Apparently Japan didn’t want to spoil us to only good weather. Today was cloudy to start and rainy to end. Luckily, the temperatures weren’t too chilly making being out and about in the rain more bearable.

Started the day back in Akihabra for lunch and then headed back to Harajuku to try and catch the people dressed up to be in photo shoots. I guess the rain scared them off or we were just too late because there were very few people in the area that should have been flooded with photographers and people aching to make it in magazines and advertisements.

We spent a little more time shopping on Takeshita Street. I found a few more souvenirs and got a delicious crêpe. Not something I would have ever expected to find in Tokyo, but it was a welcomed surprise.

The rain drove us back to our hotel where we dried off and took a little break. We had a little trouble with the original booking for Kyoto (the hotel ended up being full) so we got that all straightened out and decided to stay one more day in Tokyo. So, tomorrow is now the last day here and the last night will be spent at a different hotel closer to central Shinjuku and Shinjuku Station. That’s going to leave us in Tokyo on New Year’s Eve, and that greatly excites me. Now to find the best place to be at 23:59 tomorrow evening…

Feeling brave, we ventured back in the rain to Ginza (high end shopping area from a few days ago) in search of a store where apparently any size piece of luggage is only ¥5,000 (at least that was Max’s experience last time). After a lengthy Metro ride, we came up from the underground at Ginza Crossing and boom, there was the place. Apparently inflation has struck Japan like it has in America, because any size piece of luggage was now ¥5,250 (a whole $2.90 more haha). They did have every size of luggage one could want. I had been looking in the States for a carry-on size hard shell bag to match my cargo sized suitcase and I found one here … for just ¥5,250, of course!

The rain had been persistent today. Before we left the luggage store, the clerk wrapped our bags for us leaving only the wheels exposed so we could still roll them. That was nice of him, but now we looked like a couple of inbreds rolling plastic wrapped luggage down the streets of Ginza. Passing people carrying new purchases from Prada, Chanel, Louis Vuitton … and here we are with a couple of pieces of knock-off luggage wrapped in plastic like they would melt. Oh well, it was fun and we got a lot of looks, but completely worth it and now I have a nice bag for my souvenirs!

That’s it for day 5. Check-out of Hotel Listel Shinjuku is by 10 am tomorrow morning and check-in at E-Hotel is at 15:00, so hopefully they won’t mind us dropping our bags off early.

Loving Tokyo and hoping the post office is open tomorrow, I have some things to mail. 🙂

Today was all about enjoying the beautiful late-December weather. Wow, it was great. With temperatures near 10˚ C (that’s 50˚ F for the readers in the United States) walking around the Meiji Shrine was absolutely spectacular, and that was our first stop of the day.

The Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. Emperor Meiji was responsible for a number of political, social and economic reforms during his rule, and is often refereed to as “Meiji the Great.” I guess being called anything ‘the great’ is worthy enough to have a shrine dedicated to you … in the middle of the largest city in the world with no telling how much the land the shrine is located on (77 acres) is worth in a real estate market… It’s almost unthinkable.

Located just across the JR track from the Meiji Shrine is a trendy shopping district called Harajuku. Lots of shops. Lots of people. Lots of money to be spent. There were a number of cool and unusual shops that stuck out (stark difference from the shopping on Odaiba which I’ll talk about next) amongst this area. One was a shop dedicated entirely to animal clothing. Cat, dog, probably hamster, you name it, they’ve got clothing for it! Harajuku also boasted a Wolf Gang Puck Express, and as appealing as sushi sounded, there wasn’t a lot in this area and the WGP menu just looked too delicious. American lunch for the second day in a row, but who’s counting? Plus, the majority of the people there are Japanese … so it was very “authentic” feeling!

After finishing up lunch, we decided to make our way to the Yurikamome Line which is a fancy new transit line that crosses over the Rainbow Bridge and connects central Tokyo with Odaiba. Odaiba reminds me of what they are doing in Dubai with all the artificial islands and multi-uses they are getting out of them. It is just like that, and artificial island in Tokyo Bay which is home to shopping malls, an amusement park, docks for sea vessels, museums and even a miniature (yet realistic looking) Statue of Liberty. I posted a photo of that on the photo stream. Back to the shopping malls I mentioned … the stores in them were all mainly American stores: Under Armor, Fossil, Baskin Robbins, it was crazy! Definitely the most American part of Tokyo I had seen yet.
I really enjoyed this area. The views of Tokyo from this perspective were absolutely stunning. I captured a few panoramas and I hope to turn one of them into an actual wall print.

