The 4th of July

For this year’s 4th of July, just like last year, we headed down to Dana Point with the Marquis. The fireworks show was amazing. It had some really beautiful fireworks, and I was definitely surprised that it was just a city, free fireworks show.  I don’t really like fireworks, and think they’re pretty boring. There. I hope I made my point about how awesome the show was.

I love the 4th of July.  It really makes you think to yourself how lucky we are, but mostly it was nice to just hang with friends, eat some very yummy steaks, and stay up late talking.  For me that’s what the 4th of July has always been about.

Every time we go to Dana Point I’m reminded of how much I love the ocean (we never seem to make it to the beach living downtown).   One day I hope to have a home that has a view of the ocean, and hopefully is as close as the Marquis’ townhouse!  Maybe I’ll buy a house on Molokai next to my parents. Sure Ryan and I still rent, but who say’s that’s stopping us from owning a vacation home! Although, I think if we bought a house in Hawaii, Ryan would want one on Kauai… problem is beach front/ocean view is definitely A LOT more expensive there.  Ironically, being so close to the beach we actually never made it there. We spent the day at the pool. Or to be more accurate, I spent the day at the pool, and Ryan got his Tennis game on.
What’s that you say? You recognize the glasses from Akihabara? Yep, those are the same ones he bought in Japan. Since buying those green glasses in Japan, Ryan really hasn’t taken them off!

After getting ourselves drunk on meat (I think Ryan ate 3 T-bones!), we had a rousing game of Guesstures. As you can see, from the boys enthusiasm, they won – twice… After two games of Guesstures we were a bit whacked, and had the whole “if 3 atomic bombs hit California, what would you do.” Never mind that if 3 atomic bombs actually hit, we wouldn’t be alive.

Day 9 The family visit

So today we got on the train to visit my relatives in Nobi- Yokosuka (pronounced Yo-kos-ka). It was an eventful train ride, as we ended up going past the same train station 3 times. I umm got a bit mixed up.. the good news is we got to see Haneda airport and Shinigawa train station . .. and Ryan got a great nap … we arrived like 30 minutes late, which always makes for a good impression after 20 years. Also, I decided to go with straight hair today so I straightened it before we got on the train… so in classic Japanese weather style my hair frizzed out by the time we arrived. I also got to carry our lunch tray with us the entire day as well, unless you throw it away at the establishment you bought it, good luck finding a garbage can just lying about. Seriously, they are FEW and FAR BETWEEN! But don’t worry there is no litter in this country. In fact I couldn’t help but notice a woman comb her hair, and take her loose hair ball it up and stick it in her purse, to dispose of in a garbage can I suppose.
 
Either way, it turns out my cousin Maki lived in San Diego so thankfully speaks English… otherwise it would have made for a horribly awkward conversation. In Japan, families stay together and kids live at home, so both of my cousins were still there. It was SOO weird to see them as they were both adults. My cousin Akira (my nemisis as a child) and I just laughed at each other as we both looks so very different.  I hope I can keep in contact with them in the future, and maybe next time speak better Japanese.
 
Tried to call my other Uncle, but he doesn’t speak English, and well Ryan just laughed at me stumbling through my words.
 
After visiting our relatives we stopped off to eat at Sweets Paradise in Harajuku… seriously visiting the family was an all day travel event. Sweets Paradise is a cake, cookie, ice cream, shave ice buffet (yeah there is spaghetti and curry too).  The food was pretty good, and there is a nice assortment of american style sweets and some yummy japanese ones too. There was a shave ice machine too, with syrup and sweetened condensed milk, but we were already sweeted out. There was also a chocolate fountain– Ryan deemed it unsanitary.  The flan was sooo yummy. The kinako mochi was good too. Over all it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but it’s more kitsch than anything.

