Scaredy Cat Travels

Tokyo – Ginza, Shiodome, Tokyo Station

Transportation: trains, subway, feet, avoid taxis 

Hotel: The Conrad 

Plans: This morning starts out with the free breakfasts that come with our Conrad AMEX special, a $2000 value based on my estimations. We only get two so we’ll rock, paper, scissors to decide who eats and stuff bacon in our pockets for the loser.

Fun Fact – There’s a breakfast restaurant chain in Japan called Eggslut. Please God, let there be a gift shop.

After breakfast we’ll visit the Ginza area starting with the Art Aquarium, the museum I mentioned that is comprised only of art installations of goldfish. I will visit with a heavy heart as I recently, accidentally killed my beloved goldfish, Zach and Rachael. While trying to move them to a bigger, better tank something went horribly awry. I may never forgive myself.

We’ll spend the rest of the day exploring Ginza then head over to Tokyo Tower later in the day.

This leads to my last Klook dilemma. As of right now, we still have one attraction available on our passes. Tokyo Tower is one of the options but Klook only offers access to the main observation deck at 150 meters. There’s a smaller top deck though 100 meters higher. This is what I planned to purchase separately before the mishap. I need to decide whether the top deck will be worth potentially losing the use of the third Klook pass and effectively double paying.

Tokyo Tower was built in 1958 as a communications tower using steel recycled from US tanks damaged in the Korean War. Renowned “tall building” Architect Tachu Naito was hired to design the building. He must have been busy that week because he essentially just recreated the Eiffel Tower only nine meters taller. At 1052 ft., it was at the time the tallest building in the world.

Tokyo Tower remained the tallest building in Japan until it was eclipsed by construction of Tokyo Skytree at over 2000 feet in 2010. Despite now only being the second tallest building in Japan, it remains the most iconic silhouette on the skyline.

Fun Fact – over the next few months Tokyo Skytree will be illuminated in color schemes inspired by Disney characters to celebrate the Disney company’s 100th anniversary.

Scaredy Cat rating: Zero paws for now.