Danny's Trip to Japan - Part II

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On Danny's 4th day here, which also happened to be July 4th - although not really a big deal here in Japan, we went to Asakusa. Asakusa is known for its famous Kaminarimon Gate, as well as it's beautiful temple and 5-storey pagoda. Unfortunately though, when we visited the temple and got our fortunes this time, Danny and I had bad fortunes, but Larry had "best fortune" twice in a row!! NOT FAIR!

After visiting Asakusa's history, we decided to search for another conveyor-belt sushi restaurant, because Danny could just not get enough of it! Well, after a few phone calls to the Japanese girls that Larry works with and many attempts at asking the locals on the streets, we finally found a place. A good place too....In fact, one of the plates that Larry tried - some sort of eel dish, we watched them kill, gut and clean about 5 minutes prior! Yuck.... But I guess it doesn't get much fresher than that!!

And finally before heading home, we visited the famous Asahi Beer Building and went to the top for a great view and some drinks.

The next day we had the entire day planned by a tour that we had signed up to do with some of our friends, Missy and Daisuke. This tour started REALLY early in the morning, but was so much fun! It started by taking us to a beautiful field of lavender, where we got to try lavender ice cream, and then shop for lavender products and other fun Japanese trinkets. Larry and I bought a wooden Japanese doll as a keepsake of this place. Next, we were dropped off at a beautiful hotel where we had an all-you-can-eat buffet lunch. After lunch, we were supposed to go corn-picking, but the weather wasn't good enough, so instead we were taken to a place where we got to eat corn-on-the-cob and then sample many different types of wine - including CORN wine! We went a little overboard with that, I think! In the end, we finally went cherry-picking and took some really funny pictures while doing so. At one point, Danny and I were trying to get a picture of me spitting out a cherry pit, but instead he decided to videotape the whole thing instead and not tell me! Needless to say, I looked pretty dumb.

On Danny's last full day here, we decided to head to Shinjuku for some shopping, arcades, and a friendly game of Billiards - which Danny and Larry bet on! In the arcade, we were all excited when we won ALL three of our favorite Japanese Rilakkuma characters, which we so thoughtfully renamed as: Lar Bear Jr., Melly Button Belly and Bucky Ducky. (Maybe we were still drunk from all the free wine-tasting we did the day before!) Anyway, we had a great time in Shinjuku, but we had to head back a little early in order to get ready for my b-day celebration at Monsoon. That blog is next! Stay tuned...

Love,
Larry & Melanie

P.S. - Thanks for coming out to visit us, Dan! We had a great time with you!!

JAPANESE FOR THE DAY: "mata aimasho" - See you later!

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