Later on towards the tail end of my two-week visit to Tokyo, I noticed that I did a lot of activities in the cities north and northwest of where I was staying in Ginza, but I hadn’t really spent much time adventuring south. In response to that realization, I decided to spend a day adventuring to Koto City, during which I stopped by Small Worlds to check out their miniature museum.

As you can probably speculate from its name, Small Worlds is a museum filled with small worlds built from miniature models of real-world scenes. In other words, it’s basically a museum filled with massive-scale, professionally-designed dioramas. This is what I assumed as well, on my way there, I had a bit of an … incident.

A lot of websites have AI integration now, and although it can be convenient sometimes, it’s not quite at a stage of development yet where it is particularly reliable all of the time. To get to Small Worlds from Ginza, I took the Yurakucho Line to Toyosu Station and walked the rest of the way there. While on the train, I did some further research about what I was going to see at Small Worlds, when I came across an AI summary that made it seem like Small Worlds was actually an amusement park.

At that point, I was obviously very confused. I had gotten on the train expecting to look at advanced dioramas, but was then convinced that I was going to a theme park. I then wondered whether the “Small” part of “Small Worlds” meant that I was the small thing, and that I was going to a place where everything was disproportionately large and it was the exact opposite of what I had mentally pictured.

Upon arriving at the museum, I found out that my original expectation of what Small Worlds is was correct, and that I had just gotten trolled by AI.

The museum was divided into multiple different sections, with each section following a certain theme. The first area by the entrance was the Space Center.

The Space Center had a simulated rocket launch that happened once every half hour. I was lucky enough with my timing that the launch happened only a few minutes after my arrival, so I got to see it without having to come back and time it.

Next was the Global Village.

After that was the Creators Gallery.

In between two main exhibits, there was a miniature display and a wall full of screens. I didn’t realize this, but apparently, there were small hidden cameras placed inside some of the dioramas with live feeds going to these TVs. I guess a bunch of people probably saw me getting really close and scrunching my nose and squinting to see the miniature models better, without realizing that someone else is getting a nice close-up shot of my face.

Opposite of the screen was a model of Kansai International Airport. There was an “airport lounge” behind it, and the area was built with a bunch of runways and planes driving around the airport. This section had little openings in the runways which were accessible by tunnels; if you get on your hands and knees and crawl your way through the tunnel, you can pop your head out through these holes to get a more close-up view of the aircraft models.

If I remember correctly, these are more of the miniature displays that were in between the primary exhibit areas.

Similar to the Tokyo City View, Small Worlds also had a section featuring Evangelion. They had an Evangelion Hangar, which I imagine means that the robots are like aircraft and are stored in areas where they can be launched.

There was also an Evangelion Tokyo-III area; I’m not sure how this was different than the city of Tokyo and what connection it had with Evangelion, but I am guessing that it has something to do with the lore of the anime.

At the end of Gallery A on the third floor was the creative studio and workshop area. It was too late in the day for me to be able to start my own miniature model project in the workshop, but I did still get to see some of the staff members working on building some models.

In addition to this, there was also a 3D figure studio (not pictured) that I didn’t fully participate in. They had a section where you could get a free 3D model of your body, but if you wanted to turn it into an actual physical figure, it required extra payment. I got the virtual 3D model done, and it was actually quite impressively accurate; I’ve gotten 3D body models done before, and the one here at Small Worlds was overwhelmingly the most accurate and high-detail.

Gallery B was downstairs on the second floor. This was a substantially smaller gallery, with most of the exhibits just being one-off items in small glass enclosures.

Instead, the second floor was primarily occupied by the museum café. It was quite large, and because it had its own little stage and screen, my guess is that this area served as a hybrid of both the café and as a presentation room in which people can host meetings and special events.

To get the full Small Worlds experience, I ordered a small meal off their menu—a two-sauce omurice. The egg was tender and delicious, but I wasn’t really a fan of either of the two sauces—the brown sauce tasted too much like generic steak sauce, and I thought the white sauce had too much creaminess without there being sufficient underlying flavor to support it.

