Tuesday, 11 May 2004

Sunshine!

Headed into Ikubukura again today to check out that 60 floor shopping centre, the Sunshine. While it does indeed have 60 floors, 57 of them happen to be offices so really it's a 3 floor shopping centre. ;) A bit of a disapointement though there was an amazing view from the top floor, which is an observation floor with a 360 degrees view of the Kanto Plains. It was really amazing as you could see the edge of the plains where the mountain ranges start. Saw Tokyo Tower (still much small than everyone thinks it is) and saw where Mt Fuji is on a clear day. Today wasn't clear. Maybe one day I'll see Mt Fuji!

I also checked out the Aquarium which is about the same as most aquariums but had rediculously small tanks for the animals (like Ueno Zoo). It was verging on cruelty.

Oh, on a side note, the elevator is one of the fastest in the world, and goes about 1m per second.

Also enjoyed the 7 floor anime store opposite Sunshine and the Ghibli (pronounces Jibli apparently) store in the Sunshine where I bought a minature stone statur from Spirited Away for my mobile and the anime movie Laputa, which I hadn't yet seen. Am about to watch it now. Looks great!

Before I headed back home I finally saw Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, all in Japanese with no subtitles. Great visuals and all the computer screen readings where in English (in the movie) as were the credits so I walked away with a feeling I understood some things that noone else did. They had terrible service at the ticket gate. Only 5 people in front of me and it took the woman about 20 minutes to serve them! Drove me insane! All these technical things she had to do like check their student cards, verify the movie (about 10 times) and all the while speaking through a microphone system to the customer who is only one metre away! Only took her seconds to serve me. I said the movie name, gave her the cash and then she started talking and talking and talking to me.... I just walked away and up to the theatre. If I ever meet her boss and find out that he speaks English, I'll be sure to complain.