The subway is a dream and I alight from Ryogoku station with the announcer’s pleasant sing-song phrase ringing in my ears: "re-oh-g'koo, re-oh-g'koo"; it stays in my head for the rest of the day. I head to the sumo stadium first, as I want to get an idea of how it works: ticket prices, entry time, whether there are truly huge queues from the early hours.
It's a bit too early at the stadium - no sign of the legendary queues and it looks like the wrestlers are just arriving, so I head over to the nearby Yokoami-cho Koen, a park that houses a memorial to the victims of the Kanto earthquake and a monument to the victims of the air raids of World War II (a huge semi-circle bank planted with flowers [pictured], with a small room in the centre containing the names of 100,000 victims). Next I visit the Edo-Tokyo museum, which chronicles the history of Tokyo in impressive detail, using full size replicas, dioramas and ancient maps and documents. I cross a replica of the Nihombashi (bridge of Japan) and on through old Edo with its Kabuki theatres, shops and residences, before getting a glimpse of 1868, when Japan opened its borders to the rest of the world and foreign settlements began to spring up around Tokyo.
Last night’s pub crawl exhausted my initial supply of yen, so my next task is to replenish the coffers. I have traveller’s cheques, but on a Sunday and in a small district like Ryogoku, they are fairly useless. I try hotels and larger stores, but none of them are able to cash the cheques. Plan B is to find an ATM, but I struggle to find a cash machine that both accepts overseas cards (essential) and has English instructions (highly desirable). At the same time, the crowd is growing at the sumo stadium and my plans to join it are in jeopardy, as I don't have the ready cash for a ticket.
Disheartened, I decide to visit Roppongi, where I hope that the modern Roppongi Hills cultural complex - with its 230 shops - will house a western bank. It turns out to be a good plan, and I am able to withdraw cash and convert my traveller’s cheques. I do both and am glad to see the back of the (almost useless) traveller's cheques. Now back to Ryogoku and the Sumo stadium.
It's a bit too early at the stadium - no sign of the legendary queues and it looks like the wrestlers are just arriving, so I head over to the nearby Yokoami-cho Koen, a park that houses a memorial to the victims of the Kanto earthquake and a monument to the victims of the air raids of World War II (a huge semi-circle bank planted with flowers [pictured], with a small room in the centre containing the names of 100,000 victims). Next I visit the Edo-Tokyo museum, which chronicles the history of Tokyo in impressive detail, using full size replicas, dioramas and ancient maps and documents. I cross a replica of the Nihombashi (bridge of Japan) and on through old Edo with its Kabuki theatres, shops and residences, before getting a glimpse of 1868, when Japan opened its borders to the rest of the world and foreign settlements began to spring up around Tokyo.
Last night’s pub crawl exhausted my initial supply of yen, so my next task is to replenish the coffers. I have traveller’s cheques, but on a Sunday and in a small district like Ryogoku, they are fairly useless. I try hotels and larger stores, but none of them are able to cash the cheques. Plan B is to find an ATM, but I struggle to find a cash machine that both accepts overseas cards (essential) and has English instructions (highly desirable). At the same time, the crowd is growing at the sumo stadium and my plans to join it are in jeopardy, as I don't have the ready cash for a ticket.
Disheartened, I decide to visit Roppongi, where I hope that the modern Roppongi Hills cultural complex - with its 230 shops - will house a western bank. It turns out to be a good plan, and I am able to withdraw cash and convert my traveller’s cheques. I do both and am glad to see the back of the (almost useless) traveller's cheques. Now back to Ryogoku and the Sumo stadium.
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