With that being said, I still thought it was quite tasty overall, especially compared to something you might find in a museum café in the United States.

It was particularly fun taking photographs at Small Worlds. It was as if I was doing tilt shift photography, except everything was already small so I didn’t have to use any special lenses or do any intensive after-the-fact editing.

My admission ticket was 3,200円, which is right around US$20. This is pretty pricey compared to Japanese standards, but is at a reasonable pricepoint for the United States, and actually pretty cheap compared to what you might find for something of this caliber in a major city in the United States.

I’m glad I found out about this and spend a couple hours checking it out. I haven’t really come across anything similar to this in the United States (and upon doing some additional research after-the-fact, it seems like there are only a handful of full-blown dedicated miniature museums in the United States, many of which are in relatively smaller cities), so it was a pleasant and novel experience for me.

While browsing for more activities in Ginza within quick walking distance from my hotel that I can do to fill a few-hour mid-day break during my trip to Tokyo, Japan, I came across アートアクアリウム美術館, which is the Art Aquarium Museum Ginza. Admission was 3,000円, which was right around US$20.00—reasonable for United States standards for a tourist activity like this, but a bit pricey compared to other tourist activities in Japan. With that being said, I browsed some other people’s photographs and I thought it looked unique and interesting, so I figured it was still worth it to check it out.

The premise of this museum is to make art using goldfish. Each art piece had one or more live goldfish (or other kinds of small fish) inside, contributing a very uncommon “alive” element to each display that other art museums don’t really have.

With that being said, I feel like I’d be at least a little bit remiss not to point out the fact these small fish still count as live animals. Although I am not entirely opposed to integrating animals into human-made and designed-for-humans entertainment like circuses, zoos, and aquariums (and in this case, art museums), I think it comes with a reasonable ethical and moral consideration for such animals.

Many of the exhibits on display at the Art Aquarium Museum Ginza were the equivalent of very large fish tanks, which weren’t materially different than any residential fish tank that someone may keep in their home to house pet fish. However, some of them were extremely small, overcrowded, or both, as you will see in some of my photographs. Compounding on the problem was the fact that many of these goldfish, albeit small, were still fairly large compared to a household goldfish you’d find at the pet store.

I thought this museum was visually stunning and I enjoyed my time visiting. However, I do feel the need to provide a general warning that those who are passionate about animal rights might find some of the habitats upsetting, and if you are someone who votes with your wallet, this may be a spot you pass on in order to not spend your money with a company that may conduct business practices that may not be in alignment with your standards.

 
Upon entering the museum, the first display was 手毬リウム, or the “Temari-rium,” a play on words combining “temari” (a traditional Japanese ball-shaped toy) and “-rium” (a Latin prefix meaning “a place,” similar to how it’s used in the words “terrarium” or “auditorium”).

The bottom part of each temari was embroidered and sewn with thread and fabric. Each temari had a different design, with a fish swimming around inside.

On the opposite side of the wall of temari was some other non-fish art pieces.

The next area was 金魚の石庭, or the goldfish rock garden. According to the signs, this was made in collaboration with the architect Kengo Kuma and was a modernized reimagination of the karesansui, the traditional Japanese rock garden.

The next section, 新金魚品評, or “A Show of Kingyo,” was a collection of miniature glass fish tanks decorated as if they were little dioramas. Each tank had somewhat of a theme to it, and it seemed like they tried to match the kind of fish in the tank to the objects that were placed in and around the tank.

My favorite part about this exhibit was how you could see the fish from all angles, including from the top when they would occasionally peek their heads up.

Behind the large array of tanks was NEO花魁, or the “NEO Oiran,” the aquarium’s signature art piece.

Around the corner was 金魚の参道, or the goldfish path, an aisle wrapped with vertical water-filled pipes containing goldfish swimming vertically up and down.

At the end of the goldfish path was 金魚の湧泉, or the goldfish spring. It’s difficult to do this art piece justice with just still photographs because of the light show on the multi-faceted reflective structure on the top and the white smoke coming from the bottom. The best I could do was to capture it from three different angles at three different points of the rotating light display.

