19 November 2018
Roller coasters in the rain
Tokyo dome and a theme park at Suidobashi
Rain is an overstatement. Light drizzle. Not enough to get wet. Enough to cause people to have their annoying eye piercing height umbrellas up, but I have done that rant too many times.
Tonight I went to Ochahnomizu, home of the famed guitar street and then continued on to Suidobashi, where I had not been before, where I looked at people parachuting tethered to a tower and riding a roller coasters in the rain. I really want to spell rollercoaster as one word.
Anyway guitar street depresses me, because Australia has no good guitar stores at all and one street in Tokyo has 20. Really I am not exaggerating any of that last statement. I guess it also is a good thing because I already have way too many guitars and play basically none of them. They are expensive furniture, dusty dusty furniture. Once a year I dust them and change the strings. Thats enough about that.
Suidobashi is the site of the Tokyo dome, which is primarily for baseball but also for Babymetal and also a series of malls and a themeless theme park.
The good news is theres no entry fee to the themeless park full of rides, so you can wander around in the rain and look at them and ride on none of them. I am way too scared to ride on them, they seem to kill people regularly in ways described by ambulance officers on live tv as 'injuries not compatible with life'.
My journey took me back through Akihabara, which I have photographed too many times so had no intention of taking a photo. But then a train stopped on the bridge as I went past, so I could not resist another photo.
It always amuses me that the real estate in the most visible position with the most foot traffic anywhere in Tokyo is filled with shops selling extension cords, capacitors and funnels.
Ochanomizu station has been under construction for 10 years now. I am certain the same cranes and equipment were parked in the same spots at this time last year.
Whats that I see, could it be Tokyo soup stock? IT IS! Early dinner I shall have then, and instead of the two soup combo, I mixed it up with soup and salad. The salad has chicken and pecan with a basil dressing. I still dont know what the soup is. I am going to try and eat healthy until I leave so I have less 'bill shock' when I return, bill shock being the price you pay for excess weight charges. Its just like phone data only not at all.
Here is a guitar shop. It is huge. It has 6 levels. It is called guitar planet which is apt.
Here is another guitar shop. The bargains they have are second hand guitars that were only ever sold to the Japanese market. I want about 20 guitars in this store alone.
The roller coaster is really quite high, and it is running despite the drizzle and the fact its a Monday night.
They have some nice lighting all the way around the dome, I walked 2 laps.
Not a great photo, but the roller coaster does go on top of and through that shopping mall on the left.
The merry-go-round is more my speed.
Surprisingly, the food here looks great to me, healthy, and reasonably priced. This wasnt the only option, next door was a Korean place that also looked great. I will have to remember for my next trip, I am unlikely to pay a repeat visit on my two remaining nights this time.
I argued with this robot for a while. I lost.
Final photo tonight, the rainbow equality arch lighting. I am confused as to why I didnt line myself up correctly in the middle.