June 3rd: Sumo, Beer, Photography & Tower

It was raining pretty hard today so we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel. We walked to the Tokyo Sumo Museum first. It was very small but we learned about Sumo wrestling from its beginnings. At the end we watched a competition on the tv. We would have rather seen a sumo match in person but the Ryogoku Kokugikan (sumo stadium) was not open in June. As we were leaving we passed 2 Sumo Wrestlers who had to walk through the rain in wooden flip flops (high heel) with special socks. They were huge (flip flops and the men)!
We walked around the corner to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. It provides a glimpse into both past and present Tokyo. The inside was full of exhibits and a ton of school children on a field trip! Unfortunately we rushed through because they were extremely hyper, loud, annoying, obnoxious, misbehaved, and most likely have ADD.

On our last night in Hong Kong (at airport hotel) I saw a purse that I really wanted in the mall. Unfortunately the store was closed and our flight was early the next day. I researched Agatha Paris online to find stores elsewhere. There were a few in Tokyo. We walked through a mall to grab lunch and found a huge department store. There was a Agatha Paris booth but they only had jewelry. Do'h. The calzone we had was worth the stop!
Next stop: Sapporo Beer Museum. Unfortunately the museum was hot and everything was in Japanese. We rushed through and enjoyed the photographs. We've been to breweries before (Guinness Brewery in Dublin, Ireland) so we understood the beer making process. We were on fire and only wanted cold beer, who cares how you make it! ha ha. The tasting platter (4 beers) was only $3.50. What a deal.

As you know, I love photography. I was very excited to visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. We bought tickets for 2 exhibitions of Daido Moriyama's work. Ⅰ. RETROSPECTIVE 1965-2005’ and ‘Ⅱ. HAWAII’. The photographs in the Hawaii exhibition were impressive but not as outstanding as his earlier works. I have a bad habit of being bias since I should be a famous photographer. Totally my fault though. I need to submit work to get attention. Duh! Daido used the same gritty film that I did for my senior porfolio in college.
We took the train/metro to Roppongi Hills. This was a new posh area that opened in 2003. 'Built by building tycoon Minoru Mori, the mega-complex incorporates office space, apartments, shops, restaurants, cafés, movie theatres, a museum, a hotel, a major TV studio, an outdoor amphitheatre, and a few parks. The centrepiece is the 54-story eponymous Mori Tower. Mori's stated vision was to build an integrated development where high-rise inner-urban communities allow people to live, work, play, and shop in close proximity to eliminate commuting time. He argued this would increase leisure time, quality of life, and benefit Japan's national competitiveness. Seventeen years in the making, the complex opened to the public on April 23, 2003.' We had a great time window shopping. The restaurants looked mmm mmm good but we were not dressed appropriately.
On our walk towards Tokyo Tower we found a restaurant called Monsoon Cafe. The atmosphere & decorations were great. Felt like we were eating in a jungle. We had chicken satay as an appetizer. Fraser had Chiang Mai-Style Coconut Curry Noodles & I had Shrimp & Deep Fried Tofu in Chili Sauce. I was a little scared about deep fried tofu but it was great. My Fresh Mango Mojito was yummy and I tried a Umaimono-wa-Umai (Miyazaki) Shochu. It tasted similar to vodka mixed with sake (not very good).

A short walk to the Tokyo Tower. It resimbles the Eiffel Tower and is covered in bright lights. Apparently (we did not see it ourselves) a Statue of Liberty replica is also in Odaiba, Japan. The 1st stop was 150 meters (not high enough) so we paid extra to go up to the observation tower (250 meters). There was a little fog but we still had fantastic views of amazing Tokyo. Next month they are going to start building another tower, Rising East Project. When completed it will be the tallest artificial structure in Japan at 610.58 m (2,003 ft) tall.
As if Tokyo was not perfect enough, the people are wonderful. So friendly and helpful. While we were waiting in the subway station for our train, a woman gave us her subway ticket. She said she did not need it anymore and we may find some use for it. It was an unlimited subway pass! How sweet.