Day Four

Today we went to Roppongi (Tokyo Midtown) to see the Tokyo Tower, we got there using the subway, which by the way to get anywhere in Tokyo, & saw that they were charging an entrance fee & decided that our money could be better spent (the observation deck isn't even as high as the TMG building) so we took a few pictures of it from the base, which look pretty cool, & bought some 'really thin pancakes' filled with bananas & whipped cream. After that we took the subway to Ueno, which, probably because it was Sunday, was rather ghostly. Not many shops were open & even fewer restaurants. We decided to walk around a lot...Oh, I forgot to say we also went to Akihabara, the electric city, not very impressive, most things are not very cheap (as they were promised). They did, however, have some cool cell phones though. OK, so we walked around Ueno for awhile & decided to go back to Ikebukuro for lunch, really good stand-up sushi & to drink some beer. The second part was more difficult than we thought. The pubs were closed, but oh well, we got the sushi. We then took the subway to the far souutheast side of Tokyo to see the port, but we mostly just walked around the area off the last stop on the Y-line. Oh well, we then just headed back to Nerima, which took a long time. When we got back home, we rested until dinner (at the house) at which I got to try some very expensive Chinese white wine (moonshine 56% a/v). It tasted and felt like lighter fluid. After dinner (at which I drank several beers) i was pretty tired & kinda drunk, but I needed to pack because we were to leave at 5 for the airport.

Day Three

We got up early again and went to Shinjuku, we walked around for awhile looking up mostly, because of all the skyscrapers surrounding us. As we walked closer into Shinjuku, we visited a park there, quite looked pretty at its' entrance with this big waterfall style fountain, but is (as we saw in shocked confusion) most popular for its blue-tarp tent homeless population. We then walked around back toward the street and found the entrance to the TMG building, which has a really nice view from its 45th story observation deck of all of Tokyo and even Mt. Fuji (although we could barely see it through the smog). We met a Japanese man from Yokohama there who went up to the deck with us. He pointed out the Emperor's Park to us and told us that the Meiji Shrine was in there. So we decided to go with him to look at it. Once we took the subway a couple stops over, we got into the park and walked to the Shrine. We used the Clearwater at the shrine to cleanse our hands and mouth, 'prayed' for Meiji, & got a poem (written by Emperor Meiji). This was all pretty confusing for us good ol' American boys. We left the park and went to Harajuku-dori & Takeshita-dori (this I can understand). These streets are basically teen-goth heaven. Crazy shops selling ultimate goth fashion and other weird shops (namely "Banana Fish" & "Store my Ducks"). For lunch we took the subway back to the Shinjuku station & ate again at one of those vending machine places. After lunch we went to Ginza, which is mainly known for its outrageously expensive high-end shopping (Prada, Bvlgari, Porsche, Mont Blanc, etc...). After this endevour into the rich area, we were extremely tired from walking around all day & headed to Ikebukuro to eventually meet his uncle, his aunt, his aunt's sister, his aunt's brother, their Japanese friend, and his aunt's brother's wife's parents (ha.) for dinner. Well, we rode the subway there and didn't do too much before meeting up with them, but we did end up stopping at this Japanese Pub where we split a litre bottle of beer for 410 yen. After the beer and some dried squid (it's like squid jerky), we went back to the west exit of the subway and met them. We then took a short walk to the restaurant, which turned out to be 'Sumo Food' (aka very similar to Chinese Hotpot). The food was really good, and so was all the beer and sake that everyone kept making us drink more of. So by the end of dinner I was pretty buzzed, this sparked Ruoya and I's decision to return to Shinjuku by the moonlight to check out the neon life. This was a bad idea. We walked down a little dori (Ruoya was drunker than I was ((by a lot))) and ten steps into a very well-lit alley and we were approached by, what can only be described as a 'Nigerian Spammer' who was extremely persistent at trying to sell sex. 15 more steps, another one. Jesus. Once we got away from them, keeping Ruoya from not puking & close to me in the crowds were difficult until we got back on the Oedo line & home safe in Nerima.

