Tokyo!

This past weekend I went to Tokyo and met up with my friend Nick from back home. He is in Japan visiting his cousin for two weeks, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to see Nick as well as see Tokyo. Although I only had 3 full days and 2 partial days, we kept extremely busy and saw quite a bit of Tokyo. We saw both historical sites and the trendy areas of Tokyo. We started Thursday night off with going to the popular and well-known Tokyo Tower. It was amazing to see Tokyo at nighttime! After, we headed over to Shibuya to witness the largest intersection in the world. After wandering around for a bit, and adventuring into a loud and crowded store, we decided to call it a night. 

The next day we got up early and walked a good mile or two to Asakusa. The temperature during mid-day was about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was always beautiful to walk places. We also enjoyed the scenery along the way. We walked around the Buddhist Senso-ji Temple, a very popular temple in Tokyo. Asakusa also consists of a shopping street filled with traditional Japanese souvenirs. I was proud of what we bought and didn’t buy as much as we definitely could have! I could have spent so much money there! 

In the afternoon we took the train over to the Imperial Palace. Although it was awesome to see from the outside, it was a disappointment to not be allowed inside the palace. You were only allowed if you were an official tour! So instead we walked around it and took pictures, soon leading us to a park. 

After enjoying the beautiful weather, we walked through Ginza district and viewed many buildings with popular brands we know well from the states. I was the most amused by the Sony building which had a display of fake snow. A child was playing in it, but Nick said I was too big to play :( We also saw Samsung, Yamaha, Toshiba, and many others I cannot remember at this time. We decided to watch the sunset on the 35th floor of a building near Tokyo station (I believe it was called Marunouchi). While chilling out, we got a call from our friend Courtney saying she had just arrived at the Tokyo airport. Courtney has been living and teaching English in Japan for 1 ½ years now, but went home for the holidays. She was planning on being back in Japan around New Years weekend, but flights continued to be delayed. She took the train to Tokyo station where we met her and spent the rest of the night hanging out. We walked around Ueno park for a bit and then hit up Akihabara, the district for electronic goods. We explored a 6 story floor (I believe) of electronics. I enjoyed it much more than I expected! They had everything imaginable- from the expected cameras and computers to rice cookers, hair dryers, virtual picture frames and globes. Courtney and I took some time finding awesome new camera cases ^^. We then went in an 8 story book store! If it was in English, I would have been in there for hours! It was still cool to see the assortment of books available! Following some more wandering around, Courtney brought us out for some good Japanese food. It was delicious! We also tried a drink that consists of whisky and iced tea. It was really tasty, despite the sound of it! And of course we enjoyed some sake before calling it a night. 

Early the next morning, before the sun rose, Courtney left to get back home. Nick and I slept for a few more hours, but got up early enough to have another full day of site seeing. We went to the area of Harajuku and visited Meiji Jingu. We first walked around the garden which was very peaceful and away from the busyness. The garden also had a tea garden which was neat to see. Meiji Jingu also has their well-known temple where we witnessed a few weddings. I loved seeing the beautiful dresses and definitely was the tourist that got some photos! 

In contrast to the peaceful gardens and traditional temple, we adventured to Harajuju- a central area for a young, trendy population. The style of dress was extremely different from Korea and other parts of Japan. We walked through a crazy street filled with stores of crazy clothing- including netted shirts and tights, a fully “pink” store, gothic and black clothing as well as really puffy, tutu type skirts. I absolutely loved this place!! This was one of my favorite places we saw; I really enjoyed the culture. After the hip, young culture, we went to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. Again, it was very peaceful which was well needed before meeting up with our friend Mai (she is Japanese and lives near Tokyo) for a crazy night out. We began first at a Japanese restaurant. Once again, it was all so delicious. She then brought us to Roppongi, a place known for bars and clubbing. It was a bit overwhelming to walk down a street filled with people yelling and trying to get us into their bar. Mai brought us to her favorite club, where we enjoyed ourselves and got to know a few of her friends. 

After a few hours of sleep, we got up and ate at a Denny’s! It sounds funny to eat at one in Japan, yet it was clearly an Asian Denny’s. The breakfast menu consisted of numerous rice dishes. I, however, was extremely excited to eat some French toast- and it was wonderful! ^^ Before I had to get my flight back home, we visited one more garden, the Hama-rikyu Gardens. This garden also had a tea house, but also had flowers and a 300 year-old pine. The flowers were exciting to see in January! 

As you can see, we covered a lot of Tokyo in a short amount of time. We also loved the various machines on the streets where you could get any type of drink you want, including hot coffee!! That was our favorite! ^^ There were also machines filled with cigarettes and have heard they have machines with umbrellas! Crazy, huh? Japan was very foreigner oriented, so it was easy to navigate around the city. We could wander the districts of Tokyo knowing that at almost every block there would be a map that could help us get back to the train station. 

I absolutely loved Tokyo and wish I had more time to visit. It was wonderful to see Nick, Courtney, and Mai. It is crazy how we all live in different places around the world, but could all meet up over a weekend in one city!