Day 1: First night in Tokyo
Free Internet at the hotel!!! Long day of traveling yesterday but the best plane I've ever been on. Boeing 777. 12 hours on the plane then almost 2 hrs by train with our luggage to Shinjuku. Managed to stay awake until 11pm Tokyo time last night so we feel pretty normal waking up at 7AM this morning. Got lost immediately when we got off the train. Walking thru crowded Tokyo with our backpacks and luggage on a Saturday night. While I'm looking at this map that is all in Kanji (no help), this young drunk Japanese guy comes up with an Iphone and in broken English asks us where we are going. He tries to find out the location of the hotel but fails. Then he hails a cab and hops in with us. The cab eventually takes us to the hotel and the young Japanese guy won't let me pay!!! Just a random act of kindness!!! Awesome. Ate some crazy weird food last night, none of which was all that awe inspiring, but was too tired to care. Off to Harajuku and Din Tai Fung (this dim sum place that I heard was AMAZING!!!). Taking lots of pictures. Sayonara!
Day 2: Tokyo
Breakfast at Starbucks in total silence. Everyone is SO quiet here. Really good coffee here. A walk to the Shinjuku station for a ride to Shibuya. The subway systems are weird at first but get much easier. EVERYTHING is self-serve here via computers. And you pay for everything in advance. For the subways, you find your destination on a big map that is full of numbers (thankfully numbers still look like numbers here) then you purchase a ticket for that amount and off you go. You follow the signs to the right side of the tracks for the direction you are going. There's one main line that goes in a circle around central Tokyo (the Yamanote Line) and a MILLION other lines that go in all sorts of different directions to various cities throughout Tokyo.
So off to Shibuya where we walked through tons of cool shops and down tons of cool streets. Sara particularly liked Kiddy Land, full of toys and little nick knacks. I went to the Patagonia store where I talked with a Japanese guy about surfing and his trip to Huntington Beach, then bought a really cool beanie for 4515¥ (about 60$, must be a really cool beanie for that much!!!). Hit up Yoshinoya beef bowl on our way thru Harajuku and met a nice couple from Maui. I wonder if Yoshinoya is that good in the US? Harajuku was PACKED on a Sunday. You really have to come here to get a grasp on the magnitude of people here. When we were walking home last night, I told Sara that every time I turn around, I feel like a concert just got out behind me! So we walked from Harajuku over to Yoyogi Park and went to the Shrine there. A lot of the cutest little girls dressed in kimonos. Don't worry, I took pictures. The shrine was lined with all sorts of beautiful fruits and veggies as an offering I assumed. Also a huge display of Chrysanthemums. More fancy shops and a doppio at Lavazza, then back to Shibuya crossing where there is a Starbucks that overlooks one of the busiest crossings in the world. We listened to some Japanese pop music (um, terrible) since the Starbucks is also a Tower Records. Also, that particular Starbucks only serves one size drink, which was weird, but we figured that it was SO busy that taking out that one factor might really help to keep up. Back to the hotel for a nap, then out to a Ramen restaurant for dinner (a really nice Japanese man recommended a great place even though he was representing another restaurant that didn't have what we were looking for). SO DIFFERENT. You walk up to the front of the restaurant and you use a vending machine to pick out what you want and how much you want of it (pretty easy but also confusing if you've never done it), It prints you out a ticket and they send you to your seating area which consists of a very little kitchen surrounded by a serving bar and stools. Space is a definite commodity here. VERY tight quarters. I had to move seats because my legs wouldn't fit between the seat and the bar! I had to find a corner seat and sit sidesaddle! The Ramen was totemo oishi (very delicious). You pick the size and chewiness of the noodles, the amount of spice, oil and flavor in the broth. Then you add stuff to it. Everything comes with pork and noodles, but I added dried garlic flakes, extra pork, seaweed and a hard-boiled egg. You fill out a little form to give to the chef. Everything has a process here. When you order your coffee at Starbucks, the lady taking the order shouts it to the coffee makers, and they in turn repeat the order back, loud and in unison! Pretty fun.
