Tokyo Tidings

Figuring that a western-style theme park would be the most likely place to find some Christmas spirit I headed for Universal Studios on Christmas day. As you can see from the picture they certainly celebrate it in grand style. It has to be said though that the tree, which is the biggest in Japan, was about the extent of the Christmas feel.

I enjoyed the few rides that I went on but was overall somewhat disappointed in the day. There are too few attractions at the park for the number of people who attend so I only managed three rides. The best was Jurassic Park, which has has a brilliant plunge into darkness. The new Spiderman ride was very technically impressive though.

Over New Year I finally had a reasonable chunk of time off and I put it to good use, travelling up to Tokyo for four days. Unfortunately most other people also had a reasonable chunk of time off over the same period so that meant that a lot of attractions were closed. Still with only four days I was able to fill the time quite easily just walking around the many different areas of the city.

This is about as close as you can get to the Imperial Palace, no matter what time of year you are there, but I think you'll agree it's most picturesque.

And here's the Kabuki Theatre in the Ginza district. Ginza is also a big area for shopping but I wasn't really interested in that, although I was pleased to find a little Bonsai shop. Of course I also stopped in the Akihabara electronics district but as I am not in the market for any gadgets right now it was a very quick stop.

Possibly one of the most exciting things I saw was a trainee sumo wrestler near the sumo stadium (closed of course). Unfortunately I didn't get a picture as he went into the McDonalds too quickly... guess the weight has to come from somewhere!

New Year's Eve on Odaiba had some pretty views back over towards the city but the celebrations were a little strange. Although there was a countdown once it was over nothing really happened. I realise of course that New Year isn't such a big party time in Japan but it seemed strange that so many people had gathered for something so anticlimactic.

New Year's Day was more special, although the queue outside the shrine had to be seen to be believed it was fun to get caught up in. Headed back to the Kak that night.