are too many identifiable people doing silly stuff, so I'll not publish it.

White tip shark.

And his black tip cousins.

Visitors could feed Capybaras.

Red piranhas.

After that I grabbed a very late lunch (many restaurants do lunch service until 15.30h). Near the aquarium and towards the station is kind of a food court. There was also this gem:

German Bratwurst and German style beer.

I actually looked at the menu and was speechless. The 5 Sausage platter was 8000 Yen, A small beer was 800 yen, So 48 EUR for 5 sausages  with side dishes (which didn't even LOOK good) and 4,80 EUR for a small beer. The funny thing is that most Japanese beers are very similar to northern German Beer with strong hops and bitter and some are more like Czech lager, similar to Budweiser 12° Also there are Japanese sausages which are perfectly viable. This abomination of a "German" hut is inexcusable. So I went for a Sashimi menu.

I went for the Sashimi menu top left which consists of Sashimi, rice, 3 side dishes, pickles and Miso soup. Keep the picture in mind and compare it to the real thing later.

From this page I oredered the butter fried shredded squid. I just love squid in all forms. It was good. And I tried a Ginger Highball. Works, but too sweet for my taste.

The complete menu.

Here the Sashimi detail. There is really not much difference to the picture in the menu. The mackerel bottom right was nice. Also the scallops. But the best was actually the prawn. As sweet and fresh as they get.

After the Ginger Highball I decided to also have a dessert: Pudding with roasted green tea and a thick gooey caramel coating. Yummy.

After this I moved slowly back from Shinagawa to Akiba, did some shopping inbetween and went to the hotel. Too many stairs today. So I went for finally starting this blog again and got the free Ramen which Dormy Inn hotels give out between 21.30h and 23.00h. It is a half (meaning smaller) bowl, but more than enough. A full bowl of Ramen is a formidable foe to conquer. The Ramen was a Shoyu (Soy) based chicken broth with some extras. Nothing fancy but really enough for a dinner when the lunch was so opulent. 

Now it is 23.07h and I will end the day.