With Kyle needing to work in the morning, it was once again
time for me to do a little exploration. This time, my travels would take me to
the centre of Tokyo. It was an area I had wanted to see again and a friend of
Kyle’s was asking for a Domo Kun plush (Domo Kun being the mascot of the
broadcaster NHK), we’d heard that these could be found in Tokyo station so it
seemed a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
Fortunately, there is a direct service to Tokyo that runs
once an hour so this avoided the need to change services at another station.
The large shopping centre “Tokyo Station City” comprises
both shops within the station (past the ticket gates, so they’re accessible
right after leaving the train) and outside of the station. Much of the complex is underground and the
many exits to street level will take you to several of the surrounding streets.
Following my arrival, my first task was to locate Domo Kun.
Sadly, this proved a more difficult task than I anticipated and Domo was
nowhere to be found. While in the station I at least had the opportunity to
pick up some more Pensta merchandise. Pensta is the penguin mascot for the
Suica card used for rail travel in this part of Japan.
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| The Suica Mascot - Pensta |
Venturing further in to Tokyo Station City there was still
no sign of the elusive Domo. After writing that task off, I decided to have
more of a wander around downtown Tokyo (I think it may have been Maronouchi).
What I found to be different about this part of Tokyo than some of the other
areas I’ve been to (such as Akihabara or Omiya) is that there are more
skyscrapers and they were noticeably larger than those I’d seen elsewhere.
One skyscraper in particular (or should I say 2 skyscrapers)
is the GranTokyo. The GranTokyo is comprised of a North tower and a South tower
with Tokyo station nestled in between them.
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| GranTokyo |
Even in the hustle and bustle of the central business
district, you can still find the occasional shrine if you look carefully
enough.
I must have wandered further and for longer than I had first
thought as, to my surprise, I noticed Kanda station. Kanda is near Akihabara,
so that was… a rather long walk. Beginning
my trek back to Tokyo station, I took some comfort in the fact that I was
probably walking off some of the large amounts of katsu and melon bread I had
been consuming during this trip.
At nearly 4PM, it was time to head back to Misato. There was
a slightly scary moment when I found that the destination list at the platforms
for the Musashino line only included the first 10 or so stations. Not all of
those trains would get me back to Misato. At times like these, even my broken
Japanese can be useful for survival.
Once I had gotten back to Misato, the plan for the evening was
a nomikai (lots of food and lots of drinks) with Kyle and Sato Sensei. The plan
was to meet Sato Sensei in Minami Nagareyama and go to a restaurant we had been
to for a previous nomikai (if I remember correctly, it was one of the first
days I was in Japan last year).
Overall, a pretty eventful day but sorry there wasn’t that
much to write about.
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