This is a little overdue but I have a great excuse! I just moved to a new branch at my academy and it's been a super crazed week or so.
Onto adventures!!!
Day 1/2: It has begun!
Nick and I went to Japan for my birthday weekend. It was a fantastic. We took an early morning bus to Busan to catch our flight. That trip was uneventful as usual. We eventually got into Narita airport, the only international airport near Tokyo. We bought JP train cards and hopped on the NEX which is a fast train into the city. I must say the first few times into the train stations leave you wondering how there are THAT many people in Tokyo. After a few times the train stations gets easier to navigate. Tokyo is very tourist friendly and has many English signs to direct you to where you actually need to go.
We made it to our area, Uneo, and then couldn’t find our hostel to save our lives. Eventually a very nice Japanese woman stopped and pointed back the way we had come and said, “see bikes, turn,” and made a hand gesture left. Not the best directions but we thanked her and low and behold it was true. See a ton of bikes and turn down what we had assumed was an alley. Nope it was the entrance to the hostel, which was tucked in behind the other main street buildings. Our hostel was amazing and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Tokyo, Oak Hotel. Our room was two bunk beds and a tiny private bathroom. We splurged a little to get a private room. It was small but very comfy. The staff was very nice and they tried to help us all the time.
The first day out was crazy. We walked SO much that I thought my feet were going to fall off! Since we didn’t understand how to take anything other than the green JP line we just walked and walked and walked. First we went to Sensoji 浅草寺, Sensōji, also known as Asakusa Kannon Temple). It’s a HUGE temple with the most amazing paper lanterns I have ever seen. There were also Koi fish and really cool Buddha statues. Afterwards we kept walking until we saw the strangest buildings. These are the Sky Tree, and the Asahi Beer Hall(the gold sneeze). We kept walking until we were right next to the Sky Tree. It’s the world’s tallest broadcasting tower. It’s extremely tall. You can see it anywhere in the city. After a ton of more walking we decided we were hungry. Surprisingly this need is hard to satisfy in Tokyo. Since we can’t read Japanese we had to rely on places with picture menus in our budget. This was something we found to be almost impossible. But then we saw the most amazing thing, a food ticket vending machine. It has pictures of the food as well as prices. Just put in your yen press the button, get a ticket and give it to the cook. It saved our stomachs! We both got Ramen, real ramen. It was delicious.
More walking brought us to the Imperial Palace, which, because we overslept, we did not get to tour that morning. It was closed but it was still fun to walk around. There was also a fountain park right next to it.
Day 3: Uneo/ Metro
We started off in Uneo and went adventuring into the park. We got to see another temple (shrine?) and a very cool street performer. We wandered around then went into the Tokyo Museum. The museum was very cool and had a ton to look at. We saw old paintings, block prints, pottery and swords. It was fantastic to see everything from Japan’s history. After the museum we got hungry…vending machines to the rescue! This time I got Bubble Tea, which is black sweet tea with tapioca balls at the bottom. It’s delicious. After a satisfying lunch Nick and I went in search of the busiest intersection in all of Tokyo! Found it, and we were not disappointed. There were throngs of people, going in every direction. It was so weird to be in it. After wandering in that area we made our way to a small park near Harajuku. It was a nice quiet stroll after such chaos in the city. Finally we made back into the city and went to the Metro Building. We were very luck, we got there just as the sun was setting and I snagged a picture of Mt. Fuji! You can’t see it during the day, only at sunset.
Day 4: Harajuku / Meiji Shrine
Harajuku is an Anime lover’s dream. There are tons of people and many of them are dressed in odd ways. Some wear eccentric colors and patterns while other where something called Lolita. Lolita is a form of style that makes one appear to be doll like, or innocent. There are however many forms of this from pink/pretty, to Goth and Steampunk.
Again, we walked around more and then eventually went into… a REAL restaurant. We had our first Sake, grilled noodles and kimchi, yes kimchi. It was delicious. We wandered around some more and then went home for a well-deserved rest.
Day 5: Goodbye Japan
On our last day Nick and I had a horrible realization. We hadn’t bought a single thing! While getting around and eating had been expensive we hadn’t actually bought anything to bring home. So we went back up to the Temple. There was a large amount of tourist shops right behind it. We spent almost all the money we had left, stocking up on sake containers, gifts, lanterns and pretty sake glasses. We got back to the hostel and then stuffed our carry-ons with all of our new purchases. We only barely got them closed. Eventually we made it back to Narita where we met a very nice couple from Korea (military, US/Germany). Myriam has more masters and teacher certificates than I can imagine, she was from Germany. We had an amazing talk about education and how to best serve students with disabilities and fast track students. It was nice to talk the lingo. Unfortunately for Nick and her husband, we did all the talking (you’re surprised I’m sure). We eventually got home safely at 1:30am, just in time to pass out. It was a fantastic trip!!!
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