Tokyo - Day Two

Our second day started with room service for breakfast!

The view from our room includes these tall, skinny buildings.  

After breakfast, we set out on our next Tokyo adventure.

In case you were wondering, motorcycles are not allowed on the sidewalk.

In our two days here, we've been riding a LOT of trains.

Some stations look like this:

"I don't think that's our train."  Jeff observed as this one whizzed by without stopping.

Other stations look like this:

Our destination for the morning was MariCar, a MarioKart-inspired go-kart tour of Tokyo.

It had been sprinkling rain all morning and we weren't sure what we'd find when we got there,

All the karts were covered when we arrived.

We found out that yes, the tour was still a go!

They gave us the option to pick out a costume.  There were many choices available.

This is what we settled on: Banana, Pikachu, Minion, and minimalist Iron Man. (we all gave Jeff a bit of hassle for his choice of not wearing a full suit like the rest of us)

Once we were suited up, had a few laughs, and took a bunch of pictures, we went outside to find all of the karts uncovered.

While we were out there, this pulled up.  Can we take that one??

Nope, had to pick one of the little ones.  Here we are, lined up on the road, ready to embark.

Jeff waiting for the go.  He was wearing a head-mounted video recorder, an option for the tour.  He brought up the rear and filmed most of the tour.

After getting underway, sitting at our first red light, I took pictures of everyone.

Jeff - having fun!

The banana.  Having fun karting, not so much fun getting his picture taken.

Pikachu!!

A little later on.  Scared banana!  The bus was very big and very close.

We saw lots of big buildings, this one was interesting.

Neat building.

At some point, I noticed this warning sticker on my kart.  Apparently, mine was the only one that (still?) had it.  I don't think our whimsical suits counted as protective clothing.

At our first stop on the tour, a cool picture of our karts.

Wow, we drove a long way!  (haha)

A picture of our group, with Tokyo's version of the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

Farther off in the distance, the Tokyo SkyTree, a planned future stop during our time here.

This is the Rainbow Bridge, that we crossed in the karts.

Our group again.

And again, with Rainbow Bridge in the background.

I spotted a cormorant in the bay.

This was an interesting building.  Our tour guide said it was Fuji TV.

Photo bomb!

Another tour stop was the Tokyo Tower.

Shortly afterwards, it started to rain and continued for most of the rest of the tour.

Go-karting through Tokyo was INTENSE and FUN!  If anyone reading this finds themselves in Tokyo, we highly recommend MariCar.

Back on the train lines to get return to the hotel.  At one point we were in a subway car that had a ton of pictures of a horseback rider.  The train had placards inside and out, talking about the Japanese Paralympics.  I think we somehow ended up in the Equestrian car.  I was fine with that!

We rested in the hotel room for a while and then ventured out to the Ginza district, a massive shopping area.  We wandered into a few shops and I ended up getting a new cell phone.  Our cellphone provider, a Japanese company, has very limited service and inventory where we live.  However, we found one of their big stores here and went in to find out the options to replace my horrible phone.  It's been on the back burner for a while, I think neither Jeff or I had wanted to deal with it.  My phone hasn't worked right the whole time I've had it, even after having it serviced.  Tonight, after an hour or so, we walked out with a new phone for me.  I love it already.

Now we are eating pizza and watching some TV.  It was a long, fun day!