I don’t quite remember what this was, and I don’t think this was a named art piece; I believe it was just a projection on the wall, but it was visually unique enough that I still decided to capture a picture of it.

This is 金魚の石灯籠, or the goldfish stone lantern. Behind it is 金魚の滝, or the goldfish waterfall.

This is 猪目リウム, or the “Inome-rium.” The “-rium” suffix doesn’t quite work as well in this situation as it did in the “temari-rium,” but the “Inome” represents a heart-shaped traditional Japanese pattern that symbolizes warding off evil and attracting good luck.

Behind the goldfish waterfall was 金魚の回廊, or the goldfish corridor. This was similar to the goldfish path, but more colorful. The goldfish corridor also integrated mirrors and used angles to make the pillars look taller than they actually were.

Down the corridor, the next room was 九谷金魚品評, which roughly translates to the “Kutani goldfish evaluation.” I didn’t really understand what this name symbolized, but the display had ceramics crafted in a traditional Japanese style, three of which were uncovered and housed swimming goldfish.

Lining the wall opposite to the ceramics was 金魚蒐集, or the goldfish collection. This was similar to the Temari-rium, but with each orb being fully transparent and having environmental elements inside the tank. According to the information provided, this selection was dedicated to showcasing rarer fish breeds.

Also around this area was a display of crystalware.

The next exhibit was 花魁花舞, or the Oiran flower dance. This was basically a collection of miniature NEO Oirans from before, but with flowers hanging overhead and adorning the pedestals holding each tank.

That was followed by 天空リウム, or the “Tenku-rium.” This art piece consisted of a large tank in the middle with what appeared to be flower pedals blooming on top, surrounded by smaller tanks, all containing a varying number of goldfish.

At the end of all the exhibits, there was a hallway with lanterns hanging overhead that led patrons to the art gallery and gift shop.

One side of the art gallery had 歌川国芳コレクション, or the Ukiyoe Collection by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Perpendicular to this was コラボアート, or the collaboration art.

Past the art gallery was the gift shop. It was still November when I went to the Art Aquarium Museum Ginza, so they still had some Hello Kitty collaboration materials set up in celebration of Hello Kitty’s birthday month.

As part of my admission ticket, I received a small container of FLOR gelato. I was given a selection of available flavors, and I ended up picking pear because it’s not common to find pear-flavored sweets in the United States. This wasn’t quite as delicious as some of the fresh sweets I had at Japanese restaurants, but it was still much better than something you’d expect in a pre-packaged container.

The introduction to this blog post pretty much covers most of my thoughts on the Art Aquarium Museum Ginza. As long as you feel properly informed about the relatively high pricepoint of admission and the potentially questionable animal ethics pertaining to some of the enclosures, this is a very unique and one-of-a-kind tourist hotspot with thoughtful and well-polished presentation that I think is worth considering for a visit if you’re in the area.

During my two-week trip to Japan, I stayed in a hotel in the Ginza neighborhood of Chuo City. Tokyo is so well-organized and intuitive that I was able to get a general idea of where things were in Ginza around my hotel pretty quickly, but whenever I was going to a different area, I opened Google Maps every time because of how good it is at planning subway and train routes for me with realtime transit information.

Every time I would open Google Maps from Ginza, I would get a glimpse of 皇居, which is the Imperial Palace, the big, grassy, foresty area to the northwest. It seemed like a nice place to go on a tourist activity, so eventually, I set aside time during the early afternoon of a random day to check it out.

The walk to the Imperial Palace from my hotel was a little over 2 kilometers, or a bit under a mile and a half. Shortly after walking from Chuo City to Chiyoda City, I approached 凱旋濠, which is pronounced Gaisenbori and translates to the Triumphal Moat. I used one of the pathways to cross the water and get onto the main grounds.

I didn’t really plan anything prior to showing up, so I didn’t quite know what I was supposed to do to actually tour the Imperial Palace. This resulted in me not actually realizing that I was simply in 皇居外苑, or Kokyogaien, and not actually on the Imperial Palace grounds like I had originally thought I was. That was fine, though, because the Kokyo Gaien National Garden was also nice to walk around.

