It's just after 3am and my time clock is screwed up. So instead of trying to sleep. I decided to blog about our journey to Japan. I still enjoy looking back on my Europe blog and you know, with everything on the internet...it will be there FOREVER. We really had a great flight...long, but everyone made it to where they needed to be, at Narita airport. The flight was over 12 hours, but that wasn't the worst...between driving to the airport at 4am and making our connections...getting our train tickets, exchanging our dollars for yen at Narita to get to our hotel in Shinjuku...we were up over 30 hours straight and we looked it :) By the time the cab pulled up to the hotel we had already met so many nice people, we knew our trip was going to be great. I tried to give the cab driver a 10,000 yen bill ($100) and he said "no"...I was tired :) Our hotel is in a neighborhood outside the hustle of Tokyo and Shinjuku, but a quick train ride away to everything. You get to surround yourself by their culture when you do not stay in a western hotel. That is the way I like it. Yesterday, we went off to search for coffee and ended up a local coffee house, instead of Starbucks, which we will try today. Found a beautiful garden and park for walking. Then went to look for this huge department store that has a basement full of delicious food. What we found was their parking garage. Before trying to head up the elevator, to which we thought was the department store, we were escorted on a bus. A really nice bus, but we weren't sure where we were going or how far. Everyone on the bus was Japanese and did not speak English. Whipped out my Japanese phrases book and found out the they have a bus that takes patrons from the parking lot to the huge store...for free. What an amazing store...the prices were similar to Bal Harbor.... Shoes...$500, jackets $500, cheapest blouse $60...needless to say, I didn't buy anything. But we did a tour of floors 1 through 7 and found the food, which was a feast for the eyes. Just incredible...again, we were like the only anglo people, so we knew we were experiencing what the average Japanese person would do on a Saturday. Some more highlights....
Could not figure out how to use the darn calling card...stopped a lady who spoke English and she spent 15 minutes helping us by calling the phone card company on her cell phone to get directions. It was a life saver, since we had not been able to call home. She was great.
Walked to a local shrine, Hanazono Jinja Shrine, where people come to say a quick prayer. I even saw a lady who just passed it on the sidewalk, but stopped to say a prayer.
Took the train to Tokyo to see the Imperial Palace. They have a sitting emperor who lives there with his family...very interesting...
Came back to the room to upload photos and rest...it was really hot and we were really tired.
Headed back out on the trains to Shinjuku for dinner. Found Ducky Duck....and it was delicious. I spent 15 minutes trying to tell the waitress, who was so patient and polite, that I did not want to eat meat or chicken, only vegetables. We were writing down the Japanese words for meat and chicken and places X's next to them with a smiley face next to the word for vegetable, but it still was not working....to the rescue, a sweet girl sitting behind us that is a senior at Binghamtom University in NY. She helped me order vegetarian and then talked with us throughout dinner. Such nice people. She is studying political science and already has a job back in Shinjuku after graduation....very interesting.
BTW, this whole time Alex is at Summer Sonic music festival in Tokyo with Sheena and her friends. I'm sure he is having a great time. We will meet up with them on Monday, when we leave for Mt. Fuji. Here are some pics..I am going to try and go back to bed...love you all, especially you Al!