Tokyo Station | JBinnacle – A Travel Logbook

I headed off to Enoshima [江の島] to meet with my friend Mk-san, whom I met in Gackt’s birthday party in July. By pure chance, I caught a glance of Mount Fuji Fuji-san [富士山] again.

Together (with Mk-san, not with Fuji-san ~ヾ(＾∇＾)) we went into Enoshima Aquarium – Enoshima Suizokukan [新江ノ島水族館], which was one of the few I had left in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. The highlight was the focus on algae and seagrass, because the jumping fish did not seem to be in the mood for jumping. Oh, and kira-kira jellyfish!

After the aquarium and lunch, I headed back to Tokyo [東京] and I stumbled upon one of the L’Arc-en-Ciel’s “Don’t be afraid” billboards.

Then I met up with K. and D****e in Nakano Broadway [中野ブロードウェイ] for a bit of shopping before we headed out to Tokyo Dome [東京ドーム] to watch some Winter Illumination.

Later we went to Tokyo Station to see the lights in the Marunouchi [丸の内] side and had some avocado burger in a random Freshness we came across. And it was cold. Very cold. Awfully cold. Finger-ouchy cold.

There was nothing to fear about Friday the 13^th, considering that Kinkakuji had predicted me an excellent fortune (yay!), and it started with a niiiice breakfast – Swallowtails‘ cheesecake.

The first stop of the day was skipped due to a train mishap: I missed the stop and did not realise until I had transferred to another line, so backtracking would be expensive. I was not deterred and moved on to my second destination: Ginza [銀座]. Ginza would be the expensive shopping district, and to be honest it did not give me too much of a good vibe.

Not too happy with the place, I decided that since I could ride the Yamanote line for free (Japan Railway Pass = ♥) I would do a couple of other exteriors. The first one was Tokyo Station [東京駅] which was being renovated, so most of it was covered in white fabric.

Afterwards I headed off to Akihabara Electric Town [秋葉原], the place of Tokyo that seems to have more gaijin per square metre. Akiba lives up to its reputation of flashy, hentai, and maido-café infested. Sadly, the Mandarake was doing some kind of renovation and the usual entrances were closed, so I could not find the way into the… interesting section.

On top of the usual Akihabara scenario, I also found some remains of old Tokyo, among them this old stone bridge, Mansei Bashi [万世橋]

The evening’s destination involved a transfer in Ginza again, so I backtracked towards it. Instead of going into the shopping district, though, I headed off to Hibiya Koen [日比谷公園], which reportedly was were the first shogun houses were, around the Imperial Palace.

After some rest and chocolate cookies, I set off towards quite literally the other corner of the castle, to Kudanshita [九段下]. We have heard about the Chidorigafuchi Toro-nagashi, a matsuri (festival) that involves a number of boats releasing lit lanterns on the water in the Palace Moat at Chidorigafuchi Koen [千鳥ヶ淵公園]. Sounds a pretty thing to see, right? Right. Thing is that Kinkakuji fortune kicked in, so when we arrived there had been a cancellation on one of the boats and… we became part of the festival.

Chidorigafuchi Park is close to Yasukuni Jinja [靖國神社], where yet another festival, the Mitama Matsuri, was being held. We had matsuri food (yakitori), admired the lanterns and heard a bunch of young men doing taiko (traditional drumming). It was beyond amazing an evening.