City views, anime characters, art and walking around

Today ended up bit less eventful day than before. Woke up bit later than before(been waking up very early lately) and headed toward the favourite nikuman seller. Except it was closed this thursday...I actually had checked in advance on sunday what day it's closed but guess who forgot it! I also realized near Shibuya I had forgotten my camera. Thankfully my phone has fairly decent camera so hopefully picture quality isn't too bad?

So not much of a breakfast for me today. Figured I'll grab something on route to Roppongi hills that was my goal for today. There was art museum plus another museum + parks I had been told are nice. On route however didn't see any restaurant that a) looked interesting(subway doesn't count. There I can eat at Finland too! b) was open. Couple nice looking places would open at 10AM :(

Route to Roppongi was easy enough so I started to look for main objective #1(Mori arts museum). On my way I saw:

 Whee that's a big building. Actually I think(though not 100% sure) that it was actually the target building. But that I would find out later.

First thing I found was Mori garden. Was smaller than I expected(basically lake+path around it) but pretty anyway.

 Going onward trying to locate sign of art museum(thanks to the garden knew I was close) when I saw following:

 Okay some sort of anime-robot thingie going somewhere. Big one. I kept searching seeing occasionally signs saying "mori art museum" but next signs had no indication of it. Eventually I ran into elevator that had right indicator. Yey! Paying ticket fee(1500yen) I got inside along with big group of junior high school/high school students(mostly boys for a change).

 52 levels in what felt only few moments. That's one fast elevator!

Up here I was greeted by rather familiar sight. Very similar to what I had seen at the Tokyo Tower.

 Actually that's the tower...Had gone up there last time I was in Tokyo.

 Remembered even that green building.

 Saw at least some piece of Halloween after all ;D

Uhhuh. Makes you bit lightheaded.

There was some sort of anime-related exhibition going on around the view platform. Most of the animes I was live "don't know". I have seen some but compared to all of it that's coming I have barely scratched the surface.

 There was even some pictures of Hatsune Miku. For those who don't know about it it is computer generated singer. Voice is completely computer generated. There's even concerts where "she" performs animated on a big screen. Guess it's impressive enough advancement but still way too artificial voice for my taste. (Also have to admit illusion of her being there looks pretty decent)

 Now this one I actually recognized being one of my favourite anime series. Got nice twist to your usual magic girl series when being one isn't after all all goody-good save the world but actually being used more like cows are used for food(and trying to figure out how to break out of that when fate itself seems to be forcing you to either death or fate worse than death).

No idea what group that is but seeing these were available for free what the heck. Can't at least complain about price since price was exactly effort it took to take one. Guess I'm sucker for freebies!

 Me+selfie=not working out :D

Finally stopped for a breakfast Orange juice+teriyaki chicken...SOMETHING. In a bread by look and taste of it.

With tower circled through time to head for the art museum. Most of the place had no photo rule so not much to show. Theme seemed to be "connections" or "relationships".

That was pretty interesting room actually. Pitch black except for that lamp with sand tickling in and relaxing music on the background. Should have stayed there longer actually. Was surprisingly relaxing just watch there quietly.

(Also good to know I'm not only one doing things wrong. Persons ahead me tried to leave same route as we came. You need to actually keep going forward where is curtain from which you get out. How you are supposed to realize that curtain in the darkness though?)

Another interesting room. Basically come morning it's like this(that's sand!). Come later day and visitors will be sent to trample it. Come night staff cleans sand to one pile. Wonder how they get sand back quickly for next morning?

Another thing I enjoyed was photograph collection of some artists family shots going all the way over 100 years. Grandparents being in school and onward. Surprisingly interesting to watch.

Other things of note was place where you could read letters left by visitors and write one yourself, another where you could pick up flower on two conditions. a) when you leave you go direction you didn't plan to go b) you give that flower to some stranger. b isn't unreasonable but I'm bad enough navigating let alone I start to improvise by trying to change route and I'm not going to cheat either.

Also room where you can just relax watching Tokyo city view(odd kind of art if you ask me). Eventually I got this place explored as well and headed for last point of interest in this tower. Skydeck. Couple more levels up and you could get to top of the building. Though I nearly was unable to go there as ticket machine didn't accept 5000 or 10000 yen bills and I only barely had 500yen in coins it required. Didn't have 1000 yen bills anymore left either.