I believe this photo shows 二重橋, or the Nijubashi Bridge, which leads to the Nishinomaru Gate.

Northeast of that was 二重橋濠, or the Nijubashi Moat.

There were a lot of tourists in this area, many of which appeared to be part of large tour groups that were being guided around the area.

In my attempt to try and get closer to the Imperial Palace, I approached 坂下門, or Sakashita Gate. Even though I saw activity beyond the gate, the pathway to get there was barricaded off and supervised by security guards.

Continuing in my efforts to try and get onto the main Imperial Palace property, I followed the path and saw a building in the distance. I later found out that this was 宮内庁, which is the government office building for the Imperial Household Agency.

Around the corner was 桔梗門, or the Kikyō-mon Gate. This was guarded by a police checkpoint, and some vehicles were being authorized to enter, but it seemed like the area was not open to the general public. Several steps away from the checkpoint, I noticed some signs that said that tours for the day were at capacity.

I continued walking alongside 桔梗濠, or the Kikyō-bori Moat. At the edge of one of the turns, there was a nice corner view of 巽桜田二重櫓, or the Sakurada Tatsumi Tower.

After walking more than an additional kilometer from 祝田橋, or the Iwaida Bridge, across which I first entered, I finally made it to the actual entry point to the Imperial Palace—大手門, which is the Ōte-mon Gate.

I stood in a long security line to get checked, but once I got closer to the front of the line, I realized that I had been standing in a bag check line that I might have potentially been able to skip because I was not bringing any bags in with me.

The reason this took so long is because a surprising number of people brought entire suitcases of their luggage with them; I assume these were people who booked flights that landed in the morning and went straight to tour the Imperial Palace before checking into their hotel and dropping off their belongings.

I did not have to purchase an admission ticket or pay an entry fee. Upon entering, I started walking around.

After traversing a bit northbound, I made it to 二の丸庭園, or the Ninomaru Garden.

This garden contained 二の丸池, or the Ninomaru Pond. There were a lot of people huddled around this body of water taking photographs.

It seemed like this pond was sourced by this small waterfall.

There was a pathway to climb the rocks and get to the top of the waterfall. I walked up and got this nice photo of the garden from an elevated vantage point.

After taking in the sights of the garden and pond, I continued west to 二の丸雑木林, or the Ninomaru Grove.

Upon walking even further west, I came across 江戸城跡, or the Edo Castle Ruins.

Beside it, I saw 桃華楽堂, or the Touka Gakudo, which is a concert hall.

I saw this tree spilling over the edge of one of the walls of the ruins, which I thought looked interesting and would make a nice photo opportunity.

The ruins had a ramp and stairway up to the top, so I climbed up and got a view of a field.

On the reverse side was a view of 北桔橋門, or the Kita-Hanebashi Gate.

To the east was the Touka Gakudo again, along with the Ōtemachi skyline as a backdrop.

After descending from the ruins, I continued walking south and came across 石室, which is a stone hut.

A little bit further south of the hut was 富士見多聞, or the Fujimi-tamon Defense House. This was open to the public to walk through and basically served as a very small museum.

Across the field from the museum was 本丸休憩所, or the Honmaru Goten Rest House.

The far southern corner had 富士見櫓, or the Fujimi Tower. This was fenced off and not accessible to the public, but I was still able to get close enough to snap a nice picture.

I believe this is a pomelo tree. I don’t ever see these in the United States, so I took a picture. The last time I had seen one of these was in the Lakeside Gardens at the JW Marriott Hanoi in Vietnam.

After checking the map to make sure I saw everything, I circled back around and out through where I entered.

After popping back out of the gate, I was back in the bustling city looking down Eitai-dori Avenue.

I ended up spending about two hours here, and that was even without having a chance to see the inside of the Imperial Palace. On top of that, 皇居三の丸尚蔵館, or the The National Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan, was temporarily closed, so I missed out on that as well.

