Day 2 in Tokyo

Today, Don and I bought a subway rail day pass and we put it to good use! We travelled a lot of kilometers today...by subway and, again, on foot!

Our first stop on the way to the subway was a store that some of you might recognize...7-11. They have them all over the place in Toyko. They sell some pretty interesting things in the store...

 A strawberry sandwich

Anchovies

Our subway pass cost 1000 Yen (how much is that in Canadian dollars?) and it was well worth it because we did a lot of subway traveling. There are about 13 different subways lines, so it is like a big puzzle trying to figure out which line to take and then switch to another line so that you can get to where you want to go. And sometimes, when you wanted to switch from one line to another, you had to walk about 500 metres and up and down lots of stairs. Here is today's homework...try to find out how far 500 metres is.

Here is a link so that you can see the Tokyo Metro Subway map...
http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/subwaymap/pdf/routemap_en.pdf

Our hotel is near a station called Edogawabashi. Can you find it on the map? It is on the gold coloured line called Yurakucho and it is number Y12.

The subway coming into the station

The first area that we visited today was Tochomae. We went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (they started building in April 1988 and finished in March 1991) because we heard that you could get a great view from there. They let visitors go to the 45th floor and there are windows all around. It is 48 floors above ground and there are 3 basement levels. It is a beautiful building.

 Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

 Outdoor area in front of the building...that curved part connects the tall towers to another part called the Assembly Hall where they hold meetings with government officials.

 The ringed area is the Assembly Hall.

 One view from the Observation level (45th floor)

 Another view...cool building!

 Very cool building that is a fashion design school...it is nicknamed "The Cocoon", can you guess why?

The Tokyo Dome...one of the baseball teams plays here

 The "Cocoon" from the ground

See how strong I am!

 After this, we took the subway a couple of stops away and decided to check out the area. We were shocked by what we found when we came up to the ground...it was a very busy area called Shinjku.

 There are lots of signs for business on the buildings

 I tried to take him on!

 Busy!

 Hello everyone!!

 Crazy man trying to get a photo in the middle of a very busy intersection!

 The intersection before people started crossing.

 Many of the restaurants have plastic food in their windows so that you can see what they serve.

 Fruit is very expensive...about $12 for a small pack of strawberries

 $30 and $60 for another fruit (I think it might be papaya) and it comes in a fancy box!

 You know what this is!

The busy intersection again..Don took this with is phone on a panoramic option...kind of weird looking!

 I wasn't too afraid

According to Don, he had no idea that there happened to be a baseball park at the next subway station that we popped out of (Gaiemmae) and, to his surprise, there happened to be a game started right when we arrived. So guess what, we went to a game and it was pretty wild. The fans were chanting throughout the game. There was a big section where there were fans from the other team too.

 When the home team scored, all of the fans suddenly had these little umbrellas that they began dancing around with.

 Don at the ball park

After the game, it was time for the long trek back to the hotel...3 different subway lines and lots more walking! Good night!