Japan 2010 Day 11

Today was planned for Ginza and Asakusa. Getting around by JR was going to make things a bit different than the previous trip where we used the Tokyo Metro. We didn't start the day until 8:30am where we met downstairs for a quick breakfast at the hotel then headed to Hamamatsucho Station to take the Yamanote line to Yurakucho. This would deposit us near Ginza. We just needed to get out the back side of the station and we were on the edge of Ginza.

It was still before 10am when we got there but we walked down a few streets then found the main street and passed by the Sony building. With the aid of the on street maps it was just a few minutes until we found the statue of Godzilla that was such a problem to find on the last trip. I guess it's much easier to find things again than it is to just find things...

After the brief stop at the Godzilla statue we made our way out to Hibiya Park where we walked around it once, found a heron and took pictures of that. Found a couple stray cats. Found a band practicing for a show later in the day. Then decided to head back in for the Sony building. Upon returning to the Sony building we found that it does not open until 11. This meant we walked further down the street to the Kabuki-za theather and took a couple pictures of that. We then walked back to the Sony building but there was still 20 minutes before they were opening so we sat on some stone stools across the street for the duration then crossed over just before they opened.

The Sony building was slightly better than I remembered the last visit being but still nothing like the stories I've heard they were like several years ago. As with before it is a large showroom for all their current and up and coming electronics, from cameras, to mp3 players, to cell phones, to television and computers. The big up and coming thing of course is 3D televisions and they even had a presentation on them that was conducted in Japanese but we sat in anyway along with a couple other gaijin. The glasses technology is a bit different from the older way of doing things with the glasses being electronic and they basically block and show left to right at intervals to make the 3D work. They are large and sort of bulky but it is obvious they are designed to work over actual glasses a person may have to wear besides the 3D glasses. Unfortunately for me the technology still doesn't seem to be compatible with me from most of the demonstration. In 2 parts of the demo they used animated movies and those were not so bad for me without a lot of motion. Once things started to move all I could see wa blur and/or flashing characters. For part of the demo they had a PS3 that was capable of doing 3D for game. We got to play a few moments of Motostorm II. This was the most succesful 3D for me. I suspect it is because the models are 3D and the rendering can actually cause the 3D to exist. It is not a set of cameras capturing 2D images to simulate 3D but rather the game telling the 3D how to work. That falls into the sport demo which was of some soccer matches recorded in 3D. Those were like seeing cardboard cutouts of the various items on the screen as though they were different distances from me in 3D. So there was a sort of 3D effect except the objects still appeared to be 2D. I think to me it is still technology that is too far off from any real success to take seriously. I also do not think I will care about it until they can do it without an extra pair of glasses to wear. All in all though the Sony building was probably more intesting this time than last.

After the Sony building we walked up to a Freshness Burger down near Hibiya Park we had seen near the Godzilla statue. I wanted to show Ronni the Freshness Burger because I liked them a lot on the last trip. More than Mosburger. I had the salsa burger, fries and a beer. The beer was a problem for the guy at the tap because they were on the end of the mini keg or something so it took a few extra moments to get me the drink. The fries are potato wedges and very tasty and the burger was both messy and spicy as I had remembered it from the last trip. I was very happy with it. McDonald's has nothing on them. As the pictures will show the day was overcast with bouts of rain the trip into Freshness Burger got us through one bout of rain, which was nice.

From lunch we walked back to Yurakucho and took the Yamanote to Ueno. In reading the maps couldn't find a JR that really gets close to Asakusa so I found that if we out at Ueno and took the non-park side (apparently the Higashi-Ueno exit and not the Iriya exit unfortunately) exit then we could take a straight walk to Asakusa. I was absolutely correct in this but I suspect the walk was in the mile and half to 2 mile range rather than the shorter walk I expected it to be. Needless to say we walked for a bit before we got to Asakusa proper.

We basically wandered the stalls and shopped for gifts and had another of the deep fried bean paste filled dumplings (this time I got the apricot flavor as did Ronni, first time I did not purchase the green tea flavor) and also eventually another soft serve ice cream. Ronni found a cookies and cream flavor and I had one called Ogura, Hokkaido. I still can't remotely say what the flavor is but I enjoyed it a lot. In my defense it was the unknown nature of the flavor that made me get it though for Scott I should have gotten the sweet potato flavor and for George I probably should have gotten the black sesame flavor. Should we manage another trip (hopefully in better weather perhaps I will try one of those. After a bit more walking and shopping we headed back to our hotel by way of the Asakusa line of the Tokyo Metro rather than walking any distance to the JR trains which just do not appear to come close to Asakusa.

We stopped at Daimon which put us right by Hamamatsucho Station and went in and reserved seats to Matsumoto for Thursday to see the black castle then took a short tour to make sure of where The Dream Factory is for dinner. This was the Italian restaurant we ate at by Marina's suggestion on the last trip. He was not yet open but it is easier to get to from the Villa Fontaine than it is from the Shiba Park Hotel. At that point we turned back in to the hotel to relax until dinner time where I had a beer and wrote up to this point.

For dinner we walked down the street to visit The Dream Factory which is the Italian restaurant from my last trip to Japan, of course recommended by Marina. The chef is trained from Italy, Milano area I believe, and specializes in pizza and lasagna. I had the house wine (2 glasses) and we ordered the bruschetta for an appetizer. I had the standard lasagna and Ronni had a Margherita but with some peperoni to boot. The food was very good, I did steal a slice of her pizza. The crust is very very thin but the pizza was tasty and enjoyable. The lasagna was really good, though I had expected a red sauce rather than the bechamel. Either way I liked it a lot. I was craving a grappa by the end of the meal but they didn't appear to have one. They gave us a couple biscotti with a small cup of amoretto for dipping for dessert on the house which was very nice. I finished out with an espresso. From there we walked back to the hotel to prepare for an early day of travel to Matsumoto and the black castle on the following day.

The light picture day (owing to the weather and partially to the repeat scenery) can be found here.