One of the most spectacular things about Odaiba was probably just the metro ride over and back from central Tokyo. Really cool and quite pricy compared to you average JR or Metro ride. Once we were back in central Tokyo, we decided to do some more damage in Akihabra. Much different experience on a Saturday than we had on Thursday. What really made the difference was just the number of people. It’s like every intersection became a mini Shibuya crossing. There were lots of things to see and buy throughout Electric Town (the main area of Akihabra). One could really do some major work on their credit cards while walking those streets. I tried my best to maintain composure, even though it was hard when we’re talking about something that could be described as “curbside Best Buy” shopping … and sometimes curbside ran all the way to the street. Boxes upon boxes of flash drives and memory cards, wireless mouses and iPhone cases. Needless to say, it’s the electronic lovers paradise.

While shopping in Electric Town should probably have been the neatest and most memorable part of the day, what takes the cake for that was the hour we spent at a traditional Maid Café. A Maid Café is not something like a Hooters or Twin Peaks, it’s a classy, authentic Japanese bar with only a few seats and few tables. The setting is very relaxed and most of the people (typically men) that go to them are going (and paying) to just have conversations and drink with the bar tenders (maids in this case). Sticking with Coke (the seemingly universal non-alcoholic beverage) we tried our best to carry on conversation with the two maids that were waiting on us. It was hilarious. They were trying as hard to speak English as we were to understand what they only knew how to say in Japanese. As a general rule, we learned that if you can’t communicate it with words, just point and repeat yourself over and over … either someone will understand you, or they’ll smile and nod like they do.

The story of how we ended up in the Maid Café that we did is as funny as the actual hour we spent there. All along the streets of Akihabra, there are people passing out flyers for various things. We happened to pass a girl passing out flyers for this Maid Café and we inquired about where it was. I guess we seemed interested enough because she led us to it, up three floors on a sketchy elevator, and right up to two seats at the counter where she proceed to explain (in very broken english) about how it works. We quickly found out that you pay by the time you stay there. They had three nice packaged deals: 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 3 hours. We stuck with the shortest time as we really had no idea what we had just gotten ourselves into or how much of it we were going to be able to stand. After what seemed like an eternity (probably about 40 mins) we thanked them and quickly got on our way. Definitely will go down as one of the more memorable moments of the trip. It’s the true sincerity and niceness of the people involved that will make it so memorable. Much like on the first evening when the complete strangers helped us to our hotel … those are the moments that will truly be remembered. Well done Japan!

After escaping from the Maid Café, we went for a quick stop at Yodobashi (the 12 story electronics store). I found a really cool new leather iPhone case and felt like that was all the money I really needed to spend in there before I accidentally went overboard.

We decided to head back to Shibuya and find some dinner. The plan was sushi (like always), but Outback Steakhouse won us over. When the menu is in Japanese, the wait staff is Japanese and the majority of the clientele is Japanese, it’s like I’ve already said, it’s almost authentic Japanese dining … minus the fact we were chowing down on a blooming onion. That’s BESIDE the point though. It was a good dinner.

Wrapping up the evening with a final stroll around Shibuya. As I noticed earlier in the day, Saturday made all the difference in the number of people that were out. It was jam packed every direction you turned and every sidewalk you tried to walk down. No room! But I think I got some awesome footage with my GoPro this evening now that it wasn’t raining. Let’s hope!

We booked our last 4 nights of the trip in Kyoto once we got back to the room and tomorrow will be our last full day in Tokyo. Looking really forward to riding the Shinkansen in a few days.
I’m considering waking up early to check out the Tsukiji fish market tomorrow morning. The main fish auction is closed due to business, but they still have breakfast sushi bars open and lots of commotion. We’ll see if it happen!

Alright, that’s it for day 4! Sayonara.

Today started off with a trip to Sensō-Ji: Tokyo’s oldest temple. The area surrounding the temple was extremely touristy and very busy. Pretty sure I saw more white people during the shopping I did in this area than I have since we left the United States. Neat chance to buy some authentic Japanese souvenirs though.

For lunch, we started off at an authentic Japanese sushi bar named “Sushi Go-round” which is the most apropos name for the style restaurant it was… The bar you sat down at had a conveyor belt where plates upon plates of sushi continually circled the entire bar. When you saw one you wanted, you just took it off and ate. BUT, after a few of these plates weren’t curing the hunger, we decided to be equal opportunists and give McDonald’s a chance. Don’t judge, it was delicious!