After dinner, a quick stroll thru what was reputed to be the bad side of town but was more dirty than scary. A few mobster looking types but we weren't hassled. Slight fiasco at Shinjuku station when they closed our walking path home. There are paths around the stations marked by signs. You can go through the station but only with a ticket. The guard told us the path around had closed and we would have to walk far north to get around. We bought the cheapest ticket (130 yen) and just went thru the station. Best $4 I've ever spent. Then back home safe to our hotel and a very comfortable bed!
Day 3: Tokyo
Woke up early and had a traditional American buffet style breakfast at the hotel, with a little bit of Japanese flair (they love their eggs sunny side up). Then went for a nice walk in the park by our hotel while Sara napped. Walked past another shrine and stopped in for another cup of coffee at the Starbucks. The older Japanese people look at me like I’m an alien for the most part. Walked past a gas station where the gas pumps are suspended from the ceiling!!! Seems like everything here is designed for functionality. Next was definitely the highlight of my day; a haircut. I’ve never had a more meticulous person cut my hair. He was probably my age. From the moment I walked in the door of this tiny barbershop (if I haven’t mentioned it, EVERYTHING is tiny here), I was the focus of all three employees. The whole thing probably took an hour at least. The coolest part was when they washed my hair. The mirror in front of me slid up and the wall pulled down to reveal a sink! The chair I was sitting in swiveled and they washed my hair without me having to move a muscle!
After the haircut, we took a walk to the Park Hyatt, which, in my humble opinion, is now what I consider to be the best hotel on the planet. It takes up the top 15 floors of an unbelievable building in Shinjuku. The elevator opens to the lobby and to soaring views of Tokyo. You can even see Mount Fuji on a clear day (it wasn’t, but still spectacular). The pool and the restaurant on the top floor have similar views. We had by far the best meal we’ve had here. We were the only non-Japanese people dining there and unfortunately we were WAY underdressed, as we hadn’t planned on eating at such a fancy place. Everyone was very gracious. I had spiced braised quail and Sara had an unbelievable rib eye steak, this along with an appetizer and desert buffet. One really cool thing that we’ve experienced is that the server “recommends” that you take your dessert and coffee at another table. I think it’s a fantastic idea! We had a different view from the dessert table and really good espresso!
Stopped by a Japanese golf store on the way back to the hotel. Sara bought a few cool golf things and I conversed with a guy who spoke NO English but we did pretty well considering we had golf in common. I told him all the clubs I had and he told me what he had. He was amazed I had an extra stiff Diamana shaft in my driver and pointed to his biceps!
Back to the hotel for another snooze for Sara and I went to the pool. They really know how to do pools here. All the hotel pools are on the top floor. I was overlooking Tokyo in all its glory while sitting in a hot tub after a 30 minute swim! Also took advantage of the sauna (or warm room as they call it) and the sun lamps!
We had dinner at Din Tai Fung, the Dim Sum restaurant that I was really looking forward to! They are world famous for their pork dumplings. The real beauty of these dumplings is that somehow they fill them with pork AND a delicious pork broth. Then you dip them in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar and raw ginger. We ordered WAY too much and I managed to finish it all. I mean, there are starving children in Africa. Who am I to waste food? A walk back to the hotel and didn’t have much trouble falling asleep. Head hits pillow, and that is all she wrote!
Day 4: Tokyo to Kyoto
Slept in and woke up to a beautiful clear day, largely due to the rain the day before. You could finally see the mountains from our room! Took a while packing up (then Sara took a while throwing up) and we headed to the Shinjuku station to catch a ride to the Tokyo station and the Nozomi Shinkansen (the fastest bullet train right now). We bought our tickets for the 11:30AM departure and hustled to the platform our train was arriving on, or so we thought. It didn’t feel right and Sara flagged down a conductor-looking guy and he told us we needed to go to platform 17. We had about 4 minutes to get there. I had to sprint down and then up 4 flights of stairs carrying my backpack and both our suitcases (probably 50 lbs each; I’m pretty sure Sara has at least three basketball size boulders in hers, so it’s probably closer to 60 lbs). Needless to say, we made it by the skin of our teeth and I looked like I was participating in a wet T-shirt contest by the time we sat down.
