The Tokyo Sky Tree

Today’s Japanese Lesson

Map of Travels

[image of map]

Woke up to my first morning in Oshiage feeling super refreshed after finally sleeping in and fully recovering from the past few days of adventure. Today I’d made plans to hangout with Mai again as she’d be coming over to checkout some of the area and we’d hoped to visit the top of the Sky Tree. I spent some time preparing the agenda in the AM before kicking things off by heading down the street to grab some brunch at the LIFE grocery store. The store was pretty busy but nothing jumped out at me as super unique as I made my entrance. The store was nice and clean (but what isn’t in Japan) and I was able to locate some super fresh and cheap food right at the start. I had just walked in a few meters when I came to a large cooler filled with tons of fresh sushi and other unidentifiable foods. I was a bit excited and still a little nervous about trying new food so I opted to snag some of the sushi. After knowing I’d accomplished my primary goal, I proceeded to explore the rest of the store. I eventually was able to find myself a razor and some other toiletries as I hadn’t shaven at all since arriving in Japan. I then headed to the checkout where I learned more about the bagging system at the stores in Japan. I was a bit anxious given this was my first “grocery store” experience and I wasn’t sure if the checkout would be the same as at the convenience stores. I knew I had some large bills in my wallet and decided the easiest option would be to pay with a big bill instead of fumble with the coins trying to come up with exact change.

I got to the register and after some awkward japanese exchanges the cashier pointed me to a small kiosk just past the register. The checkout system is pretty unique in Japan. The shopping baskets at grocery stores are a certain color, let’s say grey, and once you checkout, the cashier will move all your items into a red basket and provide a few plastic bags if needed (you can obviously bring your own reusable ones). You’ll then grab the new red basket and depending on the store, continue to a kiosk where you’ll insert your money and pay for all of the groceries that were scanned. After paying, you’ll proceed to a small counter in which you’ll bag your own items.

It’s an interesting and efficient system but I’m not sure I would choose it over the US system (which still backs lines up if there’s no bagger and the cashier has to do it themselves). It’s also important to mention that most of the city grocery stores don’t load up huge carts and instead use smaller baskets and customers simply return to the store more regularly which allow this system to be more effective – you’re not bagging 5+ grocery bags. Anyhow, I was excited to try some of the sushi and my bento box that I’d purchased. Once I got back to the hotel I enjoyed my meal in my room and quickly showered up just in time for Mai’s arrival. Thankfully Mai had just recently graduated college and with graduation pending via the virus situation, she has a bit of free time to explore some new areas with me.

I met her at the station and already had most of the day planned out. We’d be checking out the Ashai brewery flagship building which featured a rooftop beer garden and a large monument (that I guess is supposed to be a golden poop?? – Japan is weird). After that, we’d walk along the water and checkout some fun parks and eventually make our way back to the Sky Tree to visit the Final Fantasy lounge and finish the evening with some dinner at a pretty legit ping-pong bar & restaurant I’d discovered. I’d found at this point that many of my favorite places didn’t actually appear on Google Maps and that I had to do a bit more digging before finding the real gems.

We began our walk to the brewery which would take about 20-30 minutes for us to arrive at the beer garden. Even though Mai doesn’t really like to drink, I figured she could enjoy the views and atmosphere while I sipped on some nice Japanese brews. It was a beautiful day so the walk was slow, relaxing, and peaceful.

While walking across one of the small rivers and before arriving to the brewery, we noticed an interesting statue that seems to represent barrel racing?… We eventually came up to the Asahi Brewery and quickly realized it was closed due to the virus. We decided to continue our peaceful walk along the waterfront as we ventured through some cool parks, saw a pretty legit ferry, and passed by some shrines before getting to the base of the Sky Tree.

As we approached the Sky Tree we decided to make our way over to the mall to checkout the shops and eventually head to the top of Sky Tree for some evening views. After walking around the shops we decided to stop at a cool little tea & coffee café to grab ourselves some mocha flavored desserts and coffee. The café was quite busy but we were lucky enough to grab a recently vacated booth. After resting a little, we decided to head to the base of the Sky Tree and to our dismay, it was also closed because of the crooked corona! The damn virus had once again put a burden on my trip and kept me from checking out this amazing Final Fantasy lounge (and probably some breathtaking views). Disappointed, we scrambled for a new plan, but not before popping my head into a Kirby themed café located near the entrance to the Sky Tree. Even without being able to reach the top of the Sky Tree, we were still able to catch some cool views from the mall’s accessible floors.

As the sun was beginning to set we decided to head for dinner a little earlier than initially planned. The place I found was a little bar that was situated on the 4^th floor of yet another inconspicuous building which was located along the waterfront. Having checked off many of my boxes for it being a super cool spot, I was pretty anxious and excited to visit. We had to hop on the train for just a few stops to get closer to the restaurant as it was located near Asakusa (neighboring city). We didn’t have to wander for long as we eventually found the restaurant and made our way upstairs.

We were greeted at the door and the place was super legit. There was instant vibes coming from this cool little restaurant/lounge and I once again couldn’t wipe the huge smile on my face as we made our way to our seat. As always with my favorite places, we removed our shoes at the door and were meant to sit on the ground at a low table. Once seated, we proceeded to look over the menu and as anticipated, they didn’t have an English menu. The place featured a number of smaller tables in which you could sit on small cushions while eating and drinking.

It also had amazing views of not only the waterfront, but also the now lit up Sky Tree in the distance. There was what appeared to be a full bar and 2 ping-pong tables that you could just hop on whenever without any extra costs. The server was a pretty hip and younger guy and the bartender was a super cute and quiet girl.

With Mai’s guidance of the menu we ordered up a gang of food and Mai even agreed to enjoy a drink or two which was pretty rare. I gained some liquid courage and decided to attempt to order my favorite cocktail, a Boulevardier, to show Mai how good of a drink it was. It wasn’t on the menu and me being my egoistic-self, decided to head over to the bar and proceed to try to explain to the server and bartender what a Boulevardier had in it and how to make it. Neither spoke more than a few words of English but we somehow managed to come to an outcome that resulted in an awesome and delicious creation. Our food slowly began to come out and was absolutely delicious. Like, some of the best food I’d had so far (minus the feast in Nikko). I ordered up another Boulevardier and we continued to grub and drink over some small-talk. After awhile, we decided to hop on the ping-pong tables and play a few round before ordering up some more food and another round of drinks (I switched to beer now to avoid forgetting how to get home).

There were quite a variety of different types of people in the restaurant. One table seemed to be a business team that was out for a happy hour to bond over some games. Another group just seemed like some friends catching up after a long time, and of course there was an abundance of couples on dates given how perfect this hidden gem was. The place was pretty much full the entire time we were there but was slowly beginning to thin out as closing time was sneaking up. We were pushing hour 3 of eating and drinking ourselves. With the place starting to wind down, we took advantage of the ping-pong tables one last time for a fun rally. The drinks were starting to hit me now and the night was beginning to get pretty blurry. After closing out the bill I walked Mai back to the station where she’d be heading one direction and myself another. We said our goodbyes and we went our separate ways in hopes to hanging out again soon. I somehow managed my way back to the hotel and was ready for another night of much needed rest after a long and eventful day.