Day 8: Temple day

We slept in till 9am this morning, which meant no morning session. Ryan did some work, which meant no mid afternoon session.  As after the 10 am session there is a 12:30 and 2:30 session we decided to head to Roppongi to check it out in the light of day and grab a bite before heading over.  There are seriously a TON of clubs there. We found this random restaurant called Foxtail that had a 1,000 yen lunch special.  Ryan was happy to get the beef bowl as he is missing his red meat (the burger at Freshness burger the other night was seriously suspiciously not real cow meat).  I ordered the tuna bowl, and actually regretted it. Overall though, from what I could read from the menu the restaurant was super expensive for dinner like 80,000-90,000 yen and it serves wagyu beef, so perhaps Ryan got himself a really sweet deal.

 

Ryan’s beef bowl ended up being super soft beef in a broth with gobo (a root) and egg. He loved it even though he thought he wouldn’t. I didn’t like the tuna as it was minced, and just too mooshy.  The meal came with octopus in vinegar which was quite yummy, and I even got Ryan to agree to try  a piece.

 

After lunch we headed to the temple.  If you take the train to Hiroo you get off (I think we took exit 3) and turn right.  Right next to the station is the Japanese MTC, we kept going past it, passed the Lamborghini dealership (Ryan wanted the orange one in case anyone needs a birthday gift for him), and turn right up the next street.  At the main road and the police station turn right again.  The LDS temple is right across from this cute little Asian park with a pond FULL of these turtles. It was all really pretty, and we went for a walk in the park afterwards. 

 

The photo in front of the temple of Ryan and I was taken by President MacArthur, the current MTC  Mission President who just happened to be strolling by when we were trying to take individuals photos of ourselves

 

As all the embassies are in Hiroo, so is the international market. I found some really good European food that I hadn’t seen forever, but like the American food it was all super expensive. For example:

Large Tortillas a/b $10

Can of enchilada sauce a/b $4.20

Rotisserie cooked chicken a/b $21

 

I wanted to make the Nelson’s some cafe rio pork, but I have no idea where to get Tomatillo’s in Tokyo. I found Casa Verde that sells Brazillian food, and Hanamasa supposedly sells Trader Joe’s food, I have also heard the Tusjiki fishmarket’s vegetable section might have something as well, I just don’t know how much I want to search for Tomatillo’s in Tokyo.

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Day 7: Hakone and the hotspring!

So I lured Ryan to Hakone with the promise of a hot tub water park with slides.  Ryan didn’t want to do any of the viewing of Mt. Fuji, pretty scenery etc, just go to the public Onsen. Yunessun is an Onsen that requires you to wear a bathing suit. It’s great for families, or people who want to spend the day with their spouse as Onsens (unless in some remote mountain outdoor random area) are segregated.  This Onsen was definitely a touristy trap, and was more kitsch than anything, but overall it was fun and a really relaxing day.  We went to the Odakyu travel counter at Shinjuku station and bought a pass for 3,800 yen for the train to Hakone and a pass to the waterpark.  The train ride was about 2 hours long, and then in Odawara you transfer to a Hakone Train which at Hakone-Yumamoto station it stops and you transfer to the train to get you to Gora. Now the girl at Shinjuku station just told us about the FIRST transfer. So Ryan and I happily sat on the train at Hakone-Yumamoto station until we realized it was going backwards! Ryan and I jumped off the train at Iruda, one of the teeniest mountain stations. It was very empty, and there were all these train workers working on the tracks. Every 10 minutes a whistle would blow, the safety guy would wave his flag and they would jump off the tracks and stand in a line. It was so efficient, and Japanese.

 

At Yunnesun we took a picture of almost every bath. The only one we missed was the Sake bath, the cool water baths, the outdoor standard hot tub, and the honey bath.  But I think you’ll get the gist. Overall the water in most of the bath’s was pretty warm like bath water.  The coal, wine, green tea, black tea, coffee bath’s were in Yutopia, which is aimed towards adults so the water was very warm. The hotest by far was the coal bath.. that one smelled like BBQ sauce, so of course it was Ryan’s favorite (Really his love of bbq sauce is kinda sickening).  The wine bath smelt very sweet, not wine like at all, and the others had faint smells, but not sure of what.  I seriously look like I’m sitting naked in the green tea bath if you don’t look closely.

