It was cold and wet when I left Hama-rikyu. I walked back to the station and saw a Tully’s coffee shop in a high-rise office building near the station so I stopped for a coffee. I had read about Tully’s before leaving the US. Apparently decaf. is hard to come by in Japan. Web sources indicated that you could not get it at Starbucks but that Tully’s would make it for you on an individual basis. They were right about Tully’s. I enjoyed a very nice cup of coffee and an apple pastry in a warm and dry cafe.
While doing my navigation research I had come across a large clock near the station. Had I been going to Ginza, I would have walked right by it. I decided to go and find it anyway, before getting on my train to Kiyosumi. My directions had me walking on all sorts of overpasses and pedestrian walkways through the office buildings, but I found it very easily and it was worth a stop.
NI-TELE Really BIG Clock by Hayao Miyazaki near Shiodome
That’s the proper name - NI-TELE Really BIG Clock - and it is on the side of the Nippon Television Tower. It is a mechanical clock designed by Hayao Miyazaki who is a manga artist and anime director, apparently well known for the steampunk elements in his movies. Steampunk worlds have all sorts of steam-powered machines. The clock took 4 years to complete, is made of copper and is 33’ tall and 59’ wide. There are 32 mechanical tricks including 2 blacksmiths (bottom right), spinning a wheel (above and left of blacksmiths), a teakettle (top right), and cannons above the right leg. Unfortunately I did not see it do any of these things!