Tha Queebs and I wait in line for about 40 minutes for tickets and then 20 in another line for the elevator. All the while the sun is falling falling towards Mount Fuji, threatening to shed it’s colors across the skyline without our witness. Well we cut it too close and it doesn’t look like we’re gonna make it.

Oh just kidding, we nailed it. We exit the elevator to see the sun just getting into its golden phase. People are crowding the west facing windows to snap a good sunset shot.

We shuffle into the mix of people angling for a good spot. Fortunately they’re mostly Japanese and I’m the tallest person in the room. I try out the selfie stick again and extend my reach passed everyone, right up to the glass of the Skytree windows. Blam!

The view across Tokyo is legendary. The Skytree does wonders for displaying just how massive the span of the city is. And just how much work Godzilla has to do in order to trash the joint. We do a loop around the tower and get some shots in other directions while there’s still light enough.

The sun goes down and the lights of Tokyo come on. This is great, perfect timing. Here’s basically the same shot as above but in the evening hues.

Around the other side of the tower we find a glass floor that looks right down to the ground. It’s a little crowded and even with my new favorite toy (yes, the fucking selfie stick) we don’t really manage to get a good shot of us plus the view down.

Narco fares a little better.

It looks like we can spend 10 bucks and blast up a dozen floors or so to the Galleria level. Is the view better up there? Probably. Not sure when we’ll be back so might as well just do it.

Glass ceiling elevator shaft shot

Yep, it’s pretty cool on the Galleria level. Not nearly as many people, slightly better view, and a cool star trekish walking incline around the edge of the tower.

Another massive bonus about being on the Skytree Galleria level is that I’ll be able to crush our current record for highest, non-airplane shit ever taken by an adventure detective. This is currently held by Agent Getz who dropped a deuce at the super swanky Ozone night club in Hong Kong a couple of years ago. That was a respectable 484 meters above sea level. But here I am squatting at 634 meters just annihilating the record by a solid… oh wait that’s the height of the tower not the Galleria level. A quick brown fox internet search reveals that Getz is actually still the champ by a margin of 33 meters. Ozone: 484 meters, SkyTree top level: 451 meters? This is bullshit! I immediately book a flight to Dubai. Then I stuff towels down the toilet until it clogs and upper deck it, as per our custom.

Back out in the trek tube I proceed to put on a selfie stick clinic. Groups of people are gathering around for pics but getting the purply-pink glare from the deck lights off of the windows. I clip in my phone and extend it right to the window, tilt until there’s no glare and click the button on the handle. A handful of Japanese girls are watching me do this, “Ohhhhhhhhh!”, “That’s right ladies, not only selftastic but anti-glare too!” They don’t speak English. (Queenie is shuddering with uncontrollable laughter as this all goes down)

Seeing as how Queenie is enjoying this so much I just keep the show going with spin move shots and gratuitous selfies beside unsuspecting Japanese tourists. I sneak up beside them and extend the selfie stick right passed them up to the window, “There’s no place I can’t go!”

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Queenie laugh this hard before. But seriously though… selfie sticks. It’s a game changer.

What’s that? Not getting enough in the background?

We take a minute in the cafe to grab a drink and just sit for a bit. We’ve been on our feet and walking all day. We also take a minute to master a new selfie stick technique: The No-Look Selfie.

Ok I think we’re about done here. I’m selfied out and we’ve done the Skytree loop several times now. Time to head back.

We descend back to Earth. There are a number of shops and whatnot at the base. Actually there’s a whole plaza in here. We find a massive toy shop and dip in for a look. Appears to be all tv show, manga and video game characters. I scan for more Attack on Titan merch. It’s gotta be here. Bingo!

There’s a cool Final Fantasy display. Wow, it’s the 30th anniversary of Final Fantasy. Good Pokemon section too.

And of course Hello Kitty

We find a little board of post-it notes. People have drawn some cool facsimiles of their favorite characters and posted them up here. Queenie adds a quick scribble of Narco and Tangerino

We drop yen on a fun assortment of goodies and then make for the escalator. Back to the bottom floor where we initially waited in line to get tickets and it’s completely empty now. There are really cool digital renditions of tokyo on the monitors. Each section of the city is displayed with a characteristic of that area highlighted in the artwork. Power plugs for Akihabara, sushi in Ginza, Sumo wrestlers in Ryogoku. Traffic and people are zooming along the little sidewalks and streets. It’s really really cool.

There is also a display showing all of the tallest towers in the world that’s kinda cool. Looks like we were just in the tallest tower worldwide!

The inters say it’ll be a 25 minute walk back to Anne Hostel. Might as well destroy our friends in the daily fitbit challenge again today. We set a bearing for Ryogoku.

One last look up at night time SkyTree. Thanks, byeeeeeeee

The air is brisk and it’s still a tad windy on the walk back. We are the only people on the streets, speed walking passed closed shops and high rise apartments. There isn’t really much in this area actually. Seems dead AF. Totally different vibe than the area in Shinjuku that we’ve fallen in love with over the past few days. Must be all residential. I think the most exciting things on the walk were a vending machine of hot soup and a huge building where you can play indoor golf. Sleeeeeeepytown.

On the walk I have a quick back and forth on the encoded Agency line with Col Moutarde. You may remember him from the Mexico City trip a couple of years ago… I’ll just put a little link in here… wait.. I didn’t write anything about the Mexico City trip? When we reconvened with the Mexinauts that we’d first met in Guadalupe Valley? and Diego that we met at Coachella? Chapultapec Castle? Return to Teotihuacan? Up another tower, Torre Latinoamericano? Ripping up Pata Negro, Amano and Patrick Miller? Man, what a slacker. Ok well that’s a story for another time.

Anyhoo, Col Moutarde is at the airport with Agent Bullock about to hop the Pacific from LA to Tokyo. They’ll be getting in bright and early. We decide to meet up at the fish market, Tsukiji, around 6am and get a fresh whiff of the catch of the day. There should be enough commotion there to cover our meeting. They’ll only be around for the day before hopping over to South East Asia to follow up on some leads that we’d uncovered during our investigation there last year.

Finally back to Anne hostel, we walk around the area to see if there’s an Izakaya or something open. Hmmmm nope. Maybe we’re getting Monday’d again. Fair enough, we just grab some beers at a nearby Family Mart and head back to our room and put the feet up. Another jam packed day under our belts: Up early to switch hostels, Ueno park, those damned swan boats, king of masked singer, Senso-ji Shrine and the Skytree… sheesh

No signs of letting up though as tomorrow we’ve got Tsujiki fish market with Col Moutarde, maybe hit the Imperial Palace, do some fun shit for Queenie’s birthday, and then check out the Shibuya Halloween street party which looks killer. Might have to find time to level up our Halloween costumes too…