Japan Trip 13: Tokyo Tower and final day in Tokyo

Man, it has been a while since I last posted. Sorry about that. i have been pretty busy getting back into the swing of things since returning from my trip to Japan. I hope to get more Japanese language lessons up soon. In the meantime go back and review what i have posted so far. For my next few posts I am going to finish sharing pics from my trip to Tokyo and Hiroshima.

To start, here are some pictures of the Ginza area all lite up at night. This is a fun place to walk around.

Close to the Ginza area is a small statue of Godzilla. It is kind of hard to find but fun to search for.
Oh No!! Godzilla!!!

He is a lot smaller in real life.
Tokyo Tower is a must see in Tokyo. It is modeled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It has great views of Tokyo and some fun shops.

Because of its similarities to The Eiffel Tower, the people working there dress up like French Tour guides. kind of funny.

Here are some cool pictures of Tokyo from the top level of Tokyo Tower. Be sure to click on them for a larger view. It is a fun city to look at.

When I was leaving the tower there was a street performer with a monkey. They were doing tricks and it was very fun to watch. The two had a good relationship and their interaction made it even more fun to watch.

Japan Trip 12: Hiroshima Hotel

Well, I am checking out of Hiroshima this morning and am about to go to the Hiroshima Station to board the Shinkansen headed for Tokyo. Since this is my last morning in this hotel I thought I would add some pictures. This is the Hiroshima ANA Crowne Plaza hotel. I highly recommend it. The rooms are smaller than the hotel in Tokyo but are very comfortable and dorm-like (in a good way). It is also very close to Peace Park and Hondori Street. Lots of shopping and restaurants nearby. The price isn't bad and you can add breakfast to your room rate. The breakfast is buffet style and very good.

Japan Trip 11: Kure Navy Ship yard

I have been in Hiroshima for the past two weeks working with customers in Kure (Kure is about 45 min away by train). The customer's facility is next to one of Japan Marine Self Defense Force's Naval ship yards. Kure is well known for its rich history in ship building and Navy ship ports. During lunch we took a walk to get closer to the ships and submarines. This is the first time I had seen submarines in real life. They were very cool. Here are some pictures i took. Enjoy!

Japan Trip 10: Riding the Shinkansen

Here are some pictures of the bullet train I rode from Tokyo to Hiroshima and a few others. It took about 4 hours and was very fast. The great thing is that it runs so smooth even when starting and stopping you forget you are on a train. The seats are comfortable and even recline further back than an airliner. Tons of of legroom too. The only thing I can complain about is lack of luggage space. To see the Shinkansen in action, see my earlier post with the videos of Top Gear when they raced the GTR against a Shinkansen across Japan.
I wish we had bullet trains in America to get to places. It would be fun to take one from Seattle to L.A.

The Shinkansen platform at the Tokyo Station.

Here it comes!

Closeup of the front nose
Another one.

Japan Trip 9: Tokyo Disneyland

Well, I found time to go to Tokyo Disneyland after all. i grew up in a Disney home. We went to Disneyland California almost every year and the Disney channel was always on (back when it was good). When I learned that I was going to be going to Tokyo on a business trip I knew that I had to find time to go to Disneyland. Here are some of the pictures I took with some commentary. This year they are celebrating Tokyo Disneyland's 25th Anniversary so you might see "25" in some of the pictures. It is also Halloween time so there were pumpkins all over the place and the Haunted Mansion was all dressed up in the "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme.

Here is a view from the train I took as we were coming upon the train station that leads to the entrance of Tokyo Disneyland. You can see Space Mountain and others in the distance.

Yeah! I made it! Wait! that guy is going the wrong way!


Aren't the monorail windows oh so cute!

This is the new Disneyland Tokyo hotel. It looks very nice and fancy.
Tokyo Disneyland can't get enough of Mickey Windows.

Here is the entrance to the Winnie the Pooh ride. This is so much better than the ride at Disneyland Ca.

While you are walking through the line, you can read Pooh stories so you don't get board.
Finally the ride!

Now on over to Space mountain for a real man's ride. This is the same as California.

The only difference is the interior. The spaceship kind of looks like Sea quest. Sorry it is blurry. My camera is afraid of the dark and likes to blur with little light.

When exiting from Star Tours this crazy little Alien greats you. Star Tours is the same as California.
This picture is to show you how wide the walking areas are for the large crowds. This was in the morning so it was not crowded yet.
The loading area for Snow White. Even scarier than California's. The witch is even more involved. The ride should be titled "Look at how much fun the witch can have scaring little kids."
Here is Small World.
The loading area is inside.
I love the look of the haunted mansion. Creepy!

Another view from the line. This line took 1 hour and 40 minutes. I like the ride in California because the line goes a lot faster. I wonder if the one in California has more entry rooms to bunch people up into.

Cool decorations in the line.

Finally I am inside. I really liked the "Nightmare Before Christmas" overlay. It was fun and had fun music and story that went along with it.

A view of the river and the Big Thunder Mountain. This ride seemed longer and faster than California. I liked it better. Splash mountain was about the same but the turns and drop were in different places, except for the main one of course.

And here are some shots of the Castle for the girls.

There is not a "Main Street" in Tokyo Disneyland. Instead, there is a large covered area called "World Bazaar". It is pretty much the same as in there are shops and ice cream places.

Those are the best of the pictures I took. I hope you enjoyed them.

Fun fact about Tokyo Disneyland: Tokyo Disneyland is not owned by Disney. It is owned by "The Oriental Land Company", which licenses the theme from Disney.

Another though: I also liked the Jungle cruise ride at Tokyo. There was a part where you go into a cave that is part of an ancient India Civilization with cobras, a tiger, and cool statutes.