Really cool ride to Kyoto through tons of farmland and mountains. The trees are turning everywhere in Japan, so that was neat and we even saw a little of the coastline which reminded me of the Washington coastline. The train ride took a little under two and a half hours and we got to the Hyatt in Kyoto around 2pm. What an amazing hotel! Japanese architecture and I get along really well. We just get each other. We are thinking about running away together.
Anyways, had an amazing lunch in the lobby restaurant. I had the Croque Monsieur, quite possibly the best sandwich on the face of the planet (if ya don’t know, now ya know!). I was feeling saucy after my swim the previous night and so I decided to go for a run down a big path by the river we crossed over on the way from the train station. I ended up running for about 8 miles because it was such a cool place to run and see the city at the same time. I got to a Y in the river where quite a few people were hanging out after work or school or whatever. I had already decided to run back on the other side so I made my way over to a place in the river that had big concrete stones strategically laid out so you could cross there. I was hopping from stone to stone and got across pretty quickly. When I reached the other side, I heard all this clapping. I turned around and realized that there were probably 15-20 people clapping at my river crossing performance. So funny! When I got back to the hotel, we headed down to the Spa as we had each scheduled a 90 minute massage (shiatsu, really excellent). Took a quick nap and headed down for a sushi dinner. We were the only ones at the hotel sushi bar, but the food was excellent. No salmon (which I was looking forward to) but the quality of fish here is off the charts as I expected. Our chef was kind of crazy. He kept talking to himself and forgetting stuff, but we both liked him. Not a whole lot of stuff going on in Kyoto at night and we were spent, so we hit the sack after watching a little Sumo wrestling on TV. Sports and Japanese infomercials have been our favorite TV entertainment so far.
Day 5: Kyoto
Woke up early (around 6AM) and headed down to breakfast. I discovered Bircher Muesli (oats, yogurt and fruit combo that was amazing) and had three excellent cups of coffee. Thought we’d take advantage of a vomit free morning and get an early start so we headed for Fushimi Inari Shrine (the land of a million Torii). There are tunnels made out of hundreds of orange Torii (imagine Japanese Arc de Triumph). We thought it would just be a few tunnels but it turns out it is a trail roughly 4 kilometers long that winds up the mountain side and provides spectacular views of all of Kyoto. I did the full loop while Sara waited for me at the bottom. We saw a couple of young Japanese women in high heel boots, which we thought was an interesting footwear choice considering the terrain. They didn’t make it very far…
On the walk back to the subway from the shrine, we walked past a bunch of food shops. Some of them were grilling whole BBQ quail with the heads on (still bummed I didn’t get a picture of them). It was at this time that I realized I lost my $60 beanie from the Patagonia store! So bummed. We hopped the train to Gion, the touristy part of the city. We walked through a beautiful park on our way to a part of Kyoto that is kept in the old style. While Sara looked in shops I was sitting on some stairs when a rickshaw pulled up with two Geisha in it. I asked them if it would be all right if I took a picture of them and they agreed. They were smiling and giggling at me while I took their picture then they took a picture of me!?! Uh, I’m not the one dressed up as an ancient courtesan! So we headed up to Kiyomizudera Shrine, a beautiful old temple in the foothills of Kyoto surrounded by turning maple trees. Another million pictures and we grabbed a rickshaw back down to Gion. I must admit the rickshaw ride was a lot of fun. I only did it to save Sara’s feet the trouble of walking a couple miles but it ended up being one of the highlights of the day. Our rickshaw ninja was named Tyra and he was full of useful information and also really funny. You should have seen him struggle up some of the hills! I asked him if he wanted me to take over for a bit and he said “Maybe”! J The downhill parts were really fun and no fewer than 5 Japanese people took pictures of us. Every single person we passed giggled and waved. I asked Tyra if I was funny looking and he said “Maybe”! J Then he said we looked famous.
