Well, I am up early this morning (it is about 5:45am Wednesday here right now) and this will likely be the last post I am able to make.

Overall, Japan has been good to us, especially considering the language divide. We were almost always able to get to where we wanted or needed to go, we were always able to order the food that we wanted (except for a pizza mike ordered which had corn and shrimp on it.. haha), and I can leave saying the only regret I really have is not seeing Mt. Fuji. BGut I have to leave something for next time.

Our trip ended the same way it started. We headed back into the bar we first went to, and sure enough, there was a different salaryman in there who was just as interested in us as the first two from the first night. His english was a little more rough, but my japanese was a little less rough than from the start (ok, a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny bit less rough) and we were able to communicate, which eventually lead to the sake, which eventually (very eventually) lead to the end of the night.

Today we don’t fly out til 6:25pm Tokyo time (4:25amCDT Wednesday) but with wanting to be at the hour 3 hours early, not to mention the 90 minute train ride to the airport from Shinjuku Station, we are probably leaving Shijuku at 2pm. That is 8 hours left to finish getting dressed (I am sure by now that they really don’t know what to make oif us at the hotel) get something to eat, and bum around Shinjuku one last time.

Highlights of the trip:
Akihabara – anyone who loves the high tech end of japanese culture HAS to see this place to believe it. Every game, DVD, CD, piece of equipment, appliance, etc is there to be bought. Import stores (with US encoded movies and games), used stores, etc. Many of the stores are in areas that are about the quarter of the size of best buy, and then go up to 7 or 8 floors. Just amazing. And the used game stores are great. If I had come with more money I could have easily seen myself walking out with a Famicom, Super Famicom, SuperGrafx, or NeoGeo (which go for only about $150 here).

Tokyo Tower
This was just beautiful. I got lots of pictures from this of the city. You are 150m high at the main observation deck, and 250m high at the special observation deck. You can supposedly see Mt. Fuji on a clear day, but we didn’t get a clear day It actually started raining not more than 15 minutes after we left. Nevertheless, the pictures are beautiful.

Ramen – I LOVE ramen. Good ramen (not the instant junk) is brothy, hearty buckwheat noodles, a slab of pork or chicken inside, some burnt scallions, a piece of seaweed, and some cabbage.. at least that was the good stuff that I had on more than one occassion. One place in Aki even spiced up the broth a bit which was outstanding.

Ameyoko Market in Ueno
This place was just cool. The only old style street market I have ever been to and it was just huge. Everything from dried fish and squid to cameras to used clothes and toys, many American “vintage” items, etc. Just a huge flea market.

Shinjukugyoen
This also has PLENTY of pictures that will show how beautiful this place is. My words can’t do any sort of justice to it so I won’t even try.

Things that I would have done differently?

Eh, I wouldn’t have done the Imperial Palace differently, but I was wholly disappointed in it. Mike said it best. The Palace is so boring that we as Americans became a more popular attraction (and we have the pictures to prove it). Basically the outer courtyard (read: a huge freaking flat empty gravel area) is open 24 hours a day 265 days a year. the cooler inner courtyard is only open 2 days a year, and neither of those two days fell inside of our vacation. so we got the expansive gravel wasteland tour instead.. oh well, we can say we sis it.

one week was simply not enough time to take everything in. There is still plenty of stuff that I would have liked to do. Ueno Park, Mt. Fjui, going to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, and even just getting outside of Tokyo and going to Kyoto, Osaka )though not going there definitely seemed to be a good choice this time.. a moment of silence for the 64 people who died in the crash earlier this week)……. anyway, I think Mike and I did everything we had time to do (and our feet could handle) but there is more that can be done. I guess you just can’t do it all..

eh, that is really about it.

Overall a great time. Recommend it to anyone who is interested in Modern day Japanese culture. If you want traditional culture, I would definitely recommend other parts of Japan instead though. You can do traditional Tokyo in probably a day, two tops. But if you are more into modern and less into traditional, Tokyo really just has everything to fill that. From the electronics and entertainment, to the shrines and graveyards mixed right into the city.

Alright, that’s it. The next update will be to let you know that there are pictures on the gallery. Until then…

No we were not affected by the train derailment for anyone that is scared. We actually didn’t even know about it aside from a message on the usual line we ride (Yamanote) announcing a delay in the schedule of one train. Kind of funny that the rail system is so efficient here that a derailment merely causes a delay.

Yesterday we went to the cities largest market in Ueno. Wish I could remember the name, but I can’t. It was absolutely huge, selling everything from clothes to jewelry to fresh and dried food. We picked up a few things there but mostly it really seemed like a market for locals, not tourists. We also tried out Ginza, but it was WAAAYYY out of our league. Basically take the most affluent stores of New York or Chicago, and that pretty much describes the entire city.

We then went back to Akihabara and did some last minute things there. Picked up something for Belle and Heidi (hope they both like them).

Last night we actually stayed in (well, stayed in after 9pm I should say). We were up since 7am and on our feet, I kid you no, from 7am to 9pm. The only chance we got to sit was about 15 minutes twice while Mike ate at one place and I ate at another.

Today.. umm.. well, most shopping is done, so tonight we might hit some sights. Still have to see the Imperial Palace, would like to get to the old dowtowns (Rena and Ikebukero) and try to get some more pictures. We’ll see..

people are waiting, will update later.