Day Two

We got up early this morning (5:30) without an alarm, I suppose this is due to the time difference, but i feel well rested, so who cares. We walked to the subway & rode for about 40 minutes to get to Tsukiji Fish Market. My first impression - wow. Fucking wow. It's crazy how big it is. We walked around for a couple minutes, but then we realized that Ruoya didn't have any money (any Yen that is). So in need of exchange, we went around looking for an international ATM. Well this was a much bigger deal than expected. None of the ATMs we found in various convenience stores accepted our cards, even though some of them had English menus... So eventually, we talked to someone and asked them to direct us towards a bank. Well we walked to the bank and discovered that it was still closed, we looked around in this area and found the post office, inside of which was an international ATM, but it too was closed. So we walked around and eventually decided to get some coffee and a snack. We went into a coffee shop and had some delicious, real coffee, and some pastries. So once the post office opened we got money, but the machine gave us a 10000 yen note (about 100 usd), so we went into the nearby bank in order to change it into smaller bills. Once we had our small bills, we walked back to the market. Once again, we were in awe. There was so much going on at once and once again, it was ridiculously big. After navigating through the fish market and taking a lot of pictures, we're back on the subway to go to Shibuya! // In Shibuya, we ate lunch at a very interesting (and cheap!) diner-like Japanese restaurant. You enter, turn left and go to a machine, much similar to a vending machine, you deposit money, make your meal selection (there are pictures on the buttons or numbers associated with pictures on a poster above the machine) and out comes a ticket, you hand the ticket to the attendant, and depending on your selection (curry comes out in about 20 seconds) you receive your meal, shortly afterward. After lunch we headed to the imperial palace, once we got off the subway, we walked around the entire perimeter of the imperial grounds (there's a moat) looking for an open gate. And all of that to find out that you're actually not allowed to enter the inner grounds anyway. So we stayed near the entrance to try to plan out what/where we would go that night. We decided to just go back to the apartment, rest, shower, and eat. // After dinner we decided to go back to Shibuya to go bar hopping. // OK. before I forget, I need to say that the air in Tokyo is extremely dry, so much so that the corners of my mouth are cracked & my nose is dried out...So last night, once we walked around Shibuya for a bit, we ended up not being able to find any place with any english posted outside (for awhile anyways), but eventually we came across (after walking for about half an hour) GASPANIC, which is a crazy bar with happy hour from 6:00-9:30, during which time, any drink is 400 yen, and for this town, that's not bad. So we each had 6 drinks each, including a Corona. Anyway, this bar is frequented by Young Japanese (mostly women) & knowing American tourists (and Naval personnel, who are very persistent with the women). Making our way back to Nerima in our drunken state was no problem (thank you subway).

Day One

I woke up this morning at 6 o'clock, got my stuff together and carried my bags downstairs and waited for the shuttle to come. It arrived at 6:25, after I sat impatiently on the curb for a good 15 minutes, and took the shuttle to Marta. The train arrived promptly and delivered me to the airport quickly as well, and although Marta is very limited in its destinations, I feel like its the best way to get to the airport, that is if you live close enough to it, not to have to drive to the station. Both security and check-in went smoothly, and at check-in, the agent kindly asked me if I wished to change my seat, from the middle of a 5-person row to the aisle seat on a 2 person row, how sweet the glory. Having plenty of time to kill, I walked all the way from check-in to concourse E to get currency exchanged; I got 190000 yen and 520 RMB. My gate was in concourse T, so I decided that I had walked enough and took the train back. Once I found my gate, I bought a coffee and waited for what seemed only a short while. I'm now currently on the airplane waiting to take off for Dulles. // After sitting silently for 30 minutes next to a clearly Chinese woman, I started talking (with my limited, very so, skills in Mandarin) to her. She is a very nice woman from Beijing whose son lives in Atlanta. Whenever I knew how to say what I needed to say in Mandarin, she never had a problem understanding me, and that is encouraging.// Now we're landing in Dulles, it is rather cloudly & the airport looks (much like Erin said once) dull. My lay-over is an hour & a half, than it's off to Tokyo. I quickly shoved down some Wendy's & called Lacey (after attempting a total of 10 pay phones).// i've got about one hour left overall left in the flight. i know it's 14 hours, but there was plenty to do. I took advantage of the free drinks having: a bloody mary, some bailey's, some Jim Beam, and 2 Kirin. I loves me the booze. I'm done with 7 of the 8 Japanese lessons, & I've read a good bit of one of the guide books. I slept about 4 hours, watched The Pursuit of Happyness and Rocky Balboa, both good movies. The tv just told me that it's a beautiful sunny day in Tokyo at 77 degrees Fareignheit (or 25 degrees Celcius if you're Nihon-jin). I've written quite a bit in this enrty , which makes me wonder if i'll need a bigger journal. I'm excited to land, Ruoya should be waiting for me at my gate or when I pass through customs and immigration...We'll see.//I got off the plane & went through immigration, and when they asked me who I was here to see, I didn't know (Ruoya never told me) So I answered with Ruoya Wang (true). Ruoya's plane got delayed leaving Chicago, so he arrived late so I ended up waiting for him for about an hour. His aunt was waiting for him near me most of the time, but I had no idea who she was, so I never talked to her. We then rode the train into Tokyo and then transferred a couple of times and after approximately an hour, we arrived in Nerima and took a taxi to his Uncle and Aunt's apartment. There we met his uncle and his cousin, Kan. We sat our things inside and immediately went to dinner nearby. We ate a ton of food, including an absurd amount of sushi, everything was good excpet for sea urchin roe (tastes like innards). We then returned to the apartment and promptly fell asleep after our long days.