Once back in Gion, we were stopped by a group of school children. They were doing an English assignment where they needed to ask us some questions: Where are you from? What sports do you like? What is your name? We answered all the questions and helped them a bit with some of the pronunciations and then took a few pictures with them. It was totally awesome! I remember being really shy speaking Spanish for the first time so I was empathetic to their situation. They did a great job.
We walked over to the Nikishi Market after Gion. Sara was on her last leg (I was getting there) so we quickly walked through the market (think Japanese Pike Place Market) and tried a few snacks (bacon wrapped something; I’ll try anything wrapped in bacon). Caught a cab outside of the market and headed back to the hotel for a quick nap then our special anniversary dinner at Touzan, the fancy Kaiseki style restaurant in our hotel. We had a traditional 9-course meal consisting of authentic Kyoto style cuisine. The chef greeted us and catered the menu to Sara’s needs (no raw stuff). They had a bottle of Champagne waiting but we had to tell them we didn’t drink (I almost took one for the team J). Kyoto cuisine is very simple. No overbearing flavors. No complicated preparations. Just really good ingredients speaking for themselves. The highlight of the dinner for me was steamed Daikon radish with Abalone and Uni (Sea Urchin roe). The Daikon radish stole the show (which surprised me!). I would compare its taste to brussel sprouts covered in butter. Some really good steak and sushi were mixed in there as well. Mochi and hot green tea was a perfect ending to the meal and to a long and super fun day!!!
Day 6: Kyoto
Slept in a bit after a long day of walking. A pretty typical start to the day for us here in Japan. We had breakfast, Sara then proceeded to throw it all up, and then we were on our way. While waiting in the lobby for Sara, the concierge comes up to me with my beanie!!! It made my day. I was so excited I almost gave him a hug. I made a bunch of noise and everyone was looking at me but I didn’t care because I had my sweet hat back! We decided that this would be a perfect day to rent bikes so we took the train to the end of the line. There was a bike rental shop conveniently located right as we got out of the station (see Sara, you don’t need to plan everything). Our first priority was the famous Golden Pavilion. It took at least a few kilometers to get used to riding bikes in Kyoto. First, Sara’s bike had a seat that she often compared to the business end of a rhinoceros (mine was slightly less intrusive). Also, cyclists own the roads here. You kind of have to get in to a Kamikaze type mentality if you really want to fit in. We rode for around 30 minutes (no accidents!) and parked our bikes outside the entrance to the Pavilion.
The Golden Pavilion is really more of just an old estate with a beautiful Japanese home painted gold (real gold!). There are all sorts of ponds and little islands with trees on them. I can’t do the place justice with words so you’ll have to see the pictures (I took approximately 1.3 trillion of them). Apparently Kyoto is a hot spot for school field trips, so again we were approached by some kids for pictures and a brief conversation to help them practice their English. I didn’t throw the peace sign this time. I hope they weren’t disappointed. There was also a giant bell (must have been at least 4 inches thick) that could be rung with a huge wooden log hung from ropes (like the one Arnold Schwarzenegger carries at the beginning of “Commando”). Everyone was weak sauce until this old English guy gets up and almost takes the whole thing down by swinging it so hard. I chose not to partake due to my character flaw that doesn’t allow me to take it easy on things (the saying “bull in a china shop” comes to mind). I think I chose wisely.