I feel like a big part of seeing the Imperial Palace is to see the palace itself, so I feel like I can’t give a particularly meaningful recommendation on whether or not you should go to check it out. However, what I can say is that walking around was a pleasant experience that also served as decent exercise due to how large the site was. It wasn’t quite as peaceful and serene as some of the other outdoor activities I did due to how many more tourists there were here compared to other spots, but it was still a great way to get some fresh air in the middle of the day.

When I visit a new city, I want to do things in that city that are unique to the area. I’ve traveled so much at this point that I’ve been to a ton of zoos, aquariums, science museums, and other tourist attractions that are not local-specific, so nowadays, I try to avoid those kinds of activities and instead do something that I can’t do anywhere else.

One of my favorite things about Tokyo that I found out during my two-week trip there was how many unique museums there were in the metropolis. Some of it is because flagship retail stores in Tokyo are so large and well-organized that they seem like museums of their own (I mention this in my two already-published miscellaneous photo dump blog posts in the sections where I talk about the Yamaha and Fender stores), but some of them are just actual dedicated museums on very specific topics.

One of these specialty hobbyist museums was セイコーミュージアム銀座, which is the Seiko Museum Ginza. There were Seiko stores elsewhere in Ginza, but this wasn’t a hybrid store-museum—this was literally just a museum dedicated to watches and timekeeping.

It had free admission, which I guess makes sense because it acts as a marketing initiative to bring awareness to the Seiko brand, raise its reputation, and encourage people to purchase Seiko watches. However, I thought it was still generous to let everyone enter for free and provide such warm and welcoming service to patrons, especially considering the surprisingly large group of staff members who were on duty and actively performing maintenance on the displays.

 
I started my self-guided tour in the basement, which was called “Extreme Times.” This floor was dedicated to showcasing timekeeping as it pertains to sports, and how extremely tiny increments of time can mean the difference between a world record and second place.

The first floor was called “The Beginnings of Time.” This was the entrance, so there wasn’t quite as much on this floor as there was on other floors. The front desk was on this floor where staff members greeted you and explained the layout of the museum. There was also a short introductory film playing on a screen.

The second floor was titled “Always One Step Ahead of the Rest.” The exhibits on this floor showed the history of Seiko and how it was always ahead of its competitors, even though catastrophic events like destructive earthquakes.

The third floor was named “From Time Indicated by Nature, to Human-Made Time.” This was another floor that covered the history of timekeeping, but this one focused more broadly on how time was kept prior to the availability of modern-day clocks, rather than focusing specifically on Seiko.

The fourth floor was called “Precise Time.” This floor focused on the evolution of timekeeping and how it turned into the modern-day clocks and watches that we know of today. This floor also provided a bit of insight on the mechanisms and technology behind how Seiko products are so precise in timekeeping.

The fifth floor was “A Variety of Times.” On display here was a demonstration of how different clocks and watches can look while still serving the same purpose of timekeeping. This floor also had a continuation of showcasing some of the technology behind how these devices actually work.

I believe this was designed and intended to be the “fun” floor. There was a short movie playing (though I didn’t watch it because it was in Japanese and I couldn’t understand it), and this was the floor that showcased some of the fun collaborative clocks that used popular intellectual property like Pokémon and Hello Kitty.

And finally, the sixth and highest floor of the museum was the Grand Seiko Museum, a mini-museum inside the main museum. As you were probably able to guess by the name, this floor was dedicated specifically to showcasing Grand Seiko, the luxury brand under Seiko. Seiko is often known for its practicality, functionality, and reliability; Grand Seiko focuses more on hand-crafted artisanship, elegance, and proprietary movement mechanisms.

I’m not much of a watch enthusiast, and I know very little about watches, so it was an enlightening learning experience to check out the Seiko Museum. It took me right around an hour and a half to get through everything, and that’s with me reading a majority of the text that was written in English, as well as taking a short break to have a quick chat with some fellow English-speaking tourists.

If you’re in Ginza and have a bit of free time, I think the Seiko Museum is very much worth the visit. Even if you’re not a watch enthusiast, you can spend a quick half hour just looking at things and still have it be an insightful and educating experience.