 

Inside there was a giant hot tub area with tons of massage jets that everyone hung out in. Every so many minutes bubbles would shoot out, it was the place to be for families.  We tried out the myriad of hot tubs, and they all were very fragrant. Strawberry (turned my bathing suit pinker), chocolate (we spent most of the time in this one), salt water (it stung like the dickens–but boy did you float), and the outdoor cave and waterfall bath.

 

The bath that opened ever 2 hours was the turkish footbath. This one you stick your feet in and these little fishes came and ate off your dead skin.  I guess Ryan and I have some funky skin, as we pretty much got all of the attention from the fish. I think all of the Japanese hated us. Seriously they had one or two fish, and we had them all the way up our legs! It was insane. I went again later, and well my feet are pretty smooth looking… maybe I should invest in some . . .

 

The train ride back was a nightmare! For all future travelers, 1st, taking the bus to Hakone Yumamoto is totally fine to do, although the winding roads make you a bit car sick. There are several buses that go there from Yusunnesun, but only the one with HAKONE FREE ZONE on it will take you back.  When you get the Hakone Yumamoto, look at the train, even though it says it’s going to Shinjuku, if it says LOCAL do not get on it as it will stop at EVERY FREAKING STOP all the way back, this of course means you have a 3 hour train ride back. Ryan and I of course realized this bit of info about 1/3 of the way back. We were literally going nuts as the train not only stops, but waits 3-5 minutes at each station. Oh well, lesson learned.

 

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Day 6 Shopping in Odaiba

Day 6 and it’s really raining. Renae insisted that Odaiba would be fun as it has several indoor malls.We were not exactly excited for Odaiba, but it ended up being pretty cool.  The architecture there is very modern and it made for some great pictures. The first mall was Aqua City and had some pretty decently priced stores. We really loved the mix of stores. While I’m sure every Japanese teenager wouldn’t be caught dead shopping where we were, we’re American and loved it!  In fact, Ryan thought it was the best shopping we’d seen.  We hit up the Dollar store, which was really filled with almost everything imaginable. I bought tons of more bento shapers (Ryan put his foot down and made me put back the heart and star shaped rice shapers, but let me keep the heart and start shaped boiled egg shaper!). Right next to the dollar store (Daiso) was Toys R Us. The sold live beetles there, the creepiest things ever! Next to Aqua city was Decks, which had Joyopolis a giant arcade by Sega and some really random shops with tourist crap, toys, and small candies. I don’t recommend it, unless you’ve got wee ones.  
 

On the other side of Odaiba is Venus Fort and the Toyota showroom. We started to walk, but realized that we could totally just take the train.  We did pass some really amazing architecture on the way over.  Odaiba makes for some really amazing photos. Across the way is Venus Fort and Palette Town, and the Toyota Showroom. Venus Fort is way overpriced, but I found a really cute shoe store with a good sale, so yay for me. Japan seriously has the BEST shoes. As long as you are under a size 8 .

 

We got on the giant ferris wheel, and it would have made for some amazing photos but the windows were covered in rain drops.  As it was REALLY pouring, we spent some time in the Toyota showroom, which was just every guys dream. They had several Toyota race cars, all of the new hybrid cars, as well as some new futuristic cars.  There was also this teeny tiny old classic Toyota that all the men (including Ryan insisted in taking a photo with). Downstairs there were these free rides that you could pretend to drive a race car. It was funny, every time you saw the little car shake meant that the person driving it had lost control, was slamming on the breaks or spinning out of control into a wall. I shot some video of Ryan shaking out of control. He was totally sick afterwards, but said it was definitely worth it.  Overall Odaiba makes a fun day trip, especially on a rainy day.  Next to the car showroom, is a showroom of Toyota inventions (cookware, the Dyson vacuum, and some weird shaped seats.

 

As for food, we had more Ramen, and have agreed that we’ve reached our limit. Each mall has a food court as well, and tons of restaurants.  In Aqua City there was a Ramen restaurant area. If we read Japanese I think the signs said that there was Ramen from different areas of Japan that you could try.  We picked the one with the spicy ramen and then purchased a ticket from the vending machine.  It wasn’t as good as the black sesame ramen we had in Omotesando but still decent.  Between Aqua City and Decks was a takoyaki place, and as it’s the first one I have seen I bought some. When it arrived, Ryan didn’t think it looked appetizing at all, and as we had just eaten lunch insisted I eat all 6 myself as punishment for the impulse buy. I am now cured of wanting to eat anymore while in Japan!