After the pavilion, we decided to take another route back to the bike shop and we were really glad we did because we happened upon an enormous street fair. First, we gorged ourselves on beef and chicken yakitori (400 yen each). Then we had a generous helping of piping hot yakisoba (300 yen). I tried this grilled cabbage, egg, fish flakes and sauce thing for 400 yen (think Japanese frittata). It was decent, not mind blowing. Sara got a candied apple and I got candied strawberries and a candied Satsuma orange!!! Oishi! We walked around for an hour or so looking at all sorts of things. There were games that you could play and win prizes like at the fair. There was a whole section of plants and flowers that was amazing. And there were also hundreds of clothes booths with regular clothes and also traditional kimonos and sandals. When we were done, we finished our lunch off with a big bowl of ramen. This older lady was making the broth right there on the street and she was spooning the bones out of the giant pot with a Peewee Herman sized slotted spoon.
After we left the fair, we rode back and returned the bikes. I wanted to visit an onsen (natural hot springs) while here, but he said the closest one was a good hour away by train. I guess I looked disappointed enough to where he suggested I visit a sento that was nearby. A sento is a traditional Japanese bathhouse where townsfolk go to bathe and relax. I was up for it but Sara can’t do hot water right now so she walked me there and then headed back to the hotel while I bit the bullet and headed inside. The place was separated between a women’s side and a men’s side, but the only thing separating it was a ten-foot high wall so you could hear the Japanese women gossiping the whole time. I walked in and paid my 410 yen to the woman running the place and headed over to my locker to get naked. There was no divider between the lockers and the entryway so I got undressed while the manager lady looked on (kinda felt like I should be charging her!). Then I headed in to the actual bath part through a sliding glass door that was steamed up. On the left there was a row of showers where you had to sit on the ground to use them. I rinsed off quickly and headed for the sauna since I noticed it had a view of the entire bath so I could scope out my next move. There were probably 8-10 Japanese men in the place while I was there and they ALL constantly stared at me like I had 8 arms and was wearing a cowboy hat. I eventually figured out my next move; a soak in one of the four or five hot bath tubs. The tubs were big enough for one of me or apparently 4 Japanese guys because that is how many got in to one of them. I rinsed off again to be polite and hopped in to one of the tubs. Now I had prepared myself for some serious culture shock when I got up the nerve to go in to this place, but I didn’t think I would get culture ELECTROCUTED!!! The bath I hopped in to was an electric shock bathtub and no, I’m not joking. My legs and arms instantly when in to spasm and I could hardly move. The guy in the bath next to me just stared at me (like he had been doing for the last 20 minutes) and didn’t even crack a smile. I finally figured out that the electricity was coming from the sides of the tub so I moved more to the middle and could finally breath again. Honestly, it was a pretty invigorating experience albeit probably not very safe (I don’t think this sento would be up to code in the US). I hopped in to another bath for a while (sans-shock therapy) and then decided I’d had enough. My last faux pas was that I hadn’t gotten a towel from the lady at the front, so when I exited the bath part, I had to wait for about ten minutes before she returned and an older Japanese gentlemen explained to her that I needed a towel (definitely the longest I’ve ever stood wet and naked with a bunch of other naked men). The towel was roughly the size of a McDonalds napkin. I’m sure the guys down at the Isegawa sento will be laughing for quite a while about the time that stupid Gaijin came to their bathhouse!
So back to the hotel and I had electricity running through me so I decided to take another run down to my favorite river crossing. It was 6pm by this time and dark out. I was pretty tired at the halfway point so I decided to walk around the bridge pillars and then start my run again. Under the bridge, the path is divided in to two paths and most take the right path. Well, I went right first and then turned around and went down the left path on the way back. I see someone laying on the ground and originally just assumed it was a bum sleeping, but as I came closer, it was two people, a man and a woman. The woman had her pants down and the guy was (how can I say this so my mom can read it?) pleasuring her with his hand!!! Under a bridge!!! In downtown Kyoto!!! With people running by!!! And they were not being very discreet about either. But other than that it was a perfectly normal run.
