Tokyo 2022 (Part 3~Shibuya~)

One day of the trip was dedicated to Shibuya, and it was a collection of different experiences with one definite highlight! I decided to keep them all in one Part to show the diversity. Also, I realised how much liberty I have for sharing photos as compared to writing the whole trip in one post haha. Will definitely come in handy here, this Part is photo-heavy~

Teaser!

The Green

The morning started at Meiji Jingu. Passing through the Torii gate at the entrance, I was  slightly dismayed to see that the trees were unequivocally green. I wanted to see autumn colours!!! That was one of the main goals for this trip coz the only other time I'd experienced autumn was during exchange in the UK, and things went from green to dead without much colour in between back then. So my first encounter with a park in Tokyo didn't quite go as planned and I worked hard to temper expectations from there (spoiler: things got better).

I blame expectations coz this view would've looked fine on any normal day of any other season haha.

The shrine itself was crowded with both locals and tourists. It was interesting to see a shop selling amulets for different purposes (e.g. good health and strength/determination and they all had different prices haha) but there wasn't much to hang around for. So I made my way out and was stopped to help take a photo for a family of parents + 2 small girls, all dressed in kimonos! 

The main shrine for offerings. This looks not too bad, but there were more tourists in the courtyard which was inevitable for a place like Japan. I'm glad I had some peaceful, crowd-free travel experiences earlier in the year coz those will be no more as we get closer and closer to pre-covid conditions.

Saw a beautiful wall of sake barrels (donations to the shrine) on the way out.

I couldn't find the way to the inner garden and decided to move on due to the crowd. Anyway, I was going to drop by Yoyogi Park since it was en-route to the city. Same thing, it was still rather green~ But, I was very excited to see (green) maple leaves for the first time! 

This was my first time seeing something like this, speaking in terms of leaves! Throughout my trip whenever I encountered maple trees, I would go and stand underneath and take photos of them against the sky like clusters of spiky stars (reminded me a bit of D.Gray-man).

Ok actually, aside from being excited, I was a little thrown off by my first encounter with maple leaves coz it totally didn't match the standard red-coloured imagery. They were also much smaller than expected and err... considering that I was just on a recent trip to Thailand... reminded me strongly of a certain illegal leaf xD

It was a very nice park actually, and being around on the weekend really added the human element to the experience. There were so many people around doing so many different things, but it the park was spacious enough for it all. Quite a contrast to the feeling of crowd in touristy areas. There were a few interesting things, particularly a dog run! So many dogs having fun with their friends! I stood there watching for a while, mesmerised. There were many Shiba Inus and a few other interesting breeds including an elegant cream-coloured Saluki that was loping around and towering above everything else and something that looked like an Alaskan Husky with the size and build of a Shiba Inu :o The small yappy dogs (<5kg) were in a separate pen.

Got one shot of the elegant Saluki~ Its tail (not sure groomed or natural) was like a giant quill!

Other trees were already starting to show autumn colours, but I think bright red could only be expected from the maples which were still resolutely green on that day.

I spent some time enjoying the sunshine. But eventually, I had to get off my park bench and head into the city part of Shibuya City. 

To Shibuya! Past the boulevard of broken dreams Zelkova trees.

The Urban

It was about noon when I reached. I remember because my first stop was to Parco for the Jump store and while browsing, a multi-language announcement reminded everyone that it was 12 noon and time for lunch at the various food options at various levels of the mall. For lack of better description, the Japanese really pay great attention to detail!

My plans in the city area involved a trail of specific stores. One of them was Tower Records where I had fun browsing the huge variety of CDs/LPs sorted by genres/languages at different floors and bought some pieces for my collection (not pictured). Come to think of it, we don't really have an equivalent in SG anymore coz there's so many other ways to listen to music. But the store was thriving with long queues at some levels! Maybe physical records are still a big thing in Japan? Sometimes I take the trouble to play my CDs (cue external drive + speaker) and the sound quality is definitely superior, at least compared to Spotify. Or maybe it was coz that day just happened to be some Kpop boyband's album launch. I was wondering why so many girls were hanging around the entrance and surmised that they were there to trade photocards haha.

