Invasion of Area 11 – The Aftermath Day 3 & Day 4

Since these days are just about sightseeing more than anything else and is not really otaku related, I've decided to lump them together under the same post.

Imperial Palace

Getting off at the Tokyo Station, we made our way to the Imperial Palace on a sunny Monday morning. On the way, I got a glimpse of the Shin Marunouchi that we were supposed to stop by, but it was a bit too early anyway, so I doubt that there would be anything to see. Walked around the palace site and took pictures, although we could not enter the Imperial Gardens as it was closed on Mondays.

 

Statue of Kusunoki Masashige

Asakusa

Located here is Tokyo's largest and most significant Buddhist temple, the Sensoji. Leading to the temple was the Nakamise Shopping street where tourists can purchase souvenirs and other goodies. Apart from paying respect to the deities, visitors can also draw an Omikuji and visit the Asakusa shrine just beside the temple itself. There's also the Kappabashi-dori, an entire street dedicated to selling kitchenware. Cruises are also available at the wharf at the Sumida River, just a short walk from the Sensoji.

 

Entrance to the Nakamise shopping street

Tokyo University

Having seen and heard of this prestigious university from many sources(mainly anime and J Dramas ^^; ) we stopped by, to take photos of the campus vicinity as well as the famous Akamon, one of the 3 entrances leading into the university itself.

 

The Akamon(Red Door)

Tokyo Dome

With no real reason to visit this place other than the fact to see the actual building itself(Okay, so I came here because I was inspired by Eyeshield 21), the stadium was just a short distance away from the Tokyo University. Interestingly enough, they've managed to incorporate a small theme park built around the stadium.

 

The Tokyo Dome. Hiruma has been incapacitated, and Sena is now playing the QB role wtf?!

Roppongi

One of the trendier and more upscale wards in Tokyo, we made our way here around dusk, for sightseeing purposes of course, as we took note of the famous Roppongi Hills where you can find virtually every type of commercial premises in the same building.

 

A shot of the Roppongi Hills

Ikebukuro

Seeing as how this will be our last night here, we headed back to the hotel earlier than usual to shop at Animate. There was still a need to practice some self restraint, as we would be heading back to Akiba later for one last time to buy stuff too.

 

Just some of the loot we got from Animate. Yes, that's a Hentai manga.

Hakone

We checked out from our hotel at around 9am the next morning and made our way to the ryokan(traditional inn) to dump our luggage. We then proceeded to Hakone, a popular tourist destination even among the locals for its hotsprings. This is where we would spend the entire day, as it was quite a distance from our inn, and a round trip of Hakone would set us around 5-6 hours. Getting hold of the "Hakone Free Pass", visitors can have unlimited rides on the many modes of transportation within Hakone, be it trains, cable cars, ropeways and even a ship. The main purpose for this expensive journey to this locale was to fulfill Evern's lifelong dream of witnessing Mt Fuji upclose, which turned out not so close after all, but still enough to satisfy him lawl. At the end of a long trip, we headed back to the inn to soak inside the open air bath(no onsens here) and called it a day.

 

Our inn for the night

 

 

At the bottom of the cable car station

 

 

A blurry shot of Mount Fuji

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