We both worked up a serious appetite so we headed out for our first shabu shabu experience. It did not disappoint. For a guy like me, a shabu shabu restaurant is basically heaven on earth; a glimpse at Nirvana. Did I mention that it was an all-you-can-eat establishment? You start out with a big pot of boiling water that you cook all sorts of meat and vegetables in. The meat is really well marbled beef and pork and the vegetables consist of cabbage, onion, mushrooms (enoki and shitake) and spinach. Then you have about 4 dipping sauces that you can tweak to your liking with chili oil, horseradish, green onion, etc. I ate beef and pork until I couldn’t imagine putting anything else in to my stomach. Then our waitress made delicious soup out of the broth that you cooked with the whole time. I managed to handle two bowls of that too! Definitely one of my favorite dinners here so far! We grabbed a cab home and called it a night.
Day 7: Back to Tokyo
So woke up and packed up for our trip back to Kyoto. A quick breakfast and we were off to the train station to catch the bullet train back to Tokyo for four more nights. We were pretty excited because we were pretty sure we saved the best hotel for last. No problems catching the train this time and I finally got to see front of the train (kind of scary looking). The thing about the bullet train is that you don’t really feel like you are going very fast. If you get carsick easily, it’s probably not best to stare out the window (Sara didn’t do it, obviously) but the views along the way are pretty awesome. We got back to Tokyo station and had to catch another train to Roppongi, where the Grand Hyatt is located. Turned out to be close to rush hour and the train was pretty packed. About two minutes outside of the station, the brakes lock up unexpectedly for an emergency stop. Well I am standing right in the middle of the train holding on for dear life and this Japanese couple comes flying at me, completely caught off guard by the stop. I’m hanging on by one hand to the handle and somehow manage to hold on and basically catch this couple with my off hand and chest. They felt SO bad and apologized for the rest of the time we were on the train, which was quite a while because the train stayed stopped for about 20 minutes while we waited for the tracks to clear. I was just happy I could help. I guess it wasn’t that impressive when you consider that she couldn’t have weighted more than 90 lbs. and he wasn’t much bigger…
So we finally get to the hotel and it is the most amazing hotel EVER! Sara gets greeted by basically the whole staff. First we meet the rooms manager, then the Assistant rooms manager, then the convention manager, then the assistant convention manager, etc. This went on for about 30 minutes, but they upgraded us to a Grand Club room so I couldn’t complain. This means free AMAZING breakfast every morning (lox and bagels included J) along with free drinks and snacks all day long (I like free, especially in the most expensive city on earth)!
I would describe the hotel as contemporary. A lot of stone, glass and dark wood which all go so well together in my opinion (and anyone else who has an ounce of modern in ‘em). We made it straight for the pool and spa area and we were left speechless! First, an amazing pool surrounded by aged mahogany flooring. Then, a circular hot tub made of white plexi-glass lit from within cuts in to the rectangle of the pool just barely (do yourself a favor and look it up online, its worth it). I swam for 30 minutes and then headed in to the Men’s locker room complete with four massage chairs, each with their own personal TV’s. My favorite part had to be the Sauna area with ice bath! Just to give you a sense of the experience, it’s like getting punched in the face by Helios one second (the sauna was 180 degrees) then kicked in the junk by a polar bear the next (the ice bath was 40 degrees). Very refreshing to say the least!
So we scheduled massages for the next day and headed out to check out Roppongi. Tokyo was all about Christmas while we were there. There was a whole Christmas village set up there with a Bavarian theme and the Japanese people were loving it! Every advertisement was about Christmas shopping. It was pretty crazy considering Christianity isn’t even sort of their main religion. I’m thinking they are really in to American culture and must have adopted that one? Anyways, Sara grabbed a bratwurst at the Christmas village and I got some curry takeout and we headed for bed around 11pm.
