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Published: July 30th 2009
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Hi again!
Two Saturdays ago we made the seemingly un-long but actually long journey to Tokyo, Japan. All in all, including the bus from Buyeo and the train into Tokyo, the travel time was 12 hours, pretty outrageous for a 2 hour flight. Allll worth it though. Tokyo exceeded any expectations I had. I didn't think anything could tie Vienna but there it was. It is hard to pin point exactly what it is that makes Tokyo so special; maybe it is in the little things like the perfectly paved roads, tree lined streets and buildings, overall cleanliness, friendly people and eclectic food. Jonathan was pretty disappointed that there weren't any robots.
The first night we made it to our hotel. We really lucked out because the hotel was in an amazing location downtown and quite swanky for the price. I think it was due to the cool interior design. We were hungry so went looking for a Japanese restaurant. We found one on a side road where it looked like you cooked your own food. We both decided we weren't ready for something so authentic so we went with Italian instead. Good start.
The next day we
headed out to a park that was recommended to us by some friend here called Yoyogi park. I liked the name so I was game. The park was very beautiful. I found the forests around it to be creepy in a cool way. Lots of crows and the forest was dark with huge trees. We went to a temple in the park. It was refreshing seeing a new type of temple. We also happened to catch a couple traditional weddings. It was very fun seeing the wonderful dresses.
After we tried to locate the Harajuku area that is famous for... you guessed it the Harajuku girls. But we ended up completely bypassing it because we were on the wrong side of the train. Not to worry though, we ended up in another place we were going to that day, Shibuya. This area is like the times square of New York. It seemed like 10,000 people crossed the street every time the light turned.
We decided to hop on the subway and take the one stop up to Harajuku. It was much easier to find from the subway. The street was jam packed with people. I saw a couple
girls that I think could qualify as "harajuku girls." It was a fun shopping area. Jonathan stood outside of some stores while I perused. I think I was on the same shopping course as another girl bc we kept seeing the same guy standing outside of a bunch of stores, just like Jonathan.
Later that night we met up with a friend of ours, Tijana, from the Oxford TESL course. She is teaching in Tokyo for a private company. She took us to a Michael Jackson party at a super tiny bar. It was tons of fun catching up with her and meeting all her friends.
The next day we had planned a day trip to Mt. Fuji. Jonathan had warned me that Fiji was extremely temper-mental and that even on a clear day there is a chance you won't see it. We decided we should take the risk anyways even though it was going to be mainly overcast. Other than my word, you would have no idea that we were on Fuji. I can't even say with certainty that we were, although the tour guide said we were there. I guess that is something. We mostly saw
clouds and mist, as you can see from the pictures.
The tour then took us to a pirate cruise that was about 20 mins long. On a clear day you can see Fuji from the lake. We saw no Fuji 😞
After the cruise we took a gondola ride up a volcano. We passed what looked like a mine site but were told later that it was not a mine site but it was actually a place where they released the gas because the pressure is so great on the volcano. We saw natural hot springs and rivers with boiling water. It was pretty cool, or should I say hot? ahha bad joke.
Later that night we met up with Tijana and some of her friends again. This time they took us to a place with small rooms where it was all you could drink for two hours. This was something I don't think would work so well in Canada. After we went to a gay bar. It made me miss Toronto. There were two dance companies there from New York so it was good times all around.
The next day we planned to go to
the imperial palace so after a late start we headed there. Once we got there we tried to locate the entrance. We found one but it looked official so we moved to the next one; it also looked official; by the time we reached the other end of the palace we started to clue into the fact that no one can go into the palace. We were a little disappointed but this opened up the afternoon so we recovered pretty quickly.
With the extra time we headed to a historical area, Akusaka. Here we ate some delicious sushi, shopped a little and saw another temple. Later we went for dinner at a themed restaurant. I had read something about these places and I was pretty excited to experience one. We just barely found the restaurant that was Alice in Wonderland themed, I suppose that is why it was hard to find. Once we found the elevator you got off into a boxed room that was decorated with pages and pictures from the book. We were led through a door that looked like a wall before it opened and seated in a booth that was surrounded by mirror and glass
walls that had black decorations on them. It was hard to gauge the size of the place. The servers were dressed like Alice and the food was served in Alice themed dishes. It was a lot of fun.
When we left it was pouring rain but I was intent on finding this street of super tiny bars our friend had told us about. I had previously gotten a man at our hotel to mark in a map where the street was so we hopped in a cab and gave the driver the map and the name. Well, he took us to the spot on the map and it was a residential neighborhood. We got him to take us to the closest station, Shibuya. I think the 15 min cab ride cost us about $25 cad - this was wayyy more expensive compared to what were used to in Seoul (15 min would be about $4 Cad). So then I started looking at the Japanese map and comparing it to ours ( I am just so persistent) while Jonathan patiently waited. Then a drunken foreigner or angel walked up to us and asked us what we were looking for I
showed him the name and he walked us to the street, bless him. The bars were super cool. Some had two floors where the bottom sat about 4 people and the upstairs about 6. It felt like we were drinking in a play house.
The next day we left Tokyo to go back to Korea and finish up this last leg of our Korean experience. We have less than a month to go. I had an amazing year but I am quite excited to moving on to something new and different. I don't think I'll have time to write again before I leave so I am sending more love than usual this time.
Keep in touch!!! LOVE xoxoxo
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