Day 5

The last full day of the adventure.

In the morning, we went through Akihabara, the crazy Electronic District. My favourite store is eight floors; each floor being about twice the size of a large Tesco. Further along the same train line, we arrived at Ryogoku; where three times a year the Sumo is held.


Next door is the simply outstanding Edo Tokyo Museum, which is a must for anyone regardless of age or interest in museums. It's a fantastic assembly of memorabilia and life-sized recreations of the creation and development of Tokyo. You can even walk through huge models of old temples and a to-scale construction of the main bridge between Edo Tokyo and the outside of the city. My favourite part was a display of the devastating earthquake that hit many decades ago. I didn't realise how destructive it was, and how much of Tokyo had to be rebuilt. The ways in which new buildings have to be earthquake-proofed before they are green-lit is complicated but one of those 'better to safe than sorry' situations.


This is Dad giving Barabara a lift on a rickshaw; the word itself being a merge of the kanji for "man" "power" and "car".

We stopped at Ginza, the large shopping area laid out along a huge stretch of road, and then rode the driverless monorail over to my favourite area of Tokyo: Odaiba. I love the place and I think Dad and Barbara were impressed. Dad seemed particularly thrilled with the way the monorail wound round the Rainbow Bridge and the complexities of it's engineering. He filmed the journey; hopefully I'll be able to stick up the video as it is something worth seeing.

We watched the sun set over the Tokyo sky-line while eating Double Deckers; one hell of a present! Dad managed to get a pretty decent picture, but with the fake Statue of Liberty, Rainbow Bridge - which flashes in only green and yellow?! - and Tokyo Tower at different depths, the perspective will never be as good as seeing it first-hand. You really have to come to get the full effect.


We finished at the Toyota Showroom, tried some cars, and played a few reaction timing games. One of the games was hitting the buttons on a wall while they flashed on and off. We didn't do too well, but I blame it on the instructions being in Japanese. A terrible reason, but it's nice to shift the blame.



Again, another fantastic day. A bit more laid back, but after the four days leading to it, I think we deserved it!