 

Couple of interesting things about Japan that we’ve noticed:

1. Do not go through the gates! When transferring trains, unless you are DEAD certain passing through those gates gets you to the next train (i.e. transferring from a local train to a JR Train) don’t just walk through them, they will not get you to the train you want to get on.

2. When shopping, take notice they always have tape that they tape your bags shut with. I don’t know if it’s so no one else can see what you purchased, or if it’s just an added sense of service, but it’s kinda nice.

3. When shopping, money is placed on this little tray that you put your money on and they take from you. They then put the change on it and give it back to you.  Oh yeah, there is no tipping in Japan.

 

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Day 5: I’m a felon!

Today we hit up Shinjuku. Ryan's about had it with me on shopping and has made the executive decision not to go to Kyoto and Osaka. We'll have to come in the spring or fall some other time as he really can't take looking at more Japanese shrines, temples, castles, and pretty gardens. He wants to do stuff, and no, feeding deer and monkey's don't count  He's also vetoed the Onsen as being naked with a bunch of Japanese men seems to be out as well.

Today's schedule consisted of:

Getting lost in downtown Shinjuku trying to find the Nuskin Offices at the I Land Tower

Finding Ryan's favorite bakery and trying some lemon bars, a banana pastry, and a blueberry puff. Surprisingly even I ate the banana pastry.

Heading up to the Tokyo Metro Government Building to get the big view of Tokyo

Buying a coca cola flavored Hi-Chew. Ryan said no on buying the Ramune (kinda a bumble gum tasting soft drink) flavored one.

More shopping .. which is where I lost Ryan literally.

I took Ryan to a Japanese department store (all 14 floors of it).  Japanese department stores are very much more like upscale malls. Each designer has a little section, that is partitioned off with walls sometimes, but is definitely its own look and style, with its own sales person. The Odakyu department store right out side of Shinjuku station was no different.  As I'm super cheap in America, splurging here would be an $80 shirt, not an $800 dollar shirt.  Needless to say, when Ryan said, "you shop the next 3 floors, and I'll find you when I'm done with men's." I didn't end up shopping and headed up to the 6th floor to wait. Ryan headed down and began searching the floors. He of course didn't find me as I was sitting by one of the three escalators in this uber department store, not shopping as he had thought. 

After all of the fun in Odakyu we headed over to Time's Square. It's not really Time's Square as there's not a square, just some big buildings next to the train tracks and a large overpass…. speaking of train tracks. We saw the saddest housing ever. The houses were made out of shipping containers, and were right along side of the train tracks. Seriously, we took the photos to prove it, check them out, not pretty at all.

For lunch today Ryan wanted Udon, so we found this little place across from GAP in Time's Square and bought a meal from the vending machine, then handed the ticket to the cook. Ryan ordered Udon noodles with a curry sauce on top. I ordered Udon with tempura, and veggie tempura on the side. Overall it was pretty good for about 4 to 5 bucks each  person.  We've taken to taking photos of the restaurant names, as they're rarely in English, so we have no idea what they're really called.

More shopping. . . Ryan was very unhappy by this point in time, and I think was plotting my death. I explained the prior days activities were centered around his fun, so this was the take part of give and take He doesn't buy it and says he'll be extracting payment for today's torture at a later date. As I'll be paying for it, I figured why not and I dragged Ryan through the large Japanese book store until I found the floor (there were 7) with the Japanese bento books. While he pointed out that I don't read Japanese, really do you need to read cute?! I hope I'll be able to start making bentos again with this new found inspiration, and my cute bento box.

