hanging out near Skytree tower, the new Tokyo landmark

Saturday started with a fantastic sunny day. As we ate breakfast, E-san's sister pointed out something on TV. The hosts were advertizing some food as Skytree parfait, or burger or ice cream as those were food served around the new broadcasting tower in Tokyo. Because neither of us had ever been there, our first destination was easily decided.

The are looked rundown as there were only small houses and no major retail chains nearby. Also the metro station was not very crowded and we had to follow one of those A-Z mapbook that E-san conveniently brought with her to find the right place toward the tower. Surprisingly enough, the tower is built very close to rail tracks and a canal.  On that day, the tower was already 497m high, with a target of reaching 634m when finished in 2012.

It was very impressive and neck-twisting to gaze at the difference in scale with the other building being constructed nearby. We settled across the canal with a superb view of the construction site, and had a "skytree coffee" whie watching the many Japanese tourists also admiring the new tower.

 

 

E-san mentionned that here is a way of getting a picture of  the tower and its reflection in  he canal, so we started walking away along the water, while looking for lunch. We spotted an area map and walked towards one bridge she recognized. We were still in shitamachi and even Asakusa area, even if I had no idea whereabout really. But E-san spotted a nice shoukudo place (home cooking restaurant) where we could sample some simple homecooking recipes. It's one of those small palce with 10 chairs where a single person cooks and serves the food. We asked for a small portion of rice to go with our kuroke (creamy potato paddies). We ate while discussing current drama with the hostess and favourite actors and actresses. E-san made fun of me asking if I really didn't live in Tokyo since I knew more about it than herself.

After that first pit stop, we continued on our journey to capture the 2 towers...Along the way, old town Tokyo was quietly getting busy, while impromptu gardens were lying out on the streets.

 

And then eventually, we spotted a satisfying point of view and got ourselves a memorable picture. It was my first time chasing for the perfect picture so it was with a sense of achievement that I bagged that landmark in my memory card.

 With that, we looked for a metro station and had to walk quite a long time before rejoining civilization, ie sports centre, shopping malls and even a high school volleyball tournament to determine Tokyo representative team in the national high school volleyball tournament....but we were tired and just hopped inside the nearest station toward Ginza.