Our Tokyo Getaway

Last week Damian and I spent 4 days up in Tokyo just kind of hanging out and sightseeing and enjoying our last few days off together! We went up on Sunday AM and headed to Harajuku to try and catch a glimpse of the kids/teenagers who get all dressed up on the weekends as their favorite anime or pop stars... BUT of course it was raining so we only saw a few out and about! While we were there we also walked through the Meiji Shrine (which I wrote all about in a previous blog) and checked out some of the funky stores in the area. Then we headed back to the hotel (The New Sanno- military hotel) where I had a haircut appointment... finally! That night we had very very oishii take out sushi from a place right down the street from the hotel that came highly recommended!!!

The next day we got up early to watch the Patriots win the AFC spot in the Super Bowl..whoop whoop!!!! Then we went about our day... first stop was the Tsukiji Fish Market located right in central Tokyo! It is the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the WORLD... and it is truly massive! It was really impressive, we could have walked through it all day... the only thing was that by the time we got there most of the early morning action was over. Each morning there are thousands of restaurants represented bidding to get some of the fish... I'm sure this starts WAY before I even think about getting up... we got there before 10 AM and it looked like they were packing up for the day already! We did get to see a lot of fish including these massive frozen tuna that you can see to the left... I had no idea tuna were so incredibly big... I was a little worried about the smell of fish bothering me when we went down to this market, but I honestly could barely even smell it. There was also a very large vegetable and fruit market down in this area and it is all a pretty big tourist attraction! There were a few little sushi restaurants located in some of the shops down by the market that had wicked long lines... I'm sure they have the freshest fish in the whole city!!!

From the fish market we walked down towards Ginza, another Tokyo neighborhood. Ginza is known for some of its shopping and some of it's high end stores. We had to head down to the Omega store anyway to get a link taken out of Damian's watch so it was perfect to head this way! It was a pretty nice shopping area, but nothing more than a few long streets lined with expensive stores! Next stop was the Sony BUilding to check out the Sony showroom with new products. We spent about an hour checking out some of the newest technology Sony has to offer as well as many things that haven't even been released to the public yet. In this picture I was riding a bike with 3D glasses and TV and I had make it to the goal by pedaling... it was pretty neat! A lot of the new stuff Sony had was 3D related which honestly I'm not so crazy about... makes me a little dizzy! Some of the new MP3 players were pretty unique as well. It was cool because you could play with all the stuff, pick it up, touch it, take pictures, listen to music... it was a neat experience!

The next day we went to Tokyo Tower (also discussed in an earlier blog) and took the elevator to the top observatory... it was a clear sunny day! The night before it snowed in Tokyo and it actually stuck!!! It was more icy than anything, but pretty cool to see everything covered in a thin layer of snow!!!It was cool to see the view in the daylight because the last time I went it was night time. The night before we had a pretty decent sized earthquake that really shook our hotel so I was a little nervous about having another one when we were high above the world in Tokyo Tower. After leaving, we stopped at a really yummy place for lunch. Japanese speaking only, no English menu, and one of those places where you order by pushing a button on a vending machine and getting a ticket. It was sort of an adventure because we were matching pictures with Japanese writing trying to figure out what we wanted... it worked out fantastically because we both got exactly what we wanted and had lunch for under $8 for the two of us!!!! BONUS!

Next stop was the Imperial Palace which is absolutely ginormous!!!! If you were to walk around the outside perimeter it would be over 3 miles... all surrounded by a very large moat, and very high walls to protect the palace from attack (in the old days)!The grounds were covered by a thin layer of snow which was really pretty and we walked a short distance around to see what we could... you can't really see the palace from outside the walls, and it is only open on 2 days of the year for people to go in and see the Royal Family... On January 1st so the family can receive the New Year's greeting, and on the Emperors birthday (December 23rd) so the Emperor can receive birthday wishes from the people! I'm thinking we may have to venture up there next year to see all the craziness that goes on when the Emperor makes an appearance! It was pretty cold out so we didn't do the whole walk around the palace grounds... maybe next time!

We then headed up to northern Tokyo to Ueno (ew-ay-no) Park area to check out a museum. The park had many museums, and even a zoo! It was a completely different part of Tokyo and kind of neat to see another area. We went to the Tokyo National Museum that was full of awesome historical artifacts from Japan's history. We got to see some beautiful kimonos, samurai swords, old pottery, scrolls, books, wall hangings, paintings, toys and religious sculptures! It was really neat to see some of this stuff... a lot of it was pretty old and in great condition! I was glad we were able to go and check out some more Japanese culture.

Japanese Word of the Day:
Yuki (you-key): Snow