Adventures in Tokyo

Man! Tokyo was non-stop action...let's see how well can I sum it up. From Narita, we bused it to Shibuya, where we met Midori. Since we were starvin' like Marvin', we hit up a really cool Udon Restaurant, and then toured around this crazy ass mall. Where the girls on megaphones were shouting at you to buy Ralph, Dolce, Gucci, and more...only in Japan right? Wednesday, was a full day of temples and festivals. We went to Asakusa, Ueno for the morning glory festival, Shinjuku for green tea ice cream, Akihabara...Imagine ~10 city blocks of electronics (I bought my cute little red camera there). Kobayashi-cho-okonomiyako was the last stop where we met with the rest of the gang (Greg, Tatsuya, and Masa) for Japanese Pancakes. Thursday morning, got up and headed out to the fish market (Midori's favorite place to get sushi) where the sushi was so fresh you'd swear the boat was still docked out in the back of the restaurant..as a matter of fact I think it was. M..mad props to you for braving the new and exciting world of sushi and Greg for coachin' you through it. Next stop, Edo Museum, Harajuku (Ms Stephani, I see why you like) we saw a gi-normous man in Kiddyland...no ya'll he was huge! Finished off the night with Japanese pasta. Watch out Italians this pasta was damn good! Friday, took the train to the beach town of Kamakura. Here we saw Hase Kannon Temple (beautiful view of Sagami Bay up top), Kotokuin Temple with the "Great Buddha" or Daibutsu, and Tsurugaoko Hachimangu Shrine. This is where delirium kicked in. This day was packed...trekking to different temples and shrines, eating, trinket shopping, chasing after school boys running for PE, eating, taking pictures of the next child star, and eating. Saturday we went to Hakone for the hot springs, and then to Rappongi where we checked into a love hotel (yea, they rent the rooms out by the hour! You can only stay over night if you're a girl. =)) and then we partied until the weeee hours of the mornin'. Sunday was miserably hot and humid and we took refuge in Odabai (the bayside) at the Aqua City Shopping Center. Ing and I parted ways here and agreed to meet back up at the airport for our flight, which I almost missed. Have you ever tried to take a subway in a foreign language...lemme tell you, it's rough. I did 2 circle loops right outside of Narita, which took about 45 minutes. Their subways go in both directions on the same track so you have to be careful before you get on the train. Make sure it's going the right way! That's the trip. Just a shout out to the generous hosts and hostesses...Midori, Naoko, Masa, Greg and Tatsuya, you guys rock! And a special hello to Trouble our mascot.