We also hit up GAP, so far I'm having great luck at US stores in Japan. Things on the sale rack here would never be in LA. Turns out my size comes to my advantage on the sale racks. Where in the US only S and XS are left of the good items, it's quite the opposite here. All the size 7 and 8 shoes were left, and normally those are the first to go. Now this final photo is a bit blurry as I was running pretty fast. Remember when I explained how stores are more like malls. Well so is GAP. The escalator to the basement floor was boys/girls so I thought like H&M, floor 2 was even more women's and hopped on the escalator.  It turns out it was floor 2 of the mall structure, and I was promptly greeted by several different "stores" and their sales people saying irashaimase!  I shoplifted in Japan! Ryan discreetly walked a few feet behind laughing and whipped out his camera to get the proof needed.

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Day 4- shopping!

My feet hurt.  It turns out that it's really hard to go shopping when your feet hurt, it takes some of the fun out of it.  Ryan's probably happy for that, as he says I'm bleeding him dry.  Today we hit up Shibuya and Harajuku.  Shibuya is of course famous for having the largest crossing in the world. So of course Ryan and I had our picture taken while we crossed.  It was crazy to see how many people crossed at once… Ryan kept muttering to himself about what these people did all day as none of them were in jobs. He really wanted to know why they were in an expensive shopping district if they were jobless, and if they weren't why they were there in the first place. I had heard Shibuya 109 was the place to go if you wanted to see all of the clothing shops in one big gulp.  Oh my goodness are the sales girls obnoxious. I think it's nice to hear irashaimase when you enter store, but these girls had turned it into this really obnoxious whiny super cutsy version.  It was mind numbing. They kept saying it like every 10 seconds. The stores were very cute, and I couldn't help but notice big baggy clothing seems to be in. Everyone seems to be in oversized shirts, that belt at the waist and then for pants super skinny jeans or tights.  All of this tight wearing makes me want to buy a pair.  Ryan went to Shibuya 109-2, in contrast to 109, he said there were only 3 stores, but he was much luckier than I and picked up a dress shirt for 1,500 yen.

It turns out Harajuku is just down the street from Shibuya, so we headed back there again. Last time we only hit up Takashita street, so this time we went to the main area.  H&M Japan how could I resist, cheap clothing! woo hoo. This is where I picked up the cutest hat and hair things. Part of me feels like and idiot as they're probably in the US too, but I couldn't help not wanting to miss out incase they weren't.  We did not hit up Forever 21 right next door.  The security guard outside keeping the waiting customers in line made us think twice.  Ryan says the Japanese have been 3 times as hard as the US when it comes to the economy, so I'm sure a good deal is that much more in need to the eager Japanese teenager.  Hannah said we just had to go to KiddyLand (6 floors of awesome!).  Seriously it was like Hello Kitty and all the other cute Japanese kid stuff in one great store.  We picked up a couple of Christmas gifts for some friends, and I picked up a way cute bento box with chopsticks.  I was very tempted to buy the Blythe dolls, or the homemade soba maker , or the caramel maker, or the bank that had a mouth that you could feed – click here for the video.  Ryan insisted on taking a photo of Condomania. It was the cutest sex shop you'd ever seen.  

Today's eats were the Crepe Cafe where we ordered the crepes without the whip cream (honestly the whip cream is fake crap and just ruins the taste)–they were super yummy. Lunch was right around the corner from KiddyLand at this amazing Ramen restaurant.  It may have been Menya Musha, but we forgot to take photos so I don't know. It had this spicy black sesame ramen that was just perfect, not too hot, and very flavorful.  mmmmm. Ryan got the tonkatsu ramen, and we discovered we really like it more sesame flavored.

We headed back down to Takeshita street for some more shopping, and Ryan bought a bright green pair of sunglasses at the 390 yen shop.  You'll see many more photos with him wearing them.  I also insisted on buying some of the cute Japanese socks.  Japanese women all wear socks with their shoes, and you can always see the lace sticking out. I'm probably going to buy 10 more pair before I leave.

I feel like we didn't do much today, but there's soooo much going on at once I'm afraid I'll just buy everything in sight!

