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Published: September 7th 2008
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Ramen, yum!
Everything can be vended! We got to the hotel okay. Took an hour and a half from the airport to the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka. We had an awesome room complete with yukata, wet bar and bidet. We stashed our stuff and hit the streets for some dinner. We wandered for several blocks and found a ramen place. There was a super great "obaasan" who helped us figure out what to order, how to order and where to sit. We were a little high-maitenance yesterday. 😊 The food was awesome & I felt a little like Naruto (since that's the image of ramen shops in my head!) eating w/his sensei. Anyways, here's a pic of using the outside, automated ordering system. It really is handy. If only the stupid Americans could figure out how it works!!
Back to the hotel for some downtime. Couldn't get the internet to work, so got a bit frustrated. Called mom at 2am Tokyo time to check in and chat. Probably the only time, 'cause we figure the 3 minute phone call to be about $7. Anyways, we're safe and sound and going to sleep. Nice hot showers and clean clothes and fresh sheets...so nice after 18 hours of
Take mercy!
We are the well-mannered Americans, I promise! travel...over 24 for Rachel!
So, today was our first full day in Japan. Rachel and I stayed separately from Samia & Alice and we opted to sleep in and take the day slowly. Unfortunately, we were both awake by 6:30 am! So, we had fun times in the hotel room. We took pictures from the windows, participated in morning aerobics on the tv and watched a great program about vegetables in the Tokyo area. Fascinating stuff! Pretty low-key, but a nice slow start. We totally abused our yukata for our own amusement and ate lunch at the Felix Caffe in our fabulous hotel.
We decided to explore Odaiba and visit the ferris wheel there. It's one of the biggest in the world and offers a great panoramic view of Tokyo. Plus, it's on an island in Tokyo Bay which we thought was pretty groovy. We had a great afternoon navigating the subway/monorail system and making our way to the ferris wheel. The complex where it was, Palette City, was awesome and "colorful." 😊 It had several tracks where people could test drive the newest cars. Trampolines w/harnesses and tons of activities for the kids. We rode the cool
Tokyo, Akasaka
The view from our hotel. Lots of tennis going on down there! So sad to be missing the finals of the U.S. Open. ferris wheel and then got ice cream sundaes as a reward for all our efforts...you know, walking and talking to people and sweating in the sun...we deserved ice cream! My chocolate sundae had rice crispies under the ice cream. It was amazingly good...I'm making sundaes like that from now on! 😊
After that, it was a bit of a race to get back to the hotel to meet up w/Samia & Alice to go to the next hotel in Yokohama. We were late (big surprise!) but not too bad. We took cabs to the Shibuya subway station and rode for an hour to Yokohama. We're staying in the Pan Pacific Hotel and are currently in the midst of an awesome thunder/rain storm. Great view of the city. We had to order an extra bed since there's three of us in the room & it's totally cute.
We're on our way to a conference reception where I will get to hobnob with the nutritionists. :0 I figure get in and get the free food and get out. 😊 They'll all start the conference tomorrow & I get to do whatever I want.
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Mom & Dad
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Not too lazy
We enjoyed your first entry, but thought it looked pretty active most of the time. How was the free food.