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…