24 hours of Tokyo


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November 14th 2007
Published: November 14th 2007
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Going to Tokyo has never been on my list of places to go in Japan. I have never been very enamored with the thought of Tokyo let alone what I had heard or seen in pictures. Yet there I was with my co-worker walking around with no idea what to actually do there.

We left @ 8:40am and got into Tokyo Station around 11am. We had booked a hotel through our shinkansen tickets, so it only cost around $200 to stay the night and get round trip tickets. My co and I went about getting our packs locked in a coin locker; which in and of itself was an adventure. We went to 3 different locker bays until we found some with keys still in them. With a vague game plan we headed to a convini and grabbed a snack and then walked down to the Imperial Palace Gardens with the other foreigners. The gardens are beautiful and free. How wrong can you really go with that? The funniest part about it was that the admission tickets were actually plastic blocks so that they could be recycled. It was so funny to walk around with it though. There is a little museum right inside the gates that it quick and painless but has some beautiful artifacts in it from the old palace. The gardens and walks around the palace grounds are a very relaxing way to get out of the sheer crowd that is Tokyo and its tourists.

Afterwards we headed to Asakusa and saw the Senso-ji temple with its infamous crowds. There was a small festival going on so we saw little kids dressed up in kimono and hakuma. They were really cute. My co isn't big on temples so we got our pictures and then headed out of there and just walked around and grabbed lunch out of the convini, the daily 9 is a very bad convini in my opinion. They are expensive and don't have much stuff. We ate lunch along the river when I saw something yellow on top of a building. Not knowing what it was but thinking it was important we headed towards it. It was the newly famous Golden turd (for lack of a better description or name). We still don't know what its called but we do know that its famous and that we should get a picture of it. We then headed toward the metro; which I am now an expert at, and were off to see the famous Shibuya crossing. We grabbed some warm coffee from the Starbucks, I took a video and pictures, and then headed to the street to take video and pictures again. I then thought it would be a good idea to find Love Hotel Hill. There is a part of Tokyo were a lot of Love hotels can be found so we walked up and around and took pictures of the funny signs and names that we saw.

Afterwards we walked around Shibuya and did a little shopping at the Gap, for all of 10 minutes and we both left there almost $100 cheaper. We both got something though. I got this amazing black sweater that is double buttoned. I LOVE it. This is where I then ran out of money. After our shopping I headed out to our hotel, this was around 6pm. My co was meeting up with a friend and I wanted to get my stuff into our hotel and walk around Akihabara; which is where our hotel was. So I grabbed a ticket and headed back to Tokyo station, got my pack from the first floor and ran back up for another ticket to Akihabara. From there I found my hotel, checked in as my co and set out to explore a little.

Akihabara is really a really sketchy, especially at night. Its the anime and manga capital of Tokyo and there are all of 2 types of people there. There are maid cafes, giant floors of anime related arcade games and not much else. I spent a bunch of my time looking for an ATM that would take my card. Around that I walked around the stores to see what was there and to giggle at everybody. Thats when I discovered that most of it was porn. At this revelation I just shook my head and proceeded to head out the door. Lucky look down a side street found me a 711 and an ATM which took my card and, amazingly, gave me some money. I then set out for Roppongi and to see the Tokyo Tower and the lights of the city at night.

I apparently didn't do my homework as much as I should have. Roppongi is more sketchy then Akihabara and, as my friend says, "Is basically America". I don't think I have been stopped by more black guys looking for people to come to their club. My response to the question, "Where are you going?" was "Somewhere else". It was a little hike to get to Tokyo Tower from Roppongi Station but it was so worth it in my opinion. Yes the admission is steep but to be above Tokyo and see the amazing lights, it just takes your breath away. I could see the famous Tokyo ferris wheel changing designs and turn around and see Odaiba. Yes the Tokyo Tower is over priced but I think it was worth it. It was the highlight of my trip to Tokyo.

As I was leaving the tower it started to pour and who was without an umbrella but yours truly. So I had to run around and buy an overly expensive umbrella from the convini and then head out in the rain to the closest metro station. A bit of a hike from the tower afterwards and my jeans wet to my knees I was back in the metro and on the way to the hotel. I got in around 11pm and stayed up reading to make sure my co got to the hotel the right way. Around 12:30 I got a phone call and she told me, "I can't find the hotel". So out I went in my pajamas to search for her. It took as 20 minutes to find each other. We headed back to the hotel and chatted for a little bit before my alarm went off at 8am on Monday.

Monday we ran to catch some breakfast and meet our JT's (Japanese Teachers) at the platform to Tokyo Station. There we got on the bus to Zushi and our 2 days for follow up training. Training was a blast and I was really happy to see everybody again and to meet some awesome new people. The plus for our training center was that it had the most amazing view of Mt. Fuji and that it was clear for the whole time we were there. During breaks the hill was where everybody met to chat and just stare. Absolutely amazing. I can't wait to climb it. We headed back to Tokyo and got in around 7pm then grabbed some dinner and ice cream from Cold Stone. Our JT's had heard of it and really wanted to go get some. It was so much fun! We got Japanese Disney songs and some amazingly refreshing ice cream. So worth it. Back in Sendai around 11pm and then hit the sack. It was so tiring!


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14th November 2007

Cool stuff
Kathryn - what an adventure. ?the golden turd? did you ever find out what that was about? It doesn't look too cold in Tokyo - is it cold in Snedai-shi yet? What was your hotel room like? Talk to you soon, love you - LebdaWhen
4th January 2008

Man.... looking at the photos of Asakusa, I feel like I could have turned around that day and seen you taking a pic of that giant shoe or turd right behind me.

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