I remember being very impressed to find out last time that Teresa Teng sang in Japanese (and many other languages apparently). This caught my eye in the international section and I wondered if it was a Japanese version coz of the "君", but it's a Chinese song haha. Actually... now that I'm examining the photo, that's her name in Japanese (テレサテン, thanks to Papago) so that's a whole line of her CDs right there! Should've taken them out for a look haha, might've found something of an interesting gift.

Before I knew Kpop through SJ, I knew TVXQ (Tohoshinki) through One Piece. They contributed 3 songs in total and this one (Asu Wa Kuru Kara) is still my favourite, from way back when the anime still had ending songs~ I only found out later that they were (1) Korean and (2) from the same company as SJ :O Unfortunately, this was about the time of their split >.<

Also unfortunately, I didn't manage to properly visit the One Piece store, the one store I really wanted to go to. That day, and another time I was in the area, only people with tickets were allowed to enter at specific timeslots for crowd control. I managed to get an 8pm ticket but didn't hang around till that late. So the closest I got to One Piece was the outside of the store :/ Next time definitely! 

After the store trail, I wandered around the shopping areas a little before going to find the loyalest dog. To get there, I made a few rounds on the famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing trying to get my bearings haha. I actually wasn't very up for crowds that day, but it's practically synonymous with Shibuya, so I went with the flow~

Whatever I said about crowds, I don't think it would feel right to see Shibuya any less bustling than this!

I wasn't specifically looking out for this, but happened to look up at some point and spent a good few minutes standing and watching various "3D" clips (it only works from this angle)!

Finally got to try out the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world! In my search for Hachiko I went up and down and diagonally (my Google Maps directions were a little off so I was manually calibrating). I think the key was to move purposefully in a chosen direction to reduce risk of collisions haha.

And here we have the loyalest doggo at one of the most crowded corners of the crossing.

The Sky

At mid-afternoon, it was finally time for the highlight: Shibuya Sky!! While researching, I stumbled upon the genius idea of entering before sunset and staying till dark to get a whole spectrum of views (since there's no time limit). To give it the best chance, I slotted Shibuya on the day with the best weather forecast and pre-booked the 3.40pm entry since sunset was quite early at around 4.50pm. It really paid off! Actually, the building is not super tall at 47 floors but that's good enough to provide an unobstructed view in almost every direction. 

Apart from the mindblowing views, what I really liked was that the observatory was (1) open-air and (2) designed as a really nice place to hang out, and it would be even at ground level. The sky was still bright blue when I got up there. After getting enough photos for the time being, there was plenty of space to sit so I chose a spot facing southwest to chill and wait. Quite literally actually. My plan to play Superstar while waiting failed coz my thumbs were getting cold and sluggish lol. It gradually got colder throughout the 2.5h I spent up there. By nighttime when temps reached 16 deg and the wind was cold, denim jacket was barely enough.

Wew the city views against the bright sky. So amazing even at that point and it just kept getting better and better and better!

I spent most of the time on the southwest view, but wandered around to the other faces every now and then. This was the view towards the southeast which was the hardest to capture due to the reflections, but the sea was visible from here!

This was towards the northeast and I didn't notice it before, but that's the Tokyo Skytree in the distance (the pointy one towards the left). That might have been another option for my "chasing views" plan but it didn't stand much chance considering how quickly I was sold on the concept of Shibuya Sky haha.

I think this might have been towards the northwest. There was a professional photographer taking pictures for about S$15. However, there was a queue with about 30 minute waiting time so I didn't consider because I was targeting the sunset.

There was a square astro turf/helipad in the middle of it all, free for anyone to sit or lie down and watch the sky~

There was initially a large swathe of cloud in the sunset direction but it dissipated just enough to provide an artistic touch~ I seriously took a lot of photos throughout sunset. It's like I was torn between just standing and watching and wanting to capture as much as possible for the memories. Actually catching the sunset was already great (I used not to have good sunset luck hurhur), but I didn't expect that there would be another cherry on top...

Probably about 20 minutes to go at this point. I got off my comfy position and went over to the glass.

Looking good! The clouds had very kindly moved out of the way and the sun was just about settling upon the mountain range, but the best was yet to come.

Mount Fuji appeared at sunset 💝

I think it's best to let the photos do the heavy lifting here! While selecting them for this post, I again wonder where my luck comes from. All the photos here were only minimally edited for alignment and watermarking.