 
I know people who collect luxury watches and like to make a statement with their collection, but all the watches I own are simply ones that have some kind of significance or meaning to me, or have just piqued my curiosity and interest.

I’ve been told by my blog’s readers that they like learning about me, so for the sake of sharing something about myself that I otherwise don’t really foresee having relevant context in which to disclose in the future, I figured this is a decent opportunity to reveal what my personal watch collection consists of… if you can even call it a collection:

• Fitbit Blaze. This was one of my first fitness trackers, which I purchased prior to Google’s acquisition of Fitbit. I usually give away my used electronics to friends and family members for whom my old devices would be an upgrade, but I never ended up finding someone who wanted a Fitbit Blaze, so I just kept it in my watch case.

• Google Pixel Watch. After a few years, my Fitbit Blaze’s battery wasn’t able to retain much of a charge and it wouldn’t last even half a day. For a while, I just dealt with it by only using it when I was going on hikes, but eventually, I upgraded to a Pixel Watch so that I could continue getting fitness tracking all day. Unfortunately, the Google Pixel Watch also had a bit of a battery issue where it would only last one day on a full charge, so I upgraded to the Google Pixel Watch 3, and then recently, the Google Pixel Watch 4 for the extra health tracking technology.

• Luminox Bear Grylls Survival XB.3749. If I was a watch, I would probably be this watch—well-prepared, well-planned, and well-stocked with all the resources needed to tackle any situation, but chaotic and adventurous enough to get myself into wild situations in which I would actually need to use a survival tool.

• Diesel Mr. Daddy 2.0 DZ7313. One of the main reasons I have historically been uninterested in watches is because I always use fitness-tracking watches, so I would always wear those instead of a regular watch. Then, one of my friends introduced me to the idea of wearing a regular watch on my left wrist and my fitness tracker on my right wrist. That seemed like just quite enough of a goofy idea that I was on board. I’m the type of person to wear a skinny tie and quilted leather biker jacket to formal events where everyone else wears a normal suit; in those scenarios, I think this black leather watch with silver hardware fits very well with my outfit.

• Casio DBC-32-1A Multi-Lingual Data Bank. When I was in elementary school, I wore a digital Casio watch. I remember this not because I remember checking the time frequently or anything, but because I remember having a watch-shaped tan line on my left wrist all the time. I don’t remember exactly what model of Casio watch I used to wear back then, but as a throwback to my youth, I bought the nerdiest-looking watch I could find that basically looks like an entire calculator integrated into a wristwatch.

• Seiko Coutura SNE506. This is another “throwback” watch similar to the Casio one above. I don’t remember doing this, but apparently, one of the very first major presents that I had gifted to my dad was a Seiko watch. Again, I don’t remember exactly what model it was, but I figured this was close enough to act as a keepsake for the nostalgia. Side note, my parents were a victim of burglary, and the watch I allegedly gifted him was part of the thieves’ loot, so my dad doesn’t have it anymore.

• Victorinox I.N.O.X. Chrono and Victorinox Journey 1884. I like the Victorinox brand—it is the maker of the original Swiss army knife, and they’re often synonymous with utility and practicality, which I think aligns with my personality pretty well. I already own two of their luggages, and now I also have two of their watches. I use my Victorinox luggage for road trips a lot now, but … I haven’t quite started wearing these Victorinox watches yet. Maybe someday.

• Timex UFC Pro World Champion Edition and Timex UFC Beast. These are both limited-edition watches that I got because I’m a fan of UFC and I thought these watches were wild and absurd. This is definitely more of a fun purchase than a serious investment, but maybe they will eventually appreciate in price someday.

I imagine anyone who knows even a little bit about watches will look at this senseless mumbo-jumbo of a watch collection and be incredibly confused, but there is the latest drop of Adam Parkzer lore.

I have heard that Japan is apparently having a bit of a tourism problem, in the sense that they have too much tourism. Nice spots to visit in Tokyo have gone viral on social media, and I have noticed that some stores and attractions have insanely long lines while other comparable spots have no wait.

