Things to do in Tokyo

[readsalot]

I'm going to have most of one day in Tokyo to myself after the tour ends. I'm trying to figure out what I should do. Possibilities:

Tokyo Tower. The Lonely Planet guide book says that it's a tourist trap these days. On the other hand, it's appeared in so many anime that I may have to go. Also, I just checked out their website, so I see that there are a bunch of little shops and restaurants (including the Tokyo Curry Lab, which babelfish insists on translating as Tokyo Calais Lab), and then there's Statistics Plaza: "This space is provided to acquaint more people with statistics by introducing the history of statistics and statistical data." I may not be able to resist.

Tokyo Tower is in the Roppongi district, so I could go there and then to the Mori Art Museum, which looks very cool, and which includes admission to Tokyo City View, from which I can look down on Tokyo Tower.

Or, I could go to the Ikebukuro area, and visit the Japan Traditional Craft Center (some nice displays, but more of a working resource than a museum), and Sunshine City (contains Sunshine 60, another really tall building which was featured prominently in the manga/anime X/1999, as well as the Ikebukuro Gyoza Stadium, which is apparently a food court devoted entirely to gyoza).

Vaguely near Sumida, there's the Edo-Tokyo Museum (history of Tokyo) and the Fukagawa Edo Museum (recreates a 17th century Edo neighborhood).

In the Odaiba area, there's the Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, which is apparently going to be closed on all the days when I'm in Tokyo, so never mind), a giant ferris wheel, the Japan Folk Crafts Museum, a hot springs theme park, and a couple of giant shopping malls.

Other suggestions are welcome.

Comments

Visiting Tokyo suggestions

[(Anonymous)]

I was just there, in fact, so I found a couple of good places. Being a lousy tourist (and being exhausted from work each day), I stuck around in the Shinjuku area. Spellings are approximate.

• Tokyu Hands (in Shinjuku, it's in the Takashimaya department store, which is also worth a visit) -- the most insane crafts and home store ever. Impossible to describe how the N floors include both the cruddy and the sublime. For example, in the tools section, they had both "Sunday Man" (cheesy handyman brand) and precision tools from Mitutoyo almost next to one another. There was another section that sold brightly colored foam pieces, from hand-sized sheets a few mm thick to big chunks and spheres. Not to mention the section with hundreds of family names on rubber stamps (and incomprehensible but mundane stamps for routing, approvals, etc.).
  
  
• Keio department store (Shinjuku). From the basement food halls (better than Harrods) to the upper floors with antiques and prints, it's a class act, and appears to be priced to match. Earlier this month, there was a big display of Atomu (Astro Boy) paraphenalia which I couldn't resist.
  
  
• Yoyodabayashi electronics/camera/watches -- a cluster of several building with all of the gadgets you might ever want. Picked up a "Wicca" watch for Janice (made by Citizen) which does not seem pagan or witchy in any way, so they seem to have picked the wrong deity/religion for a solar-powered watch.
  

Bring your passport with you when shopping, by the way. There are tax refund and special round-eyed barbarian discounts, apparently. Takashimaya has English speaking guides if you need one; I don't know whether the other department stores do as well.

During peak times, there must have been hundreds or thousands of young people dressed in the livery of their corporate masters -- promoting cell phone services, computer brands, etc. The information staff at Keio was particularly well-dressed, in prim dresses and matching hats.

Shibuya is supposed to be nice as well, but I managed to satisfy my shopping urges without venturing too far from my home base. I'm really pathetic as a tourist, I'm afraid

Ken Meltsner