"Wait, what's that?" There seemed to be an extra something casting a shadow over the mountains.

This was when everyone around me started recognising what we were seeing as "Fuji-san"! Omg I was in awe coz it just got clearer and clearer as the egg yolk disappeared.

No longer any doubt about it, that was Mount Fuji right there! So cleanly juxtaposted against the beautiful sky above the endless city :'D

Zoomed-in shot to show the shadow cast by the mountain against the dying light. Don't ask me what/how/why the grand debut at sunset haha. My guess is that Fuji was just a little too far away to see with the naked eye in normal light and it took the backlight to reveal its form. I zoomed in on a few of my blue-sky photos to check and it really wasn't visible in those.

Even more zoomed in! My phone is not proficient at mega zooms but this clearly shows the difference in height and distance from Tokyo between Mount Fuji and the Tanzawa Mountains (or at least I think they are) in front.

It didn't end there!! Mount Fuji didn't simply appear for a cameo... it stayed for as long as the light lasted 😍 Even after the sun disappeared behind it, the mountain remained there outlined in glowing orange which slowly deepened into a dark red. The clouds added grandeur to the scene at sunset but as it night fell, the city lights took over. 

This was another gorgeous sequence. Will show it through the following photos, taken about 7 minutes apart starting from 5pm:

As the sky darkened, the street and building lights became more obvious. Sort of like a handover to the next performer xD

Time to shift the focus downwards. This felt a bit like that scene in Spirited Away when the town started to light up at sunset and all the spirits came a-visiting.

Just when I thought the colours couldn't get more dramatic haha. This was why I was either glued to this view or kept rounding back after visiting the other faces from time to time.

Adding a vertical version of the last shot to show more of the sky. That reddish hue against the indigo sky was just crazy majestic.

Well it's clear what the main attraction was haha, thanks to the clear skies. But as mentioned, the whole point of getting up at this time was to see both the day and night views of the city. The night views in the other directions were super impressive in their own rights. Thought to mention that the night views made it quite clear how dense Tokyo is. If we take the 23 Wards as "Tokyo City"... it's actually smaller than SG. 619 km² (9.3 mil people) vs 733 km² (5.6 mil people), figures courtesy of Wikipedia. Not that surprising actually, coz Tokyo at night really looked like endless, brightly decorated density.

The northeast view was quite colourful! I couldn't go up to the glass here coz that area was reserved for bar patrons (this shot was taken from the grass patch). Yes, there's a rooftop bar and it looked like those ppl in the shot were seated on nice cushy sofas. I had a meetup planned that night so I couldn't linger, but maybe sometime in future! Shibuya Sky is not a "visit once and never again" kinda place.

The southeast view in particular, since it stretched to the sea, gave the impression that Tokyo is CITY all the way from the commercial centre to whatever is the Pasir Ris equivalent out there. 

There was this vent structure with a mirrored surface facing the southeast view where many people were sitting and doing what I was doing here haha. I went there when most people were drawn towards the Fuji view. Must say it was quite cool!

I had a meetup planned so I couldn't stay into the night, but dragged it out for as long as the mountain was there. At about 6pm, Mount Fuji had pretty much faded into the night sky and I left.

Pretty near the end at this point. I was so reluctant to leave but was decidedly happy with all the amazing views just from this one location on one day.

The Japanese are really on a different level when it comes to detail. This was in the elevator on the ride back down.

Just one last bit to cover for context. So that day was 30 Oct. The previous night, I crashed early at about 9pm (thank goodness) so the horrifying news about Itaewon was the first thing I saw when I got back online in the morning :[ It was a bone-chilling piece of news that I followed over the next few days. Over in Shibuya, there were definitely Halloween festivities as well so it was expected to get very crowded, especially at night. I'd already passed by many costumed people at the crossing in the day (including a middle aged guy dressed as a high school girl xD). Watching the Shibuya live cams later that night, there was very rigorous crowd control with a large number of police officers in the area so I think everything went well and safely for the people who were there. But in any case, I was happy to go back to a slightly quieter area near my hotel for my meetup. 

Part 4 next, which will be themed rather than tagged to one area. Hint: colours!