Day 8:
The highlight of our day next was certainly Ginza. Ginza is the super ritzy area in Tokyo where billionaire’s wives (and my wife) love to go shopping. We walked by all the big names in fashion but the really big draws are the Japanese department stores. They are basically like mini malls. They are all 12 stories and have 2 floors dedicated to food shops. Then there are 9 floors for women’s stuff and one floor for men’s stuff (they’ve definitely figured out their target audience). I was done pretty quickly. The cutting edge of men’s fashion in Japan right now is basically “make yourself look as gay as possible”. No thanks. I went to the golf section where I found a set of golf clubs for 1,000,000 yen (that’s like $12,000!!!). Sara took considerably more time. They close the streets on the weekend and that was really cool. There were so many people just out walking around, probably because it is such a cool area (it really reminded me of some parts downtown Seattle, but cleaner and newer).
Back to the hotel for our 90 minute massages (you only live once!), then out to dinner at a Teppanyaki place at the hotel that was recommended to us. I was not very excited but boy was I wrong. I was eating my words after they served me my appetizer. Seared Foie Gras with caramelized monkey bananas and a balsamic reduction! I actually think I can make it! Every bite was like a flavor M80 going off in your mouth. The rest of the meal was amazing too! Sara got meat (she was craving beef the whole time) and I got guinea fowl in an amazing cream sauce. Our chef was super cool too. He was cooking all this amazing food for like 3 couples at a time and he was SO CALM. “No big deal. Just knocking out gourmet food left and right. I handle these spatulas like a modern ninja. Yeah, I’m the man…” We took a picture of him and of all the food too!
Day 9:
Every morning at the grand started out with breakfast at the Grand club. This one waitress took a liking to us and greeted us with the biggest smile every morning! They wait on you hand and foot. They had my double espresso and Sara’s hot chocolate on the table practically before we sat down. I can’t say it enough; the customer service in Japan is unparalleled! And they won’t let you tip them! It’s something everyone that deals with customers should experience. As you walk down the halls in the hotels, the maids stop and bow until you’ve turned the corner! It’s also customary for service workers to turn and bow before exiting any room. Just really makes you feel special. Anyways, off to Akihabara we went. Akihabara is known as “electric town” because it’s the electronics and anime capital of Tokyo. At first I thought I was going to be really bored because the first shop was just like a big Best Buy (fun for a while, but not a day). But then we found all these crazy shops full of the weirdest stuff! One shop was a whole shop of vending machines that had mini figurines from every cartoon for the last 30 years. Sara was in heaven! They also had an adult vending machine section that had little naked figurines (kinda scary and really weird!).
Then we made it to the video game parlor part of town. All of the arcades were at least 7 stories (every building in Tokyo is at least 7 stories it seems like!). The first two floors were full of those machines that you can grab stuff with those mechanical grabbers, but they were full of super weird stuff like anime sheet sets and fruit! Then there are floors with normal video games like old school Super Mario and Street fighter. We stayed on this floor until I got my ass handed to me at Top Spin Tennis by some Japanese video game Samurai. The next floor was all about a couple of crazy games kind of like a cross between Guitar hero and Dance Revolution. There were at least ten machines and there was still a HUGE line to play it. There was this weird beauty game where you spend money making your virtual girl prettier (I still don’t get it). Then the top floor was for the serious gamers. There were several different role-playing type games that took some serious financial and time commitments! The sports games required you to buy a team full of player cards and you played full games where you only manage the game, but win or lose based on the strength of the players you have. Obviously, the good players are really expensive! And you don’t even play the game! I watched this guy play this soccer game for at least an hour and all he did was push buttons to change the defensive or offensive formations. It looked really boring to me.
Akihabara is also known for these weird Manga cafes where girls dress up like maids or anime characters, etc, and serve you. I guess it’s really popular for all the nerdy guys that are really in to anime. We passed and got some really good tempura instead, but there were girls (and some guys) dressed up on every corner handing out brochures for these places and Sara and I got a kick out of them!
