Galspot: Day 3: Thursday 5th of October

Day 3: Asakusa, Miraikan and Ebisu

Caught an early start, and being a nerdy type I eagerly headed off towards the Miraikan, the museum of emerging science! I dropped off a stop early and walked around the aqua-portish entertainment district, which was supposedly all build on reclaimed land in the harbour, and pondered the physics and science of making land in the middle of a bay but ensuring that stuff wouldn't slip and slide over again. The quayside area, full of wooden boardwalks soaring above the roads below, was largely deserted and devoid of people, probably because of early time that day. Soggy wooden planks were left behind and I threaded my way around the area, stopping off at McD for breakky. The bacon and egg mcmuffins were the same over there, despite their weird spelling. Passed a few overly touristy sites, through a quiet park, and to... Miraikan!

The first thing to greet me inside the shell shaped building was a giant LED embedded globe, with constantly changing uptodate weather, geographical, and tectonic information buzzing around. There were displays ranging from new fuel cell cars, to demos on medical science (i played around with a pair of laproscope instruments for a while), VR and robotics demonstrations, to used space shuttle/station modules. Spending quite a few decent hours there, I finally drained the place of all its information and then it was sadly time to leave. Walking outside, I was cheerfully greeted by a humongous downpour, so I quickly made my way to the next destination - Ebisu!

Ebisu, the quiet unassuming district. Reportedly full of cafes and restaurants, a nice quiet place to stroll during the day. I ignored all of that and made my way to the Sapporo beer musueum. Deciding to get a bite to eat beforehand, I consulted my trusty LP and found the 39 story Ebisu Garden Place tower and scaled my way to the top 2 floors where exotic delicacies awaited my palate. Unfortunately for me, I was too early (I had skipped lunch earlier and was now starving, especially given all the running I had done to avoid the rain) and all restaurants, bar one, were closed. Sitting down, the patrons next to me were having a mountain of a feast, a iron hot plate was located inside the table in front of them, with numerous small dishes of succulent meats and exotic vegetables and mushrooms were scattered around the cooking area, and all of this facing a gorgeous panoramic 39th story view of Ebisu and greater Tokyo. Knowing that I didn't have the capacity to consume what was in front of my neighbours, I went and ordered a bowl of soup and noodles.

With my stomach safely coated, I proceded to the beer musuem, but I ended up largely disappointed as all the exhibits were in Japanese. Of interest were some sizely beer mugs, plastic versions of some tasty brews, and a well presented (and affordable!) taster tray of some of Sapporo's mixes. Just squeezing out of the place at closing time, I now made my way to - Roppongi!

Roppongi, the gaijin district. The place were the well-to-do foreigners hung out to party. The first thing to greet me was a giant sandstone-like laden indoor and partly outdoor shopping 'suburb', mountain of designer clothes stores and classy boutique shops - most of which I ignored. I wandered around outside, onto the now damp and windy streets, along the darkened but neonlighted sidewalks around past restaurants, pubs, and a few jazz clubs, until my legs and feet were thoroughly sore (and soaked). I finally made my way into the a lively sushi restaurant, was once again greeted by 'Irashaimase!!!!!' that would plague my every visit to any shop in Japan, and made my way to a table. I ordered the 'sushi special', and despite the apparent high turnover and may visitors to this place, I ended up with a less than fresh sushi platter that nonetheless looked great. Planning to visit a Jazz club (one of my goals of my trip), I was just way too buggered, my legs too sore, my eyelids too weak, and so I proceded home.