With this I left the Mori tower and started to look at the next target. Aoyama park. But I failed. Complete, utter failure. Looked easy enough on map to find but hard to see on map where you can cross streets etc. Ended up going past some USA military area. This also was first place EVER I have seen in Japan with trash on street. I then ran into Aoyama cemetry(didn't feel like taking photos of gravestones). There was map that showed where I could get it BUT pretty confusing map. Usually maps in Japan are oriented so that map up is straight forward where you are standing. This was angled 45 degree so I wasn't sure is the map up the road on my right or left(at 45 degree angle). Seems I guessed wrong.

That's rough idea of my route I think. Seems I managed to walk past the bloody park(lol) which would have been on my right. Bloody hell! Needless to say that's a lot of useless walking. There's even long U turn from Aoyama doori(the yellow line up) to Roppongi doori(orange in bottom) back to the Aoyama doori and from there to the Omotesandou.

That just shows what kind of lousy navigator I am ;) Well having seen Omotesando sign on the Roppongi doori I made decision to head away from there. Plan was to go back to Oriental Bazaar for 2nd look for souvenirs for little brothers. Turns out store closed on thursdays...Ain't this familiar feeling?

Well at least I ran into Kaiten Sushi restaurant in the Omotesandou. Now this is pretty fun and easy way to enjoy sushi so if you are in Japan I recommend trying one. This was actually first time in Kaiten sushi restaurant for me. I had gone on couple sushi restaurants but they were either traditional ones(tell what you want) or where you order from terminal screen.

But kaiten sushi is different. You sit at a table where you have hot water supply and green tea(in powder form). You can see bunch of cooks(3 here) making sushi pieces which appear in a rotating belt in constant stream on different coloured plates. Each plate costs set price from 130yen to around 500 yen based on colour of plate(plenty signs visible there). Each plate has something(pieces of sushi, juice, cakes, orange, whatever). So you just take whatever fancies your taste(and wallet) most. Quite nice though better be careful before you eat more than you can afford :D "One more plate!"

 (Ate one of those before remembered to take photo)

 Some sort of cake for dessert.

 And that's where you pick what you wish.

 Aaaaand one more!

That was fun. Have to go there more often. Pretty good sushi as well!

 With this day was drawing to close so decided to head toward home. Didn't have much of plans I could do now with no internet connection to check nearest stations and was running short of cash anyway. Especially as I decided to go for bit more souvenir hunting and for that chose to head for nearby Meiji shrine area. So going through Takashita doori at the harajuku to see if I could see any more odd clothing(couple though nothing too weird) arrived at the Meiji shrine. This I had visited before so it was fairly familiar for me already. But on the hot day after all that walking the walk here in shade felt nice.

 There was actually something new here. Chrysanthenium(or however they are called) exhibition.

 Eventually arrived at the main shrine(this is pretty long route btw). There was some heavy drum sound coming on. Not sure what was going on? Didn't see any indication wedding or some other ceremony was going on though. Maybe just regular drumming time?

 I decided to not go through treasure room path(closed anyway) and headed to left instead which would lead me to starting point through pond...Or so I thought. One route was blocked and visitors were asked to turn left which...Led back to the temple.

Bummer!

So not wanting to retrace steps figured I'll take the scenic route anyway.

Familiar sight from the last year too. Lots of Japanese were just sleeping on the grass.

Slightly visible on the rear there's some sort of agricultural festival preparations going(or being removed away). Not sure when. Now was just empty tents.

That's a few sake kegs...

 Headed from the temple toward Shibuya. Had moment of inspiration for next place but before that took photo of what the famous Shibuya crossing looks like. That crossing is nuts around 4PM(around which it was).

Then I headed underground to Tokyu food show which Japanese person had showed me last time I was here. This is basically one HUGE food selling area where you have practically everything you could need for Japanese food and then some more as well as alcoholic drinks from all around the world. It's just unbelievable. Good place to get lost as well as I found when I started walking in circle...

 Got myself this banana-milk from "juice corner" but not sure what juice there is. Looked more like shakes to me. Good anyway.

And I got these for my dinner. 2 tuna sushi, futomaki(the big one) of egg interior and 2 sticks of...something! Not sure what. Not best stick-things I have eaten but not worst either.

So there. Bit less things seen than I hoped. But maybe good for my legs to be at home bright and early. Tomorrow plan is to go to place called "Kyodo no mori". More of that tomorrow then.