Pineapple Cake 2 April Tokyo

Our man with the plan had us out and about early, arriving at the Tokyo Sky Tree not much past opening time, ensuring we were up to its three hundred and fifty metre observation platform before the madding crowds arrived.   One would have thought that from this incredible vantage point that things could only go downhill from there, but the day went in quite the opposite direction as it turned out.

We weren’t intent on doing anything quietly apparently, so we joined at least ten million of Tokyo’s inhabitants on the streets, walking for miles on endless footpaths so packed that they made Sideshow Alley on People’s Day at the Ekka look like a ghost town.   We did  manage to squeeze (literally) a visit to Meiji Shrine and Park, where it’s almost compulsory to watch the wedding processions and entertainment provided by Japan’s counter-culture afficionados.   We could probably have stayed all afternoon just watching the curious bunch of Rock and Rollers strutting their oh-so corny moves resplendent in leather jackets that bore slogans like “Greaser on the Road”, and curiously exaggerated ducktails, but we didn’t.

Instead we shuffled on, past architectural gems and curiosities taking them in with child-like curiosity until we arrived at the sublime Sunny HIlls Tea House   The newly famous "pineapple building" in which it is located thankfully bears no resemblance to our own Big Pineapple, and it is as much of an architectural delight as the pineapple cake sold there is a gastronomic one.  So certain are the proprietors that visitors will fall under the spell of their magical cake, which is the only product they actually sell, that it is offered with tea as a glorious refreshment at absolutely no cost.  

Thus it was, carrying vast piles of pineapple cake, purchased at well above the cost of a mere light refreshment, our little troupe continued to scale greater heights of enjoyment than even those offered by the ride in the sub-sonic lifts of the morning's adventure.