We bicycled across the city to really get her back into the pulse of this throbbing city from street corner to freeway overpass. (It turns out that Tokyo-ites have a real passion in their freeway exchanges because their designs are unique in the world. You can even buy a book of the exchanges! Click here to see some of them.)
The whole weekend was a surprise with an eye to what she enjoys doing.
The whole weekend was a surprise with an eye to what she enjoys doing.
We cruised through the center of town, stopped at a gorgeous book store with English language books (!!!!) and had a classic lunch at a patio restaurant under a massive oak tree. From there we peddled on through the city, under more overpasses and down to the water front where a water taxi whisked us and our bikes across Tokyo harbor to the ultra modern neighborhood built on reclaimed land called Odaiba.
The vistas of Tokyo were amazing.
We of course had our bikes with us so we swooped around the bay and off and around some of the sights including... The Statue of Liberty. Hey if NYC has one why can't Tokyo?
We spent the late afternoon lounging in our hotel's sumptuous pool and hot tub that were built on a massive patio overlooking the harbour. From there we meandered around the area to check out the evening scene. No... This does not look like front street Kaslo at 8:00 PM on a Saturday. :)
Check out this huge building that is turned into a disco light show; how do they do it?
Or maybe this, a five story high transformer performing for the crowds with a Manga movie being projected on the skyscraper behind; check out the size of the people at the robot's feet!
After our meander in the area, we were just coming down the massive marble staircase in the lobby of our hotel when everything began banging and clattering. The massive chandelier was swaying. All of the blinds of all of the huge windows were crashing against the wall. It was quite a shake. We found out in the morning it was 7.8 on the Richter scale. We rushed to stand under one of the massive marble pillars. The staff there was helping people move to save places.
This really shook us up... No pun intended but everyone around us took it in stride.
Once again, this place is amazing. Nothing fell over. Nothing was broken. Not even wine bottles came off the shelves. Everything was fine. Nothing happened in Tokyo other than some subways were stopped for 15 minutes. The elevators were all shut off while they got checked.
This photograph with the cake was Shelley's birthday cake that we had out on the deck after the earthquake. This evening made us both think of Carole King: "I feel the earth move under my feet".
The next morning again found us exploring this area by bike, past huge ships at the docks,
around massive skyscrapers and along green ways where we stumbled on thousands, yes thousands of young people dressed up in all colors of the rainbow with t-shirts that all said "color me RAD". They were excited, were dressed up and totally excited about this event. After several halting conversations we gathered it was some big annual 5km race on Tokyo for Peace and Love where runners run through massive clouds of rainbow colors to end up in some final colour fest.
Check out the web site here.
Amazing what we learn every day here!
On our way back across the city by bike of course we had to drop in at the Jamaca Fest for some food and a rest before we headed back to our home nook of this amazing city.
So... Now no more happy 60th for Shelley. Been there and done that. Our present is to be together, to be alive to what this world has to offer and learn more everyday.
I love your blog I feel as if I am there with you. So glad to see Shelley in Nelson
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