Day 11 - Tokyo - 'Straya Day

Today was an improvised jumble of activities, as we had changed around our day plans in order to be in Roppongi, where there is an Australian pub for the evening. Naturally, we were keen to celebrate our nation in a thoroughly patriotic way. The day started with moderate disappointment, breakfast at the hotel and an unexpectedly short tour of the Imperial palace. We spent the evening ice skating in Tokyo Midtown and celebrating Australia Day with our fellow Australians at Quest Bar.

When we had checked into the hotel, the concierge gave us coupons for free breakfast for every morning we are here, with the choice between two restaurants. We chose to go to La Dining, which promised Japanese and Western options. The set menu featured three options, Japanese breakfast, scrambled eggs with bacon, or french toast. I ordered the eggs while Dylan got the french toast. They was also plenty of coffee to drink, which was the one positive note. When our breakfasts arrived, I was somewhat confused by their interpretations of certain promises. I was promised bacon, I got small pork sausages that looked rather processed. I was promised scrambled eggs, and I didn't have high hopes, but I hoped for eggs, and I got quiche...thing. It came with salad and bread on the side. Dylan's meal was closer to what was promised, but again, weird sausage things. In the end we figured it was free, and it's understandable that they have slightly different ideas of breakfast than we do, so we shrugged it off and decided we'd just try the other one next time.

After breakfast we walked to the train station to travel to Tokyo station, where the Imperial Palace and gardens are situated. I had never been there before, but looking up the site on google, I suspected that the huge looking gardens would take a while to walk around. After we appreciated a cool water feature, and started walking towards the palace entrance, we noticed a lot of security, and check points. Turns out, you're welcome to walk around the paths at the entrance and admire the grass you're not allowed to stand on, but you cannot actually enter the palace, or the gardens proper. So that was annoying. We took some photos of what we could see, and wandered around a little. It was still an interesting area, being a huge open space amongst a sea of buildings. We even had to wear sunglasses! Following the tour groups around, we saw a statue of a samurai guy posed majestically on a horse, and then crossed the road to look at Hibiya park.

Another photo for nathan!

It just keeps going and going...

"I am one with the fountain... bloop bloop bloop"

Shame the moat was a little algae-y

A mix of east and west

From here, we weren't sure what to do. Our evening plans weren't to begin until 4 or 5 in the evening, so we had to improvise. I suggested that we find lunch and then travel to Shinjuku station. We found lunch in another gyoza place, where we got a lunch set each that came with rice, salad, soup, weird stuff that goes over the rice, and then the gyoza. It was filling, and only 1800 yen. We walked to the closest station and traveled to Shinjuku, a huge station, with massive crowds. Like the other major stations in Tokyo, it's accompanied by a large shopping centre, so we went across to check out the Bic Camera store. This was 6 or so floors of everything electronic and fun, so we spent a while wandering around the store. Dylan found a head mount for his GoPro for when we go skiing, so we can take some cool footage of me falling into the snow. We got very excited when we discovered the games level, spying Lego, Nerf and video games. Looking around the games, we saw the WiiU you can play on, so we battled it out at Super Smash Brothers Brawl, or whatever it's called, and Dylan totally cheated. That game makes no sense.

The street lunch was located on

Busy shinjuku station

By this point we had wandered around the full extent of Shinjuku station, so we went back to battle the crowds and head to Shibuya. Dylan took some new photos of the crazy Shibuya crossing from the higher vantage point of the station, then suggested we go get a drink at the Starbucks that overlooks the crossing. Once again, we were shoved through a crowd across the intersection itself and upon entering Starbucks were driven into the ordering line then up the stairs to the view points. Dylan got another milky coffee that is apparently a cappuccino, and I got another of those delicious chocolate frappe things with unnecessarily detailed names. We enjoyed some people watching for a little while, before making our way back to the hotel for a rest.

So many ads, and some of them were screens

An hour or so later, we decided to leave for our exciting evening activities. The trip to Roppongi is pretty simple, but once you get off the train you have to puzzle out those classic Japanese confusing un-orientated maps. We finally found Tokyo Midtown and followed the signs for the garden area where the ice skating rink was two years ago. Luckily it was still up and running, and we eagerly made our way in. It cost a little more to go in than I think it did last time, and we had to pay 200 yen each for finger covering gloves (My nanas mittens aren't good enough for your rink?). We managed to find Dylan a pair of skates big enough for his ridiculous western feet, and we were soon on the ice. Just like last time, there was a horde of reckless and annoyingly talented children zooming around the arena, and one guy whom I took a severe disliking to who was skating in a pretentious manner. Whenever I was psyching myself up for a push between the gaps, he would come to a screeching backward halt right next to me. It took us a few laps to get used to it, but eventually we were skating around, admittedly a little wobbly, on our own, and having a blast. Once night fell properly, the garden was lit up, blue lights ornamented the trees and shrubbery around the rink. We skated for about an hour until we were hungry, and decided to go find dinner.

Tokyo Sky Tower off in the distance

The rink was only a few blocks from where this Australian bar allegedly was, so we found a ramen place on the way. Yes Frances, we finally had ramen, it was pretty gooood. The bowls were huge, so I feel like I ate 1/10 of my bowl, while Dylan got the most of the way through his. Again, the bill was surprisingly small, and we ventured back out to explore and find our countrymen, admiring some puppies and kittens in a pet shop on the way. When we got to the area where it was sort of supposed to be we were approached by another couple whilst squinting at our map. The guy said, 'Hey you guys speak English? We're trying to find this Quest Bar place.' We informed him that we also were on the hunt for this place, and decided to wander together. Luckily for all of us, I had an inkling about the direction and found the bar down a side street.

We went on in while the other people went to find food. It was still pretty early at this point so there weren't many other people there just yet. All the drinks were cheaper for that night, and we admired the long list of options. Sitting down with a VB (it was kinda gross, but, you know, Australia...), we waited for the other people to arrive. As we watched the bar become progressively busier, we were distressed to see that the bartender who served us when we arrived was still alone, serving a growing line of people. One other waiter was talking a few food plates to people and bustling about, but didn't seem to be doing much. He came to be nicknamed by us as Manuel. Another lady emerged from the back room, but was only slightly more helpful than Manuel in serving people. That poor original bartender was by herself, and was a little slow with the pouring. Eventually there were huge groups of raucous Australians entering the bar, and there were still no more bar staff arriving. This was stressful to watch, and Dylan and I were on the verge of offering our help when another two bartenders turned up in quick succession. I was informed by the new lady later on that she had been called in when it got busy. We were thoroughly confused as to why, on an Australian pubs busiest day of the year they decided to roster one bartender on. Either way, the situation was remedied and the lines died down, things running far more smoothly.

Patriotic!

Getting busy!

We had a great night, chatting to lots of people from around Australia, and making new friends. I ate a meat pie with tomato sauce, which was surprisingly good! We stayed out until rather late, then had an adventurous commute home where we promptly collapsed like a puppet whose strings have been cut.

We apologise for the lateness of this blog, there will be another coming tonight. Until then, good night!