Friday, February 24, 2006
Up Free Stuff
When you are in a sprawling metropolis, like Tokyo, it's important to get high. As high as possible.
Thursday was the day to get high in Tokyo. I'm not talking narcotically high but altitudinally high. There is a clause to this for the budget traveller. You need to get high for free. Luckily I have Anna with me and she is very good a sourcing free viewing points out of the Lonley Planet.
We set of in the direction of ebisu station and the Yebisu Garden Place which has restaurants on the 39th floor. Brilliant! We've set off a bit late so when we arrive we can just nip up to the 39th floor and eat. Food with a view. What more could you want.
Lesson Learnt: Food with a view carries a price that doesn't sit well with the budget traveller. So we just did the view and then we returned to the basement for some food that was more in our price range.
Yebisu Garden place turned out to be a real find. It had a beer museum and entry was free. Get in! The Welling Gang would have loved it. It was great museum. It contained a full description of the brewing process but only in Japanese. What I picked up from the museum. Barley, Hops, Water, yeast....BEER! There was also a strange art display of photographs of people riding dwarf horses. The lady who had taken the pictures took great pleasure in showing us around so we looked interested.
Time was pressing and a thirst for further viewing of the city from on high was building.
Shinjuku quenched that thirst! The Tokyo government building observation deck on the 45th floor. Check that out. 6 floors up on the previous event and still not a penny spent. View was very nice.
Some people are never happy. Particularly when they have been advised that there is a gem available just around the corner. Getting high was free but staying high would cost.
The Park Hyatt Hotel New York Bar and Grill in Tokyo which has been made famous by the film 'Lost in Translation'. (You know the one? Bloke from Ghostbuster's and Kingpin films whisky commercial in Tokyo and hooks up with girl whose boyfriend has left her in the Hotel. Something like that anyway) is on the 52nd floor and getting there is free. Even if you are dressed like a vagrant, which is a new look I'm sporting. I would like to think that we were being stared at because I bear an uncanny resemblence to Scarlett Johannson! But maybe not.
A level of cool is required when you are handed the menu in an establishment such as this. It takes all of ones inner poise to not go wide eyed and choke when you see the price. This is even more difficult if you are attempting to exist on a limited budget. 1000 Yen for a bottle of Beer! That's 5 quid. Add 10% service charge and although the bank isn't broken it's quaking at the thought and the manager has his finger poised to call you and tell you to not order a second one. (Simon, can you believe this is your sister spending 5 whole british pounds on a bottle of Sapporo beer?? No longer can you sing Simply Red's 'Money's Too Tight To Mention' at me in reference to me being tight-fisted!)
It was worth every penny. We arrived at the top at dusk and nursed our drinks for the best part of an hour as we watched it get dark over Tokyo and all the Neon lights come on. It doesn't get much better than that! Well worth giving up work for! I was in my element - the only thing that could have enhanced the experience would have been spotting a celebrity!
The evening was completed by wandering into the sprawling mass of neon lights that is Shinjuku at night. We nearly braved a Pachinko parlour (a kind of vertical pinball game) but instead just stood and gawped at the rows of Japanese business men hooked on this game! We will master this game before we leave Japan.
We both enjoyed getting high in Tokyo!!
Thursday was the day to get high in Tokyo. I'm not talking narcotically high but altitudinally high. There is a clause to this for the budget traveller. You need to get high for free. Luckily I have Anna with me and she is very good a sourcing free viewing points out of the Lonley Planet.
We set of in the direction of ebisu station and the Yebisu Garden Place which has restaurants on the 39th floor. Brilliant! We've set off a bit late so when we arrive we can just nip up to the 39th floor and eat. Food with a view. What more could you want.
Lesson Learnt: Food with a view carries a price that doesn't sit well with the budget traveller. So we just did the view and then we returned to the basement for some food that was more in our price range.
Yebisu Garden place turned out to be a real find. It had a beer museum and entry was free. Get in! The Welling Gang would have loved it. It was great museum. It contained a full description of the brewing process but only in Japanese. What I picked up from the museum. Barley, Hops, Water, yeast....BEER! There was also a strange art display of photographs of people riding dwarf horses. The lady who had taken the pictures took great pleasure in showing us around so we looked interested.
Time was pressing and a thirst for further viewing of the city from on high was building.
Shinjuku quenched that thirst! The Tokyo government building observation deck on the 45th floor. Check that out. 6 floors up on the previous event and still not a penny spent. View was very nice.
Some people are never happy. Particularly when they have been advised that there is a gem available just around the corner. Getting high was free but staying high would cost.
The Park Hyatt Hotel New York Bar and Grill in Tokyo which has been made famous by the film 'Lost in Translation'. (You know the one? Bloke from Ghostbuster's and Kingpin films whisky commercial in Tokyo and hooks up with girl whose boyfriend has left her in the Hotel. Something like that anyway) is on the 52nd floor and getting there is free. Even if you are dressed like a vagrant, which is a new look I'm sporting. I would like to think that we were being stared at because I bear an uncanny resemblence to Scarlett Johannson! But maybe not.
A level of cool is required when you are handed the menu in an establishment such as this. It takes all of ones inner poise to not go wide eyed and choke when you see the price. This is even more difficult if you are attempting to exist on a limited budget. 1000 Yen for a bottle of Beer! That's 5 quid. Add 10% service charge and although the bank isn't broken it's quaking at the thought and the manager has his finger poised to call you and tell you to not order a second one. (Simon, can you believe this is your sister spending 5 whole british pounds on a bottle of Sapporo beer?? No longer can you sing Simply Red's 'Money's Too Tight To Mention' at me in reference to me being tight-fisted!)
It was worth every penny. We arrived at the top at dusk and nursed our drinks for the best part of an hour as we watched it get dark over Tokyo and all the Neon lights come on. It doesn't get much better than that! Well worth giving up work for! I was in my element - the only thing that could have enhanced the experience would have been spotting a celebrity!
The evening was completed by wandering into the sprawling mass of neon lights that is Shinjuku at night. We nearly braved a Pachinko parlour (a kind of vertical pinball game) but instead just stood and gawped at the rows of Japanese business men hooked on this game! We will master this game before we leave Japan.
We both enjoyed getting high in Tokyo!!
# posted by Rhodri @ 9:01 am 
