Yesterday I met my friend Masumi at Hamamotsucho station for a day of fun.
She had ordered tickets to see the musical "The Phantom of Opera" for that day so we decided to go out before the show started. We were going to go to the Pokemon Center, which was right next to the station, but it was PACKED! Literally the wait just to get in the store was 1 hour. Since there's a Pokemon Center in Nagoya as well, it wasn't a top priority for me that day. So instead we went to Tokyo Tower, which used to be the tallest building in Tokyo, until the new Skytree was built.
On our way we passed through a Buddhist temple, which was really beautiful and was full of activity because today was a special holiday, 3,5,7 Day. This is a day were children ages 3, 5, ad 7 are celebrated and usually dress up in traditional Japanese clothes and head to the local shrine or temple. I didn't really see any children, but a service was going on inside the shrine. Also there was an area that was FILLED with cute god statues. Each god had a name, and Masumi told me that they were individual families' gods. They all wore hats, but some had other accessories and toys placed there by their family. There was also a monkey handler having his monkey do tricks outside the temple, very cool to see.
When we made it to Tokyo Tower, it was still morning, which was a great time to go; it wasn't crowded and we were able to just hop into the elevator and head straight up.
It was a gorgeous day so the view was BEAUTIFUL! We got our picture taken together there.
When we were done, we went back down, where a small carnival like area was set up with all sorts of games and small rides for children. I saw an old lady riding an electronic panda. Funniest thing I've seen in awhile.
After we got back inside, we went shopping. I had no intention of visiting Tokyo Tower when I first came here, but after shopping there I highly recommend it for people wanting souvenirs There were tons of stuff, and all relatively cheap. And I was able to nearly finish out all of my souvenir shopping for everyone back home.
Then we went to the musical, which was... AMAZING! I never had a chance to see the show in America, and I always wanted to. I love the movie and know the story and music very well, so despite being in Japanese I had no trouble understanding. The music still sounded great in Japanese, but I'm definitely biased for the English versions of the songs. The characters' acting was superb, they acted and sounded just like they did in the English version, and the Phantom's voice was still sexy in Japanese. <3
It was a great day and I thank Masumi so much for taking me, she's such a sweetheart!
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