After Sensō-Ji, we headed towards the Tokyo Skytree. The Skytree is the world’s tallest tower (tower meaning used only for broadcasting and observation purposes, not business) and the second tallest structure in the world (behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai which is a multi-purpose office building). The wait for the Skytree was almost as lengthy as the Skytree is tall. Completely worth it. The first level you visit is 350 meters up called the Tembo Deck. For an additional ¥1000, you can venture up another 100 meters to the Tembo Galleria, “the world’s highest skywalk” claims the website. Breathtaking views and I posted multiple photos from up there on the photo steam. Have a look. https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A1G6XBubJGuEP8

Now on to Ginza: the high-end shopping mecca of Tokyo. It was high end for sure. After a quick stop at Wako, it was time to check out a true luxury brand here in Japan… Abercrombie & Fitch. haha Apparently the Japanese LOVE A&F and do not mind paying what seemed to be three times the prices we pay for it in the States. Crazy! Also visited my first Uniqlo, which is a Japanese version of H&M (which I also spent some time in). Last stop before dinner was at the Apple Store Ginza, just for enough time to take a quick panorama and send a few SnapChats on the wifi.

We grabbed dinner at Yoshinoya (same place as lunch yesterday and I think I realized the thing I was eating that I was unaware of was actually beef.. uh-oh) and then headed back towards Shibuya. I took an über cool recording of Shibuya crossing at night. We went to H&M and did a little browsing then decided to head back to the room before we spent any more money.

Spent a little more time planning the last half of the trip and how many days we plan to stay in Kyoto. Found a pretty cool hotel and cancelled our reservation for the last 4 days here in Tokyo.

Greatly enjoyed my third day in Tokyo. The people and city are starting to grow on me!

Floor 1 of MANY.

Day 2 is more or less day 1 since the majority of yesterday was spent on a Boeing 777 38k feet in the air. Anyway, I was able to get caught up on my sleep last night. I already feel pretty acclimated to the time difference.

The main goal today was find an ATM that would accept our Visas. After multiple failed attempts at local bank ATMs and Family Mart, the Japanese Post office came through for us. With the Yen I pulled out, I purchased my Suica card. The Suica card is the easiest way to pay for the JR and Metro. It’s as easy as just waving it over the RFID reader and walking on.

Lunch was at a Japanese style fast-food restaurant. Very yummy, even though I’m not quite sure what it even was.

We made a quick trip through Akiba: a 12 story electronics store and picked up a Nikon charger and battery for Max’s camera. Cool store… Easy to spend money in.

On to Shibuya now. Visited the Apple Store and Tower Records. I picked up and awesome copy of Bruno Mars’ album. Although the music is the same, it’s wrapped in some cool Japanese package with kanji all over it.
Shibuya crossing was very cool! I posted a picture of it on the photo stream. Definitely a stream of people. Wow!

Ended the day with a stop at Family Mart for hotel room snacks and drinks. I’ve spent the last few hours looking up what else would be neat to do in Tokyo and planning a trip to southern Japan.

Great second/first day!

Busy busy busy.

Upon coming up out of Shinjuku station and beginning to make ourselves aware of our surroundings as to hopefully find our hotel, two of the nicest–and I mean NICEST–people I’ve ever met came up to us and asked us if we needed any help. Of course we did. I showed them the name of our hotel and off they went to their data connected smartphones looking up where it was located.

“That way,” said the lady of the two and she pointed up the street we were standing near. “Thank you very much,” we said and headed in that direction, only to be told to “follow us” with us being our new found friends.

Off we went, tagging along with our oversized suitcases in tow. Making casual conversation along the way, the lady kept telling us that the hotel (Listel Shinjuku Hotel Tokyo) was very far from Shinjuku Station, but we’d get there. About what seemed like half way there, our friends made a quick stop in a convenience store. We just figured they were picking up something to take home that they needed, but instead had bought a package of hand warmers to share with us as it was quite chilly on this walk.

We continued on towards the hotel, or at least that’s where I was hoping we were continuing on to. What seemed to be a series of twists and turns down streets that could not have possibly led to any hotel, did in fact lead us to the Listel Shinjuku. I began to recognize the buildings from Google Street View and within minutes we were at the entrance to the hotel.

With a simple “enjoy your stay” from our new friends they went on their way!
This first experience will hopefully set the tone for the rest of the trip.

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and Tokyo, you did it right!

I’m writing this on the plane and the heads-up display says we have 1 hour left to Narita!

It’s been a long flight. Sheesh. 2.5 meals thankfully… I guess they’d rather not deal with restless, hungry passengers if at all possible. Watched some True Blood and a Katy Perry documentary where I learned that she is a huge fan of Japan after her tour took her to Tokyo a while back. But wow, after seeing how much she cared for Russell Brand and then how he just broke her heart..I’m pretty miffed at him!

Alright, we’re beginning the decent. Lets do this!