I have two philosophies that are applicable here. The first is that I value my time a lot, and if something involves waiting in line for a long time, I see that as a waste of time and will generally tend to be avoidant of it. The second is that I like supporting the “little guy” and helping smaller and less popular businesses sell their products and services, thus earning more cash runway to have an extended opportunity to prove themselves as a viable competitor in the open market. Long story short, I am very pro-capitalism and like seeing healthy capitalism at work.

I ended up applying this approach into practice a lot in Tokyo, because there are a lot of spots that are overbooked and overcongested, while something of seemingly equal quality and price just down the street is empty.

One of these examples was an “observation tower” experience. I don’t know if this is just my algorithm on social media and coincidental timing in-person, but Shibuya Sky seems to be the extremely popular, go-to observation tower nowadays. They do have a unique open-air deck at the top, but whenever I would be in that area, I would notice that they had signs up at the base of the tower notifying prospective sightseers that they had already sold out of tickets for the day.

Instead, I decided to go to 六本木ヒルズ展望台 東京シティビュー, which is the Tokyo City View at Roppongi Hills. This allowed me to get a comparable observation tower experience with no wait. I paid 2,400円 for my on-site admission ticket, which was a little bit over US$15. I could’ve saved 200円 if I had pre-purchased a ticket online, but this was a relatively spontaneous trip, and there was no line in front of the kiosk, so I just bought my ticket on-site.

I slowly walked around the entire building, taking photos of the stunning view from all the different angles I could. The density of Tokyo made this even more visually pleasing compared to other observation decks I’ve been to in the United States where the buildings were more spread out.

Complimentary with the purchase of my ticket, I was also able to see the “30th Anniversary Exhibition: All of Evangelion.” Apparently Evangelion is a Japanese anime. I had never heard of it before, but everyone else was going absolutely bonkers over it, so I assumed this was important enough that I should take some photos. This exhibit had more people in it than the observation area, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people bought an observation tower ticket just so they could see this Evangelion exhibit.

(If you’re wondering, these Evangelion pictures are lower quality than the other ones in this blog post because this exhibit only allowed photography with smartphones and prohibited the use of standalone cameras.)

After being completely clueless but still having a good time looking at sketches and drawings of anime characters, I looped back out of the exhibition area and exited the paid section by going through the gift shop.

I didn’t buy anything, but I did browse their goods; it seemed to be fairly generic souvenirs, and I was surprised that they didn’t have anything that was more unique and customized to the Tokyo City View observation deck or the Roppongi Hills building.

A short distance away from the exit of the gift shop was a restaurant. It looked pretty nice and I wanted to dine in so I could thoroughly complete my Tokyo City View experience, but it was empty inside and there was no host at the front, so I figured that it was probably only open for dinner or something, and I walked onwards.

Next door (but still before descending from the observation floor), there was a café themed after Evangelion, presumably as part of the 30th anniversary celebration. I later found out that they are usually called “The Sun and The Moon,” but they appear to have rebranded temporarily to the All of Evangelion Café as part of the collaboration.

The food they served was also themed after Evangelion. They had a small collection of dishes and alcoholic beverages; I ordered some chicken curry rice and just opted for water.

The total came to ¥1,950, which was just under US$13—reasonable for United States pricing, but a little high for comparable food in Japan, though the markup was understandable due to it being a special partnership at a tourist hotspot and potentially needing to pay intellectual property licensing or royalty fees.

The chicken curry was very good compared to United States standards, but considering how amazing the food in Japan has been overall, this was mediocre when rated against other Japanese food.

After finishing my meal, I went back down to the lower floors, walked around a bit to check out some of the shops inside Roppongi Hills, then headed out for the next adventure of the day.

I feel like going to an observation deck is somewhat of a cliché thing to do in a city, but I think it was absolutely worth it in Tokyo. I’ve lived on upper floors of high-rise condominium buildings on the Las Vegas Strip, and I’ve gone to a lot of observation towers across the United States, so I’ve become somewhat desensitized to stunning views from high vantage points. With that being said, Tokyo was special in that it is such a dense city that you can just stand there staring out the window for a long time, and you will never run out of interesting things to look at below.