Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo Dome City and the failed Roppongi excursion

This post is a little late since we've been in Osaka for a night now, but I'm saving that for later. On Thursday, or last full day in Tokyo we went to observe the Shibuya Crossing in person and check out the Tokyo Dome.

By now we've pretty much mastered finding our way around Tokyo using the Tokyo Metro without relying too much on subway maps, so getting around is a breeze.  However this time we thought that the crossing was in Shinjuku, and that's where we headed initially. It doesn't help that we were on a Skype video call with some friends back home, so we were a little distracted. Once we made it to Shinjuku, however, we quickly realized our error and headed back on the train to Shibuya.

It would be too easy to compare Shibuya Crossing to Times Square in Manhattan. But even then, its something you would just have to see for yourself. We managed to catch the lunchtime rush and it just looked like a people valve broke and an ocean of heads rushed in to fill this giant 5-way intersection for three minutes. Imagine a giant toilet flushing, but instead of water swirling around, it's a shit-ton of people. The videos below don't really do it justice, but here anyways:

We decided to have lunch at an American-style restaurant just off the intersection. The food was decent, and it was really the first time for the whole trip we had a chance to pause and reflect on our vacation so far. 

We paid for our meal, then hopped the metro to visit Tokyo Dome City. Tokyo Dome City is a huge entertainment complex that has an amusement park, a spa resort, hotels and of course, the Tokyo Dome, home stadium of the local baseball team, the Yomiuri Giants.  When we got there the was probably the longest queue I've ever seen in real life. I believe all those folks were in line to either buy tickets or enter the stadium.

Next to the stadium is an amusement complex replete with all sorts of carnival rides, games and restaurants. The centerpieces are this HUGE roller coaster track that is affixed to and runs atop the roof of the complex, and an equally impressively sized ferris wheel, which I think is in the center of the coaster track. We took a walk around the complex, and found it oddly empty, given the overall attractiveness and scale of the park.  It didn't help that the coaster was down for maintenance, and we could see the workers toiling away at various points along the track. Even then, I decided I wasn't going to come all the way here and not go on at least one ride.  Rod decided he wasn't going to come all the way here and not have at least one snack.

Satisfied with out visit to the Dome, we headed back to our Chiyoda hotel a little earlier than normal with the intent of giving ourselves time to rest up and prepare for our first night on the town in Roppongi. We had heard good things about the Roppongi area as far as foreigner-friendly nightlife goes, and we were pretty excited about our chances with the local fauna.  We had dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant... and that was where we went wrong. My meal was fine, but the chicken stew that Rod had caused hitherto unforseen GI distress and made us abort our first nightlife experience. Which was fine, since we were coming back into Tokyo in about a week. But still, dammit Rod!

All things considered, it was a good day, and we were excited and well rested for our weekend stay in Osaka. And trust me, it would turn out to be an eventful weekend...