Travels to the Land of the Rising Sun (Day 6 From Kyoto back to Tokyo)

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Today, Katie and I planned to go to Kamakura. It's a small town about 2 hours away from Tokyo. To do this, however, we had to leave Kyoto early in the morning. We woke up, got ready, grabbed a quick bite, and headed to Tokyo. Plans don't always go through thanks to horrible weather. Up to this point, Katie and I had been extremely lucky when it came to weather. It basically started pouring as soon as we got to the train station.

We checked back into our hostel and went on a wild goose chase in the rain for bank or post office to exchange dollars for yen. We were pretty low on our yen reserves. Unfortunately, it was a holiday in Japan so all the banks and post offices were closed =/ We could've paid for the room there, but had little cash left to do anything the rest of the day. To our surprise, the girl at the front desk said we could just pay tomorrow. WOW! That really helped us out. I'm not just saying this because they let us pay a day later, but the customer service in Japan is AMAZING. Everyone has been extremely nice. If you guys plan on staying at a hostel in Tokyo, I HIGHLY recommend K's Quality House Tokyo. It's very clean, safe, and is located close to the senso-ji temple, and has a subway station a block away. Couldn't ask for anything more.

Anyways, we got back to the hostel and changed pants and socks since they were soaked. The hostel lets it's patrons borrow umbrellas (remember what i said about customer service?) so our upper bodies were fine. We decided that Kamakura was a no go. Who wants to walk around in the rain for 5 or 6 hours? Not us, not today. I came up with the alternative of going to a sumo match. It's inside, so the rain wouldn't affect us much.

We hopped on the subway and ended up at the Ryogoku area of Tokyo. If you ever go to a sumo match here, the stadium is right behind the station. Just make 3 rights and you're there. We found that the cheapest seats were sold out (2100 yen), but better seats for 3600 yen were available. Instead of going back to the hostel empty handed, we decided to just fork over the extra 1500 yen (or about $15-$20).

It's funny because I never really paid much attention to sumo. I thought it was kind of whatever, until this trip. It really is exciting when you watch it on tv or even moreso when you watch it live. We also met a couple of cool Australian girls that were sitting behind us. A couple beers and some sakes later, we were all cheering. Anyone that has seen me at Kings games, knows I'm a loud fan haha. I don't think the couple sitting to the right appreciated it, so I toned it down a little. Katie and I decided to spice things up a bit so we made little non-monetary bets on each match. Let's just say things didn't go too well for me. Katie has a freaking eye for sumo wrestlers. She chose 9 of the 11 winners. By the end, it was determined that I was a jinx to whoever I chose. Well, if Katie chose one, I'd just choose the other to make it interesting. It was definitely an experience I'll never forget.

After sumo, we went to Akibahara (Electric Town). It's basically where you can find the latest tech gadgets. It started raining again so we grabbed some food, walked around a little more, and decided to head back to the hostel. We did, however, stop and get a strap for Katie's camera. Tomorrow, we plan on going to the Tsukiji Fish Market REALLY early to sample some of the freshest sushi in the world, so we're going to catch some Zzzzz's. Talk to you guys soon!

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