Tokyo Tower

I've seen photos. I've taken photos from a distance. I've seen my friends' photos. Yet somehow, I've never had a desire to go there directly and take photos. Today, I finally was there at the base of Tokyo Tower and finally I took some photos up close. We didn't go up, but to stand at the foot of the icon ... that was enough for me. There are taller buildings in Tokyo that also afford some panoramic views. I've already been up the CN Tower in my hometown of Toronto a number of times throughout my life, so I didn't feel the need to add the Tokyo Tower, which is shorter and affords many of the same sky high views as other high buildings in Tokyo, to the list of went-up-that.

But I don't mind adding the tower to the list of have-a-pic-of-that.

Today, is Umi no Hi day, which can be translated as "beach day", the day that most public beaches in Japan open for the summer. It's a national holiday and hence a day off for my husband. We went into Ropponggi for some brunch at Suji's (which also has a branch in Seoul, Korea) and then walked towards the tower.

I didn't get an exact map to Suji's. I only remembered when I had read about it about 2.5 months ago, that is was south of Ropponggi sation, walking on the left side of the building that has the Citibank. Like other, not-to-scale maps to restaurants and landmarks, this map deceptively showed the eatery to be closer to the station than it actually was. We were about to turn back when I literally almost tripped over the signboard just outside the restaurant. Suji's serves western brunch style food and is priced as if it caters to the foreign crowd; in Eastern Ontario, you would never find 2 eggs, toast, homefries and bacon with coffee for 2200 per person. But this is definitely not Eastern Ontario. And it does open at 9 am for brunch on weekends and holidays, which is about 2.5 hours earlier than most other places. Nice enough place. Very spacious. Food was even good enough for a return visit when we get that craving for a western breakfast at 9 am in the morning on a weekend. But not fantastic enough to go running back in any big hurry. At least, not for my tastes. My husband (who is also a picky eater) loved the pancakes, but you get 3 large fluffy pancakes, so it was a lot to finish.

To burn off some of the brunch (I had the Mexican and my husband had the blueberry pancakes), we decided to walk up to the Tokyo Tower to get some close up shots.

This was one of my favourites. Although, since it was overcast, I can't say that I loved any of the photos I snapped today, but this one was interesting enough to make do, given the constraints of the day. It was rather hot outside, so we called it a day and ventured off the opposite way. We came home by Hamamatsucho station, about 1.2 km from Tokyo Tower.