Blogs from Tokyo, Japan, Asia - page 257

Wednesday 18 May 2005 - Day in Tokyo I got to meet up with Melissa from school again, and we got caught up on Golden Week. We met up at HARAJUKU, which is a pretty famous place where cos-play kids go to on weekends. There are lots and lots of cute girls here too, hehe. Melissa and her FRIENDS were shopping that day, so I tagged along. I had also wanted to get myself some of those black gloves... I heard only girls wear em, but forget that -- I'm cold dangit! We ate a late lunch at SHAKEY'S pizza. I never ate there back in the States, but it was buffet there. I think it was like 10 bucks for all-you-can-eat pizza. Not bad at all. The pizza was pretty good, but I didn't dig ... read more

A family of four blond, blue eyed Americans don’t blend in very easily in Japan. Not blending in can be a good thing at times or not so good at other times. Let us explain…when we’re confused as to which subway to take or can‘t read a menu, it’s good, because a considerate, English speaking local will stop to help. On the other hand, if you do something a little scatter-brained everyone WILL notice you. Our first attempt to take public transportation is a great example of a time when you wish you could just blend. We decided to take the city-line bus to a near-by shopping mall and back to our hotel. When we boarded the extremely crowded bus there weren’t seats together. We gave the girls seats at the front or the bus, Dad ... read more

After relaxing in the morning, I decided to head out to a Sumo Wrestling match at the Ryogoku Stadium and see the preliminary mathes of the Grand Summer Tournament. Upon my arriaval, I caught some of the Makuuchi division wrestlers (these are the big boys!) as they made their entrance into the arena. Inside the octagon shaped arena where the floor seats are gouped in four's and are cushions, I sat in the cheap seats up top. But thanks to my quick thinking, I made my way down to the second level by smiling, pointing and bowing to ushers. From these seats, you can feel the impact when the two combants crash into each other. The sport is very appealing to watch. Most of the time of ecah match is spent conducting ceremonial acts like bowing, ... read more

Well, Ive been in tokyo now for a few days and have used the time to take one-day excursions to some fantastic sites. First up was Mt. Fuji. It is about a 2 hour bus ride from Tokyo to Shimodo-Yoshida where there is good viewing of the mountain. I grabbed a Japanesse pastry and a bottle of water and boarded the bus. I had the entire back area to myself with the nearest passenger 8 rows in front of me. I took off my shoes and sox, hit play on the MP3 player and wathed the Japan countryside roll by. I woke up about 2 hours later and outside the window is this gigantic image of Mt Fuji. I then find out from the bus driver that I missed my stop so I get off at ... read more

In the interests of being technological and up to date and all that, I feel that I have to spend a few minutes writing about the wonderful megalopolis we're currently winging our way around at lightning speed. With only 4 full days here and so much to see there's little point wasting much time sleeping, and we currently have a spare few minutes in our tightly planned itinerary so I thought I would do the first up-to-date blog of our travels so far. In only 2 days here is a list of the stuff we've seen and done - I'll keep it very tiny (in true Tokyo style). *Mount Fuji - from the 45th floor of the municipal government building *The Tokyo department store, Isetan, and its ceremonial opening - feeling like royalty as every staff ... read more