SkyTree, Ice Cream Beer and Three Conveyor Belt Sushi!

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After two weeks of amazing and intensive touring around Japan, I struggled to wake up this morning. So Glyn booted me out of bed and we were well on our way to the Tokyo SkyTree by 8.30am. Note to self: next time I plan a holiday, I must leave in some time for physical relaxation.

At 634 metres, the SkyTree is the tallest building in Japan and is a tourist magnet due to it being expensive and I presume because you get great views across Tokyo. Just to make sure they suck more money from you, there are two viewing decks and you pay extra to reach the upper deck, not knowing if it is worth it until you get there but not wanting to risk missing anything. I've seen this trick done on other tourist towers worldwide and it works on me every time.

Each lift is themed on a season although you would never know if they didn't tell you - Glyn struggled to believe that our ascending lift was summer. Getting to the upper deck, I do believe it was worth it, the view stretched for an eternity and all of it (apart from the rivers and some parks) was built up as far as the eye can see, and today my eye could see a long way - even further when I thought to put my glasses on. It is mind blowing when you realise just how many skyscrapers there are and much ground they cover, far more than I've seen in New York or Chicago.

We had originally planned to visit the zoo in Ueno Park, but reviews on Trip Advisor gave dismal reports of depressed animals in cramped conditions so we decided to visit the Shitamachi Museum instead. But upon arrival, a polite notice told us it was shut, no reason given. This is where I met a stray cat with a stumpy tail (lots of cats around here have stumpy tails) and Glyn let me have about 5 seconds to chat with it. Anyway, not wanting to waste the journey to Ueno Park, we visited the Tokyo National Museum which was interesting but we were already waning due to general tiredness from the last two weeks. I was impressed that their ancient pottery items were identifiable unlike the ones you get in European museums which tend to be in fragments and you take their word for it that these items are manmade and not just lumps of old clay. Vast arrays of old swords that looked good enough to use even now adorned the walls plus lots of old photos. Unexpectedly we saw items from the uk, including some Wedgwood which comes from my home city.

It was now around 1pm and we were so shattered that we stopped in the nearest cafe despite it looking over priced, touristy and crap. And it turned out that it was over priced, touristy and crap. Glyn had a bland thing that he wasn't sure what it was and I had sweet sesame paste in sticky dumplings because I was thinking I was ordering something better. I ate them and to be fair, I did get an energy boost afterwards. Walking through Ueno Park, we saw many teens in school uniform, I presume on trips to the various museums. Some old guy with vibrant writing all over his shirt was yelling at them, some of the kids looked really nervous, but others were cheering and applauding, I tried to photograph him and want to google the words on his back to find out was he was yelling about.

Our train ride to Shibuya gave us time to nap as it was a fair distance away being at the south-west most area of the west of Tokyo and we were currently in the North. The train was fairly empty so we got seats and were not the only ones dozing off, the guy next to me was almost napping on my shoulder. One thing we have noted is that they do have 'women only' carriages for certain times of the day - how depressing that this is necessary, my guidebook did warn that women travelling alone can be subjected to groping (as in the UK), but being in my 40s and travelling with Glyn, I've no need to worry for myself. I do wonder what would happen if a woman chooses to ride in a mixed carriage when a 'women only' one is available and is then attacked, will it be seen as her fault? I hope not.

Since the 1930s, Shibuya has been the party town for Tokyo's youth. The areas surrounding the station are full of young 'uns hanging out. There's a statue of a dog, Hachiko, who had waited for his dead master fruitlessly for over a decade - stupid dog, I know that my cat would soon rebuild her life if anything happened to me and go on to accomplish great things.

Glyn wanted to go to Tokyu Hands to that we could climb many flights of steps that each told you the fraction of a calorie to three decimal places you were burning as you wearily trudged up them. He also bought some Japanese Tupperware, some of which he will use to make veggie sushi for me as soon as we get home on Sunday..... The store was also full of Halloween gear, I've never seen so much available outside the USA and Canada, they must be nuts for it I guess.

Shibuya is awash with visual and audio advertising. Unlike other cities where the noise is traffic, we were surrounded by loads of speakers, each playing differing adverts or music videos, it was hard to keep up. Multiple video screens adorned many of the buildings, plus lots and lots of lights. There is barely any graffiti in Tokyo (or anywhere else I've seen in Japan), probably because there's nowhere to put it as all available wall space is covered in advertising. Or lights. Or screens. What with being so crowded, it is a lot to take in.

The area in front of the station is the busiest crossing in Japan, or indeed, the world. Around 1000 people can cross the road there at any one time and just to add to the congestion there are always plenty of tourists photographing and filming the chaos and causing more havoc (today I was one of those tourists).

Stopping for a drink just so that Glyn had an excuse to watch a K-Pop video on a loop across the road in the reflection of the bar mirror, I ordered a frozen beer. This is a new experience for me (apart from when I put my beer in the freezer to quickly cool then forgot it), so I had to give it a go. Now my experience of beer served in bars in Japan has not been excellent; without exception every one has had a huge frothy head that would be a sacking offence in the UK. With a frozen beer, they celebrate this inability to pour a decent pint by freezing it into an ice cream shape and thus you are presented with a cold beer float with beer froth ice cream instead of vanilla. This is the first time I have eaten beer.

We did our general wandering around and getting lost thing that we always do until we decided it was time to eat. By the time we found Genki Sushi, we were incredibly hungry as we got lost a lot. This place had not one, not two, but three sushi conveyor belts!!! You are given a number and sit at a screen where you scroll through the menu and press 'order' on whatever you want. The sushi is freshly made and quickly arrives via the conveyor belt, upon arrival you press a button to confirm that you received it and can order more constantly up to 45 minutes. When you are finished, you confirm on your screen, calculating your bill and take your number to the till where you pay. Genius. Jaime in Kyoto had told us that conveyor belt sushi was originally invented by a restaurant owner who couldn't afford any staff. Again, genius.

Despite being early we decided to head back to our hotel as we were totally bushed at this point, probably not the best idea as it was still rush hour and the trains were as packed as any train should be, plus a whole lot more. Looking at my health app, I've walked 22,631 steps and climbed 16 floors today, not bad going considering I was knackered before we started!

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