The Tokyo Total Experience (in 4 days)

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Well, we got settled in our Hostel in Tokyo. It was not a 5 star hotel...close though (picture below). I guess we just have to keep in mind that we had all the necessities. Overall we enjoyed our stay there. It was very clean, friendly staff, and we met many other travellers. We are are not use to the stiff beds and pillows yet, but I am sure we will with time.

We stayed in Tokyo for 4 nights and got in 4 full days of adventures. Our first entry only touched on parts of day one and we have really been slacking off with our entries soooooooo here are the highlights of our Tokyo Experience:

We got up first thing in the morning (4am) to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market as it is recommended to see all the early morning action. Thankfully we met a couple nice people who came along with us and introduced us to the subway system. Trevor was absolutely right in saying it was a bowl of spagetti (we had to get a picture of it to share). We thought the fish market was just amazing...like nothing we have ever seen. You are surrounded by sealife and people...not just people walking, but people on motorized trollies to move the fish around. I tell you, I almost got hit a few times (Michelle, I needed you there to pay attention for me).

We have done ALOT of walking. We are hoping our feet toughen up as we have a hard time lasting the whole day and it was only day 1 (Mom...my feet havent gotten any better, they are actually in worse shape). To help with our feet, we rented a bike once and loved it. It helped us cover more ground and see more things. It is really neat how many people have bikes there. They have parking areas for the bikes and the lock is built into the back tire so it makes it very conventient to ride a bike anywhere. Wehn we were biking we got caught in the rain a couple of times...it was a good way to test how fast our clothing dried. We had fun regardless and it was just an excuse to take a break.

I am definitely blabbing on too much, but there is really so much to share that I know I wont fit everything in. We covered alot of ground including central Tokyo, Asakusa, Ueno, Ginza, Tsukiji, Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Akihabara and Odaiba. We have captured many of the highlights through our photos included in this entry so follow along and read the caption to the photos. (We have to get going...MORE OF TOKYO TO COME AT OUR NEXT STOP).

We are now in Nagoya and WOW do we ever have stories to tell. We will be updating soon.

Kombanwa,
Erin & Trevor

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Photos

San Fran International Airport
The international terminal was huge. Rows and rows of check in desks.

JAL Ammenities
We absolutely loved our flight to Japan on Japan Airlines. We felt we were treated like royalty...even in economy class. We were on a brand new plane for JAL so they had a little ceremony before we went on and presented gifts to some frequent fliers (from Fujitsu) and the "big wigs" in JAL. It was pretty neat. The plane was HUGE!

JAL snack
We could not believe it...after a snooze we all woke up to a hot facecloth and an ICE CREAM SANDWICH. Not a small one...a full size. Trevor said "baby...I know the way to your heart is not through diamonds" ...LOL.

View from the sky
We would like to introduce you to Cameron's pet monster, ABIMA (we may want to come up with a better name...it is the name that came with him). He is going to travel the world with us, so you will see several photos with him along the way.

Seats on JAL
Our ecomonmy seats...so comfortable

The Train to Asakasa
So, after a long flight, very little sleep, and our first glimps at the language barrier we finally made it onto the train. When we got to Asakasa were were faced with trying to figure out a Japanese street address (not an easy thing). Fortunately we found someone to help us out.

Khosan Hostel
Yes, this is our hostel. It was located in something that resembled a back alley and was a very narrow building in the middle of several other big buildings. First thought..."we can do this".

Our room
The room was very small...not much room to move around. Fortunately we had 2 beds as we used the top bunk to unpack what we needed during our stay. Our first night on the beds was not the most comfortable. We both woke up with a sore neck and back. By the end of our stay we have to say it wasnt as bad.

Our first Japanese Meal
We find it pretty easy to order in Japan as they almost always have plastic meal samples outside the restaurant. It is nice when there is an english description, but if not, we just go by what we think it is. There is a vending machine where we make our meal selection which give us a ticket that we give to the cook. Our meal is ready in mere minutes. It is quite an amazing concept.

Gas Station in Japan
We thought this was quite neat.

Salmondon (sashimi on rice)
We had the BEST meal here ever. We had raw salmon and tuna on rice...sooo goood!
We have it down pat with our meals. We share most meal as they are just so huge...and so we can have more variety. We are really enjoying the food here. We have even managed to find salads. Oh, and The BEST CREPES EVER!

Godzilla!!
(We thought this was pretty funny)

Imperial Palace
The details are incredible.

Ahhh Refreshing...
There are vending machines selling beer all over...sooooo at 9am in the morning, we decided to have a cold one. We felt kindof wierd when all the business people were looking at us funny. Oh well...maybe Canada will change their law and sell beer anywhere and let you drink it anywhere. NOW that is what I am talking about =)

A Japanese Home Front Yard
Space is at such a premium that many homes have this type of garden whith pots on the road outside their home.

Japanese Home Garden
Because space is at such a premium, it seems that many people have their garden out front of their homes like this one.

How we order our meals...
Here are some plastic meal samples (invented in Japan)