Went back to the hotel for a quick nap and then checked out the Mori Art Museum, which was in the same complex as our hotel. The highlight was definitely that the museum was located on the 59th floor of the Mori Tower. We paid the extra 300 yen a piece and went up to the roof! Amazing views of all of Tokyo at night. Really worth the visit! The art displayed was a little scary, but definitely interesting. After that, we grabbed a few doner Kebabs (these amazing pita type sandwiches with this amazing meat and sauce) and finished off the night watching the final day of the sumo tournament, which I finally understand and I have to say it was pretty entertaining!
Day 10:
Our last full day started out at the Tsukiji fish market at 5 in the morning. At first it was so dark and there were so little tourists there so we just wandered in what we thought was the right direction. Well, we wandered in to this area that no one is supposed to go. We were kindly pointed in the right direction by a guard who pointed us in the right direction. The cool part was that we caught a glimpse of the famous blue fin tuna auction, which is now basically off limits to tourists. The fish were HUGE and the auctioneer was jumping all over the place shouting. It was pretty neat! After that, we waited in line for about an hour for a sushi breakfast from the famous Sushi Dai-Wa. It was pretty amazing. I probably wouldn’t regularly eat a lot of the stuff I tried, but you could definitely tell it was fresh and it wasn’t horrible by any means. The chefs were really amazing and nice too! This place only had 12 seats (thus the wait!) but they were still going to let Sara sit and watch me eat without ordering anything. When she decided to go next door to this place that served only toast and coffee (seriously, just toast and coffee), the chefs were devastated! They kept pointing to their belly (we told them she was pregnant) and saying, “It’s ok! Wife ok!”. Such good people!
After breakfast we explored the rest of the market. They say there are over 500 varieties of seafood that come through the market daily along with every vegetable known to man and I think we saw all of them. Each store in the market tries so hard to make their fish look the cleanest and the best. Some of the tuna filets looked good enough to just grab and take a bite out of (if you like that sort of thing and I do). The market also had stores full of all types of really cool dinnerware! This is a one-stop shop for all the chefs in Tokyo to get the fish, meats, vegetables and accessories they need every day. Definitely glad we checked it out!
Back to the hotel for a nap and then Sara wanted to go back to Ginza for some last minute shopping so I headed for Ueno Park. Only problem is that it took me 2 hours to change the last of our traveler’s checks because I didn’t know the phone number to our hotel. I got rejected by 3 places and by the time I was done, I didn’t have time to get all the way to the park and back so I just headed back to Akihabara for some more video games then caught the pool and sauna one last time. Well at least I left us something to do on the next visit! Sara did some serious damage it Ginza and we met back at the hotel for dinner (at the Grand Club) and a movie in our room (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince). I made it approximately 4 minutes in to the movie before falling asleep…
Day 11: Headed home
Had our usual and last breakfast at the Grand Club, packed, and then headed down to a Pachinko parlor to find out what that was all about. We thought it was pretty lame. Probably didn’t help that we couldn’t understand anything the machine was telling us to do, but we went through 2000 yen in about 4 seconds and promptly headed for the door. Time to catch a taxi to Tokyo station so we could grab the Narita Express to the airport, but instead of a taxi, the Grand Hyatt amazed us again and had arranged for their courtesy car to take us. Nothing much really, just a brand new black 7 series BMW. We felt like royalty! We tried to tip the bellman who took care of us the whole time and he just backed away bowing. Unbelievable. When we got to the station, the driver practically escorted us on to the train. He was so concerned about us getting to the right place that he walked us halfway to the ticket counter, just leaving his BMW running with the doors wide open!
No problems at the airport and another pretty painless flight back to LAX. We were made so aware of our new surroundings at LAX right as we exited the plane where there was a black woman waiting with a wheelchair for some unlucky person. She had the biggest scowl on her face and gave us the biggest “what are you looking at” stare. More of the same as we ended up taking the LA metro train line home (polar opposites from the Japanese subway lines). Definitely good to get home but the trip left us both in complete awe. I don’t think I’m putting words in Sara’s mouth when I say we will definitely be planning a trip back to Japan soon!
