We had a really nice day out yesterday (Saturday 11th April). Clara had requested to visit
Tokyo Tower and climb up the steps. Up until yesterday, I had never been inside / up the tower so Yuki and I thought it was a great idea. It was also a beautiful day with blue skies and a nice cool breeze - spring is well and truly here and the summer heat is just around the corner.
The last time I visited Tokyo Tower was with Neil, a friend from Skye. We decided against climbing the tower because of the very long queue of people waiting to enter. There was also a long queue yesterday but as we were not taking the lift to the top, we could enter straight away and start our climb up the steps. Good exercise for us all and some nice views from the main observatory.
I was a bit peeved at the way the operators tried to squeeze every last ¥ (yen) out of us. I had thought that our initial entrance fee would allow us to climb to the very top, but it only got us to the main observatory. To climb to the secondary observatory would cost an additional ¥600 each. I really wanted to get to the highest possible point but really was not going to pay any extra.
Still the views were still very interesting and I was reminded what a monster Tokyo is - urban sprawl stretching as far as the eye could see. Clara also had fun playing on some of the amusements at the base of the tower and beat me at a game of air hockey.
After Tokyo Tower, Clara and I went to a cafe while Yuki did some shopping. We then went for some dinner at an Italian restaurant which we all enjoyed. Clara was full of energy and spent a lot of time running around outside the restaurant after dinner. The restaurant is in a kind of amphitheater below a large office building so we could watch her running around like a lunatic and exploring. The exercise was really needed for her as she managed to eat a massive margherita pizza followed by a piece of chocolate cake.
Yuki then suggested that we visit the nearby
Tokyo Metropolitan Govt Building, popular with tourists and locals alike for the views from the top. As it was nighttime by then, we were treated to all the colourful Tokyo lights. Tokyo is pretty by night and ugly by day.
All in all, we had a great day together and I will have some fond memories to keep me going through the week while I am away from home. Golden Week, a week with 3 or 4 national holidays beckons towards the end of April and the start of May. I will probably have to work most of it but will try and get a day off so that we can all go fishing together. I'll keep you posted.
Tokyo Tower
A couple of months ago, whilst drinking in my local bar, I met a guy from Indonesia who owns a nearby Indonesian restaurant called Makashi. As a fan of Indonesian food, a couple of weeks later Yuki, Clara and I all went to the restaurant for a lovely meal. I then went to the upstairs bar called Samasama for a few 'shandies'. It turned out that the owner of the restaurant has organised a Footsal tournament on the 26th April and I was invited to play for the restaurant team.
As I have never played Footsal before, I was a bit worried about the rules. However, the apprehension was unjustified and I was soon to discover that Footsal is essentially 5-a-side football. I was pretty excited to have the chance to play football again after a long hiatus, and was keen to show off my skills. However, things did not go as well as planned, I pulled a muscle after 20 seconds, was exhausted after 1 minute, and the limited footballing skills I thought I had were nowhere to be seen. To add insult to injury (my pulled muscle), all the other Japanese players were fit and displayed some great skills. 
Despite the fact that the actual football did not go as well as I had hoped, the after match party was a lot of fun and I met a lot of really nice people. Makashi is a great place to eat and drink and I am sure to be a regular visitor there in future. Good fun.