And oh yes! 80% credits to le sis for the newly made watermark on some of the photos - I still have partial claim on the design concept but she did most of the real work xD

Tokyo 2022 (Part 2~Odaiba~)

Odaiba might seem a surprising choice to start off with, but it is indeed that place of childhood! It also ended up being the first (planned) and final (unplanned) destination of the trip.

Pre-Odaiba

But first! Need to rewind slightly to cover some background stuff. I landed in Narita at 9am on 29 Oct, whisked through their highly efficient system (luggage already on the belt before I got there) and caught the 10.15am Narita Express. Odaiba had always been first on the plans but on the ride to Tokyo, I was actively considering some reshuffles. Due to some circumstances, the final day of my itinerary was blank except for a visit to the Imperial Palace East Gardens. Red eye flights really help to maximise time but typically, I can't last till late on the first day. So I went with logic: visit the East Gardens before heading back to rest early and leave a full day for Odaiba at the end. 

With my mind made up, I got off at Shinjuku station and began slowly, conscientiously finding my way to the subway station to get to my hotel (near Nishi-Shinjuku). It was a sensory overload hahaha. Following the signs felt like a treasure hunt and I found myself glitching on the spot every time I second-guessed if I was heading the right way xD Well, I got better at it over the next few days. At least I found my way to lunch just fine at Gyukatsu Motomura and then hopped back on the trains towards Tokyo Station, another monster of a station. 

I went to find this coz (1) it's my kind of food (2) it was quite convenient to get to (3) it appeared on a certain suju member's vlog. There was a queue, and the food definitely met all expectations as the first meal of the trip! That's just coke in the Suntory glass btw, coz it was a sunny day and I was actually feeling quite hot under my denim jacket.

The beef was served quite rare, to be grilled to one's liking.

There, I simply couldn't figure how get to the East Gardens -.- The correct exit seemed to be controlled with a long queue of people waiting to be let out, so I tried to find alternatives. While I was glitching around, something tugged at my heart. Writing this does seem a little dramatic but honestly, I've "gone with my heart/feet" before while travelling and I'd never felt a pull that strong. Clearly, my inner 6-year-old self was making her presence felt after being sidelined in the morning's reshuffle. It was a very easy pivot. The way to Odaiba came up quite easily on Google Maps (good friend of the trip) and off I went!

Honestly as well, zero regrets. I think there couldn't have been a happier way to start the trip proper, and I'd find out a few days later that this was good for the schedule. Odaiba was a little out of the way after all. But, the weather was damn good and it felt a bit of a waste to spend it in the middle of the city. It was also quite a scenic ride to Odaiba, mostly on overground trains rather than subway, with undisrupted views of the bright blue skies.

So why Odaiba really? It's where the Chosen Children battled Vamdemon in the summer of 1999. It's where the life-sized RX-0 Unicorn Gundam stands. Time to bring my younger selves out to play :D 

Odaiba Pt. 1

I managed to sight 3 real-life locations from Digimon Adventure. Could say this was the #1 priority hahaha. First was the Fuji TV headquarters, visible shortly after exiting the station. I spent a while marveling at the real-lifedness of it before randomly heading up a flight of stairs at Aqua City. What I really liked about this place was the interconnectivity (and relative uncomplicatedness) of the pedestrian walkways. That set of stairs led me to a boardwalk connected to the Decks mall, and an unobstructed view of Rainbow Bridge. From there, I continued along the elevated pathway for some ways until I saw Tokyo Big Sight in the distance. ~1.5km one way is walkable on any normal day, but not on the first after a red eye flight. So I didn't get closer to that, and I suppose that's where the Giant Saw sculpture is supposed to be as well. Instead, I turned back for the waterfront. 

Fuji TV headquarters. Whether in a 1999 anime or in real life in 2022, this building just seemed so iconic and ahead of its time!

Rainbow Bridge. My first view of it from behind this padlocks of love thing (I assume haha).

Tokyo Big Sight. It's the 2 grey inverted pyramid structures in the distance where the Bakemon held their hostages👻

Odaiba Seaside Park was quite cozy for a waterfront park so it didn't take me long to stroll from end to end, passing the cute little beach and the random mini Statue of Liberty. I would usually have stayed longer to enjoy the view, but I was getting sleepy. Compared to the Shinjuku Station experience of that morning, it was super easy find the way back up to the elevated pathway towards Tokyo Diver City.

