Angie and I stayed at the New Sanno, which is quite possibly the BEST hotel I've ever been to. It's the military hotel in downtown Tokyo and offers really affordable hotel stays for all military people and their families. But this is no Best Western -- they've got a mini pachinko (casino) in their lobby, beautiful restaurants, a little shopping center, pool and sauna...you name it. Funny part came during check in: I was sitting with the suitcases while Angie went up to the counter to check in, and the concierge hesitated slightly as looked at us and said, "We don't allow two people of the same sex to occupy a room together here...can I get you another room for the weekend?" It took us a couple minutes to realize that she thought we were a COUPLE. I guess it goes with not looking at all related, but she only backed down after we said NO absolutely not, we're sisters.
I think it's a military thing.
Tokyo's weather was perfect, so we decided to hop on the Sumida River boat cruise. The boats are called suijo-bus, and they look kinda like school buses on boats.
Besides being on the water and having the chance to see the city on both sides of the banks, this cruise is also neat because you pass underneath 12 unique bridges as you wind your way up north from Hinode Pier to Asakusa. They are a mixture of old and new architecture, painted a variety of colors that remind me of Crayola crayons.
About 45 minutes later, we docked at Asakusa port where we headed to the famous Asahi Beer Hall (also known as the Flamme d'Or, or jokingly the "Golden Turd"). It's one of the buildings of the Asahi Breweries headquarters, and was designed by the French designer Philippe Starck. Its inverted pyramid shape is designed to mimic a beer glass, and compliments the neighboring golden beer mug-shaped building housing the Asahi Breweries offices.
Across the beer hall on the other side of the river, is the immensely popular Buddhist SensÅ-ji Temple. Legend has it that in the year 628, two brothers fished a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, out of the Sumida River. And although they tried to put the statue back into the river, it always returned to them. The chief of their village recognized the sanctity of the statue and enshrined it by remodeling his own house into a small temple so that the villagers could worship the Kannon. Construction was finished in 645, making it Tokyo's oldest temple. It is crowded with tourists and devoted locals year round, and the entrance to the place is lined with food and souvenir shops.
Tsukiji Fish Market is, quite simply, amazing. I love food markets, and this one is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood markets in the world. It handles over 2,000 metric tons of fish a day, ranging from little sardines to humongous tuna. It's a real auction in which fishermen bring in their fresh catches of the day and shoppers vie in a massive bidding for all the goods. Used to be that tourists could come in and watch the auctions when they started at 5:00am, but as of a couple years ago you can no longer watch unless you get a special permit beforehand. Evidently they were bothering the proceedings of the auction so they kicked the meddlesome tourists out. But you can go at a more reasonable hour and see the fish in the market stalls and get sushi for breakfast.
Last stop was famous Tokyo Imperial Palace and the Higashi Gyoen (Eastern Gardens). Most of the residences are no longer open to the public, but you can walk around the gardens inside. The East Gardens of the Imperial Palace are on the former site of Edo Castle, but the only things left today are two guardhouses and a defense house. The other buildings were destroyed by fires in the 17th and 19th centuries. So while we could take some neat pictures from outside the garden walls, there wasn't much else to see besides the expansive garden. It gets much prettier when all the cherry blossoms are in bloom, but I missed that showing by a couple months.
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