Just got back from the Ghibli Museum. It was amazing. Actually more precisely, it is the first time I felt that same sense of overwhelming joy like I did in Disney World. It was just amazing to see all of the works of this man (Miyazaki) and his studio displayed in every detail, from finished rough sketches and storyboards to finished film cells. I don’t have any pictures of the museum (no cameras allowed inside) but I do have pictures from outside the museum and a couple of extra pictures of Shinjuku to show how mind blowingly busy it gets here. I also have a tour book and hoistory book from the museum that I can and will scan pictures from. Unfortunately, the most amazing part of thge museum wiull not be done justice with pictures.

It was essentially a room of sterographic(?) displays. the best way to explain it is that there are multiple little statues (dozens) attached to a column in the center )orf the ground they are on). Each statue is another “frame” in that statue’s animation sequence. The entire display spins around very fast and then a strobe light flashes (I would assume 15-20 times a second). The end result is that in each position of each statue in the animation, a separate little animation occurs. Only it isn’t a cartoon but actual real life statues moving fluidly and perfectly. Really amaing. I will try to post scans from the book when I get back home.

We also avoided the free breakfast this morning. We may resume it tomorrow, but this morning we ate at McDonalds. Just once I needed breakfast that didn’t consist of rice and fish……… sigh…

Don’t know what the plans are tonight.. Will have to figure things out. Tomorrow or Tuesday will likely be shopping days.

So we tried going to roppongi last night. Unfortunately we have no real direction in this place so while we thought we were walking deeper into Roppongi we were actually heading deeper into Azabu… god damn it. We walked for around 90 minutes into Azabu (it is REALLY long) berfore we finally realized things and decided to walk back to Roppongi (wherever that might have been). After getting back and walking for three hours straight (and according to Mike here, that’s pretty accurate) we headed back to Shinjuku.

On our way back to the hotel (at this point our roppongi excursion has cost us around 5 hours of our day and countless years on our life) we here, what could you imagine, Bon Jovi Bed of Roses blaring out from this basement in a building. Curious as to what establishment has such great taste in this country we head in only to find a perfect recreation of a West Allis bar, Rolling Rock and all (their import special). Only in Japan is Rolling Rock and Bud considered premiums and charged $7 a bottle.. ouch.. well, after listening to a bizarre combination of Bon Jovi and JPop for an hour or so, we had a few beers, headed out, and capped off what would have otherwise turned out to be a very disappointing (and deadly… I really think Mike was looking at me out of the corner of his eye by the fourth hour of walking).

now we are off to the Ghibli Museum.

later

Yeah, you heard that right. I gave it a try and literally vomitted in my mouth. Freaking awful. It smells bad, tastes bad, is a bad texture, and umm… yeah, it was bad.

had some nice ramen today. A spicy pork miso broth based one. delicious.

aside from that we went to akihabara and looked around.. like an electronics flea market.. pretty wild.

no pictures until I get back. this station won’t allow me to hook up my camera and I don’t feel like finding another station that I will have to pay for, so you’ll have to wait until I get back for those.

ok, off now, heading out somewhere tonight and then off to the Ghibli Museum tomorrow. Ironically, Porcco Rosso was on TV last night.. must be some sort of an omen.

Ironically we actually have an internet station in our hotel lobby, a fact unbeknownst to either of us until this morning. As I type this it is 4:30pm. We just got back from the Shijukugyoen, the Shinjuku National Gardens. Will try to post pictures from this station later. If I can’t you will have to wait until I get to a different cafe or home. I took around 70+ pictures in there, and very few of them were wasted.

Last night (our first night here) Mike and I found a local counter-top restaurant.. lol.. So authentic you couldn’t in any way call it a tourist spot. We were hanging out with these two businessmen who just seemed to get the biggest kick out of us. They were asking us plenty of questions about where we came from, questions they had on our perceptions of of some of their customs (pointing fingers) and customs of ours they didn’t like (gesturing with our hands to come here). They were very happy that we made eye contact with them when we talked. It is very uncommon in Japan I guess for two strangers to make eye contact when talking. Very shy. Their words, not mine.

Aside from that not a lot. We vistsed one temple so far. Pictures of that are coming as well.

umm.. that’s about it for now. People are waiting for this terminal. Will try to update maybe later tonight when the lobby is more cleared out.

The passport should be arriving late this week or early next week. All reservations are made. We are getting ready.

We will be staying at the Hotel Listel Shinjuku.It is a 5 minute walk from Shinjuku Station (the largest and busiest station in Japan). We are in a twin upper room, so we should have about 39′ sq. not the most room but we probably won’t be in our hotel aside from sleeping. Here is a pic of our room (of course this could all just be a mistake in translation)

We still need tickets for the Ghibli Museum. My passport is holding that up. It looks fantastic (as a fan of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki).

I have been researching ramen.. here are some pics or popular ramen shops in our ward (Shinjuku)

I also feel it is my duty as a tourist to try Nattou.

Description is as follows:

Nattou, fermented soybeans, is one of Japanese foods that most people from other countries cannot eat. I understand the reason. It is very sticky and stink, and looks bad to our body.(but it is true that this is good for our health)

A picture shown above is Nattou-lunch with a sunny-side up egg(left) and choped okra(center green one). Natton is right side in the box.

Well, that’s all for now. Will update with more plans later on.