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Day 3: Tsujiki, Ueno, Ameyoko, Akihabara, Asukusa wow I’m tired

So today was fishmarket day. As I figure we’re still jet lagged it made all the sense in the world to get up WAY early and jump on a train to the Tsujiki fish market. While we could have got there in time to watch the auction, neither Ryan and I really cared to see it.  Seeing the buyers haul away the large tuna carcasses and hour later was well worth the extra sleep. We were even so lucky as to watch them saw in half, using a table saw, a tuna.  It was crazy how cheap the seafood was here. If we lived here I would always be here shopping for lobster, and crab, and tuna and well if I ever took to eating sea cucumber, sea cucumber!  For breakfast we had sushi. Crazy right? I figured this would be some of the freshest sushi I’d ever eaten.  Now there are several popular sushi restaurants that all the foodies blog about, so those of course had like an hour line up outside of them. Ryan and I figured we could get in the line with all the Japanese, as they had to know their sushi. But instead opted for the no-line, full of tourist restaurant. A. it was a lot cheaper. B. Like we could tell the difference between REALLY AMAZING and just KINDA AMAZING for 12 dollars more.  So I ordered the Chirashi sushi as it had salmon and tuna, and Ryan ordered the most safe set plate he could find. I ended up eating the snapper, mackrel, clam, ami ebi off of his. But he couldn’t stop raving about how the tuna litterally melted in his mouth.  Lest everyone think I am a pig (which I don’t deny in Japan) he had my salmon and tuna.

 

We jumped on the train and headed to Akihabara– Ryan wanted to buy some peach pan (peach filled bun with peach cream and peaches), and a french toast sandwich (large yummy bread, with a maple syrup sauce in the center) that he neglected to buy when we were there last time.  Both were VERY yummy, so much so we forgot to take a photo, and will have to buy it some other day (just for the photo op of course). As I had lost my precious dictionary (again I am crying inside), we took the train up to Ueno to the main lost and found. I explained “Nichiyoubi, on Hibiya or Chiyoda Densha book desu.. Lost..desu” They took me back and I looked through a box, and then sighed, no book.   I of course got to practice much more of my pitiful Japanese as we went to 3 different Post Offices to exchange or dollars to yen “Dorrru, yen exchangu desu ka?” and yes we went to all 3 that were too small to do it.

 

As we were in Ueno we stopped off at Ameyoko. It’s basically just like downtown LA’s wholesale district. Lots of crowded stalls selling an assortment of random stuff. Nothing we really felt a need to buy in Japan, so it was off to Asakusa (pronounced, A-sak-sa kinda).  We headed up through the main gate, and Ryan just had to take a photo Japanese style! Isn’t he cute?!  Ryan wanted to march right up to the Pagoda and temple, check off the box and get moving. He was dissapointed to learn I wanted to hit up all the touristy Japanese crap filled stalls.  I of course know to always hit up the side streets, as the main streets of most tourist traps are A. more expensive B. more cheesy.  We found a real Kimono shop (as there were 3 old grandmas in there trying on Kimonos and we were totally ignored) and shopped the discount table. I found the Yukata I was looking for. Cotton, simple, but cute. It was 20,000 yen, so Ryan couldn’t say no, when looking at the 180,000 yen Kimonos inside.  He doesn’t know yet I still need shoes and the obi, but I’ll break that news to him in Kyoto when I buy the rest (haha!).  We then walked the mile (I don’t know if it was a mile but our feet certainly felt it) to Kabbashidori. This is the kitchen street, that had we not been up so long I would have spent a lot more time here. They had every kitchenware imagineable, as well as all the fake food and fruit you could imagine.  I didn’t buy any cute molds, or pans, or Japanese knives as Ryan’s face said if you stop at one more store I will kill you, so we headed home.

 

Brett and Renae took us out for yakiniku for dinner.  It was very very yummy. I’d never had it where you eat it in lettuce wraps. And well Ryan had never had such melt in your mouth meat before. Yes it was expensive, but mmm was it a nice cap to such a wonderful day.

 

 

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Day 2: Akihabara, Harajuku, Yoyogi Park and yummy food!

