Tokyo Day 4.

According to my initial plan, I was supposed to have gone to see the Mount Fuji today. And I’ve actually ear-marked to head to this place called Gotemba (or Gotenba as it really is in Japanese). But what I didn’t know initially was that there was this factory outlet town at Gotemba, so I killed 2 birds with one stone!

I first took a highway bus to Gotemba from Shinjuku, and after about 2 and a half hours because of traffic jams, I arrived at the Gotemba Premium Outlet.

There are about 250 outlets inside this what I would call an outlet town, and it took me more than 2 hours to walk around, and I didn’t even go into each and every one of the stores! The town is designed like those American or European towns, and understandably so because apparently the town is owned by Chelsea Premium Outlets that have such outlet towns all over United States.

The view inside the outlet town is actually quite pretty too, though it was a shame that the weather decided to act up today. It was raining on and off while I was there, and as it turned out, it was really not a good day for photos.

See the ferris wheel on the hill? I’m not sure if it’s decoration or if it’s really working because I don’t seem to see it move at all.

After the outlet town, I headed to downtown Gotemba, which really isn’t really so downtown because Gotemba is really a very small town. I think the town is very proud of the fact that it’s at the foot of Mount Fuji (though it’s not the only one), and everywhere I go I see things related to the great mountain:

Gotemba is also apparently the location where the F1 Japanese Grand Prix will be held in October:

It’s quite interesting to note that the town is using Mount Fuji to highlight that the Grand Prix is in town. I thought they might use the faces of Raikkonen or Hamilton instead.

Someone told me at the Tokyo Tower yesterday that when the weather isn’t good, you may not be able to see Mount Fuji even if you are very close up – I fully understand that today. Apparently I should be able to see the mountain from this point, and as you can see, all I managed was fog.

After Gotemba, I headed back to Tokyo, and I went over to Roppongi, with the primary aim of visiting the TV Asahi Centre. As I was there slightly late, I didn’t manage to get myself any souvenirs whatsoever, but I was treated to a lot of Doraemons.

There’s a big one at the entrance…

And then many more inside this toy catcher machine.

Both TV Asahi and the Tokyo Tower (which carries the signals for TV Asahi) are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, so that’s why there’s this miniature Tokyo Tower being on display at TV Asahi.

After exiting TV Asahi, I saw the famous Mori Tower at the Roppongi Hills – the admission ticket to the viewing gallery (as well as loads of other exhibition halls) was more than 1000 yen, which I thought wasn’t really worth it, so I decided to give it a miss. I didn’t forget about taking a picture of the tower though:

I decided that I want to look for some dinner after leaving Roppongi Hills, so I went into this burger restaurant called R Burger, which was recommended by many tour guidebooks. The food tasted alright, but I think the most attractive part about the burgers was the burgers themselves.

This burger was called the “Tofu Burger”, of which the patty inside was made of tofu and chicken, and the bun was actually that of mantou instead of bread.

And this is what they called Tofu Nuggets – when the whole thing was made up of tofu.

It’s actually quite an interesting meal, and really a novel one indeed. That said, after I returned to the hotel, I still insisted of eating something more normal:

… which is oden (the big bowl), onsen tamago and beer!