Grand Adventure 2017 Day 6: Select Your Player
How did this happen already? Today is our last full day in Tokyo. Tomorrow we leave bright and early to board a plane to Hong Kong. But enough of that, we have one day left in Tokyo and we were going to get as much out of it as possible.
We woke up this morning at a more reasonable 6 AM. I went to workout at 7 AM and we didn't leave our hotel room until 8:30 AM. A much more relaxing start to the morning in comparison to yesterday. Once we were out we got a quick coffee/hot chocolate and one final biscuit before heading to the excursion I was most excited for in Tokyo, Mari Car.
I love video games, probably a surprise to no one reading this, but what you may not know is that Jenn and I have a very competitive Mario Kart battle that has been on-going for the last fourteen years. When we saw that we could do a real-life Mario Kart experience on the streets of Tokyo, well that basically meant we were at some point going to board a 12-hour flight and go to Tokyo. It also meant we had to go to AAA and get an international drivers permit, so yes we were committed to doing this tour. We originally had the tour booked for Friday but when the weather looked bad leading up to the trip we re-booked it for today. I'm so glad we did because it was one of the best experiences of my life.
We got to their office after taking the subway to Akihabara and walked for about ten minutes. When we arrived another couple was there already dressed up in costume. Yes, that's right, not only do you drive karts around the city but you dress up as your favorite Nintendo or other characters. The couple was dressed up as Wario and Hello Kitty. We were there next so I chose Mario (of course) and Jenn decided to go with the big man himself, Bowser. Once we were in our costumes and signed off on the waivers we waited for others to arrive. We met an Australian ski instructor here for the winter (who dressed up as Luigi with a mustache and all) and then our two companions for the tour two girls from South Korea who copied our outfits and went with Mario and Bowser. From there we met up with our tour guide Matt who walked us across the street to where they keep their go-karts.
After a very brief tutorial, we boarded our go-karts and were off. My go-kart in the first two minutes stalled out on a major street. Luckily after turning it on and off, I was able to get it rolling again and didn't have much of an issue. After we all stopped to get gas, we spent the next two hours riding around the beautiful city of Tokyo in our Mario outfits, laughing, waving, smiling for pictures, and enjoying one of the best excursions we've ever done. We went on major roads, side streets, and even high ways. The go-karts got up to about 55 mph and you felt everything at that speed.
About halfway through the tour, we stopped at an amusement park to stretch our legs, use the restroom, and take a ton of photos. After that, we had another hour of driving around Tokyo before dropping the kart back off at the same spot we started. I cannot tell you how many people on the street asked us to take a picture or wave at their kids. It was one of those surreal moments where you realize I'm dressed up as Mario, driving in a go-kart, in the city of Tokyo, and it's all amazing.
After the thrill of Mario Kart in Tokyo, we were off to lunch. We had reservations at Teppanyaki Akasaka on the 37th floor of the ANA InterContinental Tokyo. Because of our tour today we went for a late lunch. We got there at 2 PM and when we arrived there were 5 people total in the restaurant and by the time we got our first dish it was just Jenn and our chef starring out at a beautiful Tokyo day and enjoying some amazing food.
We went with their chef recommended lunch which I had heard amazing things about on both Yelp and TripAdvisor and we were not disappointed. The menu read as follows:
Course 1: Three kind of today's appetizer Scallop, Olive-fed young yellowtail, Salmon sushi
Course 2: Seasonal mixed green salad (forgot to take a picture, was eating two of these)
Course 3: Teppan-sautéed potato and mushroom
Course 4: Japanese radish topped with miso paste
Course 5: Prime Japanese Black-haired Wagyu; Sirloin 150g or tenderloin 100g
Course 6: Steamed rice (we upgraded to garlic rice)
Course 7: Miso soup
Course 8: Japanese Dessert
Along with our lunch we also had a glass of merlot and upgraded our rice from steamed to their garlic rice. Outside of the garlic rice which was bland, the rest of the meal was fantastic. Starting off with the appetizer the fresh fish continues to delight in Tokyo, I've just never had as fresh fish as what I've had here. I of course loved the salad, and even enjoyed Jenn's as well. We both loved the sauteed potatoe and for some reason I even liked the mushrooms something I don't normally. The real star of the show was the Wagyu beef which was out of this world. I only wish there was more of it. We finished off the meal with miso soup, and a Japanese dessert. For us that was fruit and ice cream with green tea. The nearly 2 hour meal was another amazing outing here in Tokyo. We've never been left hungry here that's for sure.
From lunch we left that Intercontinetal hotel and took the subway back to our own. Jenn being the mastermind subway navigator got us back in a half hour where we began to pack our bags and look at some of our videos from the day. We stayed in until 6PM when we went back out to the dark cool air of a Tokyo evening and went back to Shibuya crossing. The first time we went we only spent a couple of minutes and we were dead to the world after our flight so we wanted to go one more time before leaving bright and early tomorrow.
We got on the Subway for fifteen minutes and were there. To see Shibuya lit up at night with hundreds of people crossing every minute or two is pretty incredible. Jenn took a ton of photos and we were able to walk the area and enjoy the beautiful evening. After about a half hour we knew we had to get back and pack so we went back on the subway and back to our hotel. We weren't overly hungry so we got a quick bite at McDonalds in the subway station before coming back to our room and calling it a night.
As I write this our bags are 99% packed and tomorrow morning we leave bright and early for Hong Kong. As I reflect now on our time in Tokyo I guess there's one thing that I keep thinking about, I can't wait to come back some day. We love Tokyo.