Rainbow Bridge again from the seaside. It really was a great day to sit by the water and enjoy the view! Many locals had the same idea since it was the weekend.

It's clearer in this picture how metallic the Fuji TV headquarters is! The spherical observatory was like a huge ball bearing glinting there in the sunlight.

Could be deceiving hahaha.

Oh yes, the poor Unicorn. From afar, I could already see the state it was in (and went "ouch"). Another reason why I didn't stick around till dark that day was that there was no need (or so I thought). I knew that the Unicorn would be under maintenance until late Nov and there would be no transformation and light show, but decided to see it anyway and caught it headless  >.< Unique I guess!

Oh no...

No Destroy Mode but Headless Mode :')

Still looking good from the back though!

Another related attraction at Diver City was the Gundam Base Tokyo. Definitely a paradise for model builders and collectors so good thing I'm not one otherwise there would have been lots of wallet damage xD I've watched a few Gundam series over the years, starting from Seed back when it aired on Kids Central, coz of the good storylines and music. But I never got into building Gunpla... Generally coz I find them plasticky looking and nowhere as cool as in the animes, unless special effort is taken to paint them. Metal Builds look very cool though. I was more of strolling around looking at the many many exhibits while people around me were purchasing large stacks of boxes. The displays were a nice throwback, and they even had some of my favourite designs from Seed!  Coincidentally, the first new Gundam anime in about 4 years (Witch from Mercury) started airing just before the trip so I was definitely in the right frame of mind to visit. 

Large model of Aerial, the main character's unit from Witch of Mercury. The storyline is quite promising so far and seems to be turning serious~ Interestingly/ironically, the Gundaminfo youtube channel wasn't available in Japan so I couldn't watch the latest episodes while on the trip unless I used data roaming :o

Cute collection of headpieces from the SD (super deformed) Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.

Before this, I'd only seen pictures of this RG Destiny model online. Even though its not very big, it was very impressive in real life because of all the minute details and the Wings of Light (and much less plasticky looking than some others). Still waiting for that movie sequel, it's been almost 20 years lol.

Didn't follow every series, but this "all main Gundams and villains" collection was cool in the same way as seeing all the different Power Rangers in one scene haha.

Ok ok just one last one. The Infinite Justice (x4), coz it's still my favourite Gundam.

It's a good thing I didn't try to squeeze Teamlab Planets into this day (and this trip) and exhaust myself. Got something for next time~

Odaiba Pt. 2

I returned to Odaiba on the final night (5 Nov) on recommendation of my impromptu sake buddy. Good thing I had the time to (coz no plans left), because it was worth it.

Same thing, I got out of the station and sighted the Fuji TV headquarters. It seemed to have gone completely over to the dark side at night xD I really was quite amused by the colour scheme so here's a bunch of photos from different angles. 

If anything, I wasn't expecting ominous red hahaha.

Same angle from under the trees opposite the road but such a contrast to the innocent R2-D2 look in the daytime.

I found this shot quite funny coz it looked like an evil spaceship looming over Aqua City.

Cue the Imperial March.

Then, it was back on the familiar path to the waterfront. Was hoping the the Rainbow Bridge would really be rainbow, but seems like that kind of light up usually only happens in Dec. Even then, it was still very clear why it's my friend's favourite place in Tokyo. In a city that dense and concrete, a wide open view from the waterfront is always lovely.

Just white light this time, but still a view befitting of the final night of the trip.

Here's the Decks boardwalk all prettily decked out!

And there's "Lady Liberty" nicely sandwiched between 2 Rainbows.

Seeing the Christmas tree gave me a bit of a shock. I didn't notice it on the first day (maybe it wasn't set up yet since it was still Oct then) but it was an in-your-face reminder that the year was ending. For me, it was also the end to a very exciting 2H2022 worth of travels, so I had to go back and think how to make the best of the last bits locally xD 

Last but not least, I was very happy to see that someone got their head back :')

It should have been obvious, but it somehow only occurred to me while uploading this photo here that the armour was actually in Destroy Mode! Some day in the future, I will see the Unicorn in its full glory.

And of course, the back shot - as cool as ever.

Part 3 will cover somewhere bustling, nearer my hotel!