Day 7: Electric City, Tokyo Tower, Godzilla, Imperial Palace (Click on thumbnails for gi-normous pictures.) Just a couple stops away from us was a district called "Electric City." It was made up of block after block after block of electronics stores. Some were fancy name-brand stores; Others were mom and pop shops. You could go under the buildings into these catacombs full of different booths selling all kinds of stuff. It was kind of like a farmer's market, but instead of carrots and squash, there were color video cameras the size of my thumbnail and television screens that would fit in my wallet. Everything was negotiable here except the price of music CDs, which ranged from $25 to $35.

The street was blocked off for Saturday foot traffic. There were people EVERYWHERE.	A subway train roars past overhead.	Lisa got pissed off at a couple of giant robots that were fighting and making a mess. Everybody else was just ignoring them, but Lisa couldn't stand it and told them off. It was quite a scene.

Tokyo Tower is built just like the Eiffel Tower in France, except it is taller and weighs 3,000 pounds less thanks to space-age metals. You'd think it would be fun to go up and see the city from this tower. You'd be wrong.

You see, Japan is a claustrophobe's nightmare. Everything is crammed tight together and you're always right next to somebody. Everybody's really polite, though, so it makes up for it.	But on an elevator, it's all out the window. They fill it up till they can't fit anybody else in, then they cram in five more people. You are literally smashed up against six strangers and you can't even move your arms (as Lisa and I reenact here).	Once you get to the top, there is a really great view of the whole city from all angles. There's Odaiba from yesterday, and Lisa's favorite ball building.
There's a cool shrine...	There's even a great view of this one cemetery...	But we had to wait half an hour just to ride the up elevator - and we were in the express ticket line for foreigners!
It's very hot and muggy, as the place is overcrowded with sweaty tourists. The gift shop has twenty people in it, but only has room for nine.	And then you get separated from your travel companion, and things start getting really bad.	You walk around and around and around the deck, but somehow cannot find them in the solid mass of leaning bodies...
You start seeing the same beautiful views over and over and over...	About then you notice that there is a half-hour line just to get to the elevator to get down and out of there - If you can ever find the person you came with in the crowds...	You get just about to the point Godzilla must have been at when he slashed this building, when finally you find your travel companion and get on the elevator to GET OUT!

But here's the best part - On the elevator, if you are a tall guy with a long red beard, you get GROPED MERCILESSLY by a faceless Japanese woman behind you (as Lisa reenacts here). And it's so tight, you can't turn around to see who it is - all you hear is their giggling as they remold your behind. And your traveling companion is in front of you, trying to figure out why you keep yelping and jerking around. And then the doors open and the people explode out of the elevator and you never get to see the perpetrator's face - Just a dozen Japanese women with knowing smiles on their faces.

After the trauma and violation of our Tokyo Tower experience, we searched the Ginza district for toy stores and the infamous statue of GODZILLA. We found both.

The statue is located near the Toho building. (Toho is the movie company that made Godzilla.)	The plaque on the statue pays tribute to the monster that has destroyed the city so many times, and warns that HE WILL RETURN!	Frankly, I'm not sure which one to be more afraid of. (Giant rampaging monsters really tick Lisa off.)

Next we went to the Imperial Palace Grounds. The Palace is in use, so you can't get close to it. You can only see bits and pieces of it that stick out from behind the trees on the other side of wide moats. It's a very private place, with stern guards standing in all the doorways.

The foot entrance to the Castle Grounds.	A bridge across a wide moat. This was about as close as we could get.	Behind the Castle grounds is the imposing Diet building. The Diet is to Japan sort of what Congress is to America - Except with a lot more shouting and the occasional throwing of shoes.

Near the palace was this amazing Samurai statue.

It felt like I was back in boston, walking around the commons and looking at George Washington on his horse.	'Cept George Washington wasn't in full-on Saumurai armor, rushing headlong into battle.	We saw a very similar suit of armor and helmet the next day in the Tokyo National Museum. Read on...

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