So this is my fifth trip to Japan.

The first time, I went to Tokyo Tower as a tourist.

And the second time I went there because I’d broken something my wife had bought there on our first trip and I needed to replace it.

And the third time, I went up there because I’d never been up at night and I’d heard that the view was really good at night.

For the record, yes, it is.

But I was seriously done with Tokyo Tower at that point.

And then my father came to Japan at the same time as me on my fourth trip, and I had to show it to him

But this trip I wasn’t going to go.

And then I kinda got roped into it anyway.

Like, grrr.

But it managed to be fun anyway, mostly because of a massive Michael Jackson tribute that was going on outside the tower.  There was a stage, and a DJ playing Michael Jackson songs, and a whole bunch of Japanese people trying to dance on it.

There was also this big damn Shrine To The Gloved One:

You see all the white roses, right?  There was a little table about 20 feet away selling white roses for Y500.

Now, I’m not a cynical man.

OK, I am a cynical man.

And as a cynical man, I’m going to bet that a good number of those roses were on their third or fourth trip from the table to the little shrine and then back to the table.  🙂

Anyway, the tower itself was, uh, you go up and look down on stuff.  I’m a big fan of going up and looking down on stuff, but it was a pretty overcast day so the view wasn’t much.

I did see this sign.  It’s in braille.  There’s something weird about a braille sign in front of massive windows that are 150m off the ground that you have to pay Y820 to go up and look out of.

I kinda want to know what it says.  I have my own theories but none of them are very nice.

I did take one nice photo of the tower on the way out though.  I’m going to call this my “Tokyo Tower Upskirt Shot” and I am going to enjoy the extra hits that throwing that into a blog update will bring.

What was inside the tower, however, was more fun.

This thing:

It’s a “4D theater” attraction based on Fatal Frame II.

And man I love me some Fatal Frame II.

4D theater, in this case, means that you watch a six minute 3D movie while the chairs you’re sitting on tilt back and forth and puffs of air blow at you.

All the footage seemed to be newly done for the ride, too, it was pretty cool and the 3D effect really worked.

There was another 4D theater ride that I didn’t really want to go on, but that I kinda wanted to go on for the bit AFTER the attraction was over.  Sadly, there wasn’t an option to see the Sega History part of it without sitting through the Sonic thing, so I opted to save Y500.

Odd that there’s not a Dreamcast in that mix of hardware.

Last but not necessarily least, it’s good to know that security, if not necessarily English, is being taken seriously at the tower:

…aaaaand I’m out for now.  More as it comes to me.