Feb 14th.
Today was my first full day in Tokyo. After getting myself up, showered, I eventually left the apartment at around 2pm and made my way to Ikebukuro station and bought a Suica card for use on the public transport.
One thing I was nervous about before coming here was how hard it might be to navigate my way around the train network. I’ve travelled on London/Paris/New York before, but this was a new system and completely foreign.
Turns out, I had nothing to worry about, at least not when I had access to Google Maps. Unsure of what I wanted to do, I ended up making my way to the Tokyo Skytree. The largest ‘tower’ in the world and the second largest man-made structure. Due to the time I arrived, I was able to watch the sunset from the top, and catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji in the distance, which was pretty cool.
After coming back down to ground level, I had to decide what I wanted to do next. I had bookmarked a few free things to do, that were happening during my time here. One was illuminations at Tokyo City Dome, which sounded alright. So I made my way there.
I literally knew nothing about the area or what it was before arriving, so when I saw there was a roller coaster, I had to find my way on it. I got myself a ticket and joined the queue.
Now, it was dark by the time I got there, so while I could see the coaster, I wasn’t really aware of just how big it actually was. I could see there was a big hill at the start (but then, don’t all coasters have that?) and I could see that it came through a hole in the wall on top of the building opposite. That was kind of it.
The above video shows the full coaster in POV, in daylight. You can see just how steep that first drop is and when you’re not expecting it, it feels even steeper. It was fun though, especially as I wasn’t expecting to ride a coaster at all.
After the coaster, I decided to make my way back to the apartment. Stopping off at a supermarket to buy some snacks for the remainder of the evening.
The pocket wifi provided by the AirBnB has been a godsend, I connected it up to my anker power bar and shoved both in my rucksack, and didn’t have to think about it again.