We never made it to Ryogoku this morning to check out the Sumo tournament as we were so tired. We took the train for the first time this morning using the PASMO cards to Akibahara and I think I lost the travel dictionary that Monkeybot gave me (Which was totally useful so I'm REALLY irritated). I am hoping some thoughtful Japanese citizen or the station staff found it and am going to try out the Lost and Found.  Tomorrow I am subsiting off of the phrase book in Nintendo DS's "My Japanese Coach" and my limited Japanese. bah! While I do have a realy Japanese-English dictionary it is written in Japanese, and I'm illiterate. Not that this is the important stuff.

 

Toured Akibahara and took random photos with random things in random shops. If we were techies we would've loved it.  We did wander around Don Quixoite for a bit as there were 6 floors of anything and everything you could want. Ryan loved just exploring this cheaply priced uni store. We also bought drinks from vending machines, and Ryan was very happy with the size of his gigantic Coke Zero. Japan is starting to warm to Ryan. The people here are all very poliet, and everytime we stopped when we were lost someone came over to offer help. The video is of this CRAZY fast guy on the drums at the arcade in Akibahra.  While it's probably true that this is all this poor guy does, still you have to have some respect for how fast and accurate he was.

At the UDX building on the 3rd floor are a ton of Japanese restaurants. I had heard a very good Okanomiyaki restaurant, Yukari, from Osaka was there. The nice part was that they make it infront of you, so I knew we wouldn't be completely idiotic trying to cook it ourselves. We ordered the Number 1 (pork, squid, octopus, and shrimp) for 1,200 yen and 900 yen for some yakisoba. Ryan thought it was pretty good, but wouldn't eat the octopus, it was too weird looking for him.

 

On the way home we stopped off at Harajuku and Takeshita street. It was incredibly packed as every kid in Tokyo seemed to be here.  Halfway down is Marion Crepes. The whipcream was okay, but I think a custard crepe would have been better, as it was just standard imitation cream.  But still for 450 yen pretty good.  After some window shopping we headed over to Yoyobi Park.  It seems that the gothic look is now in.  If anyone  And there were several girls (or maybe guys I couldn't tell) with rags over their faces. It was so odd. We never figured out how to get into the main park, but did walk to the shrine, which was nice and peacful to experience in the middle of a big city.  Sometimes I wish LA had all the bustle of Tokyo balanced with the beauty and cleanliness of the parks.  Los Angeles just has the bustle and the bum parks

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We have arrived… a little lost but safe

Wow! We’re here. Yes the taxi driver rattled off a bunch of Japanese that I TOTALLY didn’t understand. I have no idea why Ryan even looked at me to try and explain to the cab driver that we were definitely not at the right location. We jumped out, turned the corner, and found the place. The Nelson’s were awesome to put us up, and there home is even more awesome.  From their rooftop deck you’ve got a great view of Shinjuku.  Inside however, you’d think you were back in Utah!

Ryan is totally ready for all of the politeness, cleanliness, and technology of Japan. In fact, as soon as we got to the airport, off went his shoes!  The plane was Ryan’s favorite experience so far. On top of one of the best lunches I’ve ever had, we were also showered with snacks like turkey wraps, kit-kat bars, and fruit.  We also got fed second lunch! I only took a photo of the main meal, which was the Japanese version. That’s soba, a shrimp, a California roll sushi, and the main course was some very yummy eel, and a senbei cracker. 

Now Susan had warned us about the wait time once we get to Japan. She said the health inspectors would board the plane, and then every single last person would have their temperature taken, and we would sit on the runway for an hour! Ok, first off, Susan is prone to exaggeration.  But yes, it was definitely a sight to see. We had to fill out this little survey. Basically, if you don’t want to be stopped, don’t check yes. Then these women board and quickly run through and shove their masked faces in yours and check your form. They were definitely not the only person we have encountered with the masks. Almost everyone at the airport had them on, and driving through the city we saw a few too. In fact, I did twitter about the guy who had a cigarette hanging out the bottom of it.

SO soo soo excited for tomorrow.  Trying out Sumo, Akibahara, Harajuku crepes, and going to hit Yoyogi park!

 

 

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