Friday

We started off the morning with not much of a plan and headed down to the Ginza district which is known for its shopping (Armani, Yves St. Lauren… ect.) We grabbed a cup of coffee and watched the world go by at a cute little café because it was raining out… and it continued to rain all day long. Cafes are a pretty big deal here we have noticed. Not the way they are trendy in the states, but the way they are just cafes like in Europe. After coffee we walked around, saw a big Kabuki theatre and headed to the Sony Building. This was pretty cool. They have a big Sony showroom where on display is Sony’s newest gadgets, some of which are yet to be released and prototypes. Cool cameras, TVs, computers, headphones, stereos. Some of the new computers that are coming out look so incredible, as did everything else in there. One floor had the new BMW model sitting out and that thing was GEOURGOUS! It was a red Z4 Beemer…. Hot lookin’ car! We both think we need some... His and Her Z4’s!!

After Sony we walked to a park to find the Imperial Palace. The park was pretty and the Palace was beautiful. We could only look from the outside because the Emperor and his family live there. After all this we came back to the hotel to eat some lunch and get dry and rest our feet. After lunch I took Michael to the top of the Government building (Its is basically a block or two from the hotel.) so he could see the view and then we went back to Shinjuku (Crazy town as we call it). We bought two cheap shirts from the GAP because we were really hot in our long sleeve shirts and jackets and we looked goofy without our jackets because we were both in tennis shoes this time out. So we did that and walked around and found a big department store which reminded us of a few of the big department stores in Copenhagen. We hit up the big food section on the bottom floor and grabbed some local wine, sake cheese and bread for dinner and walked around for a bit, came back to the hotel and ate, it was still raining at this point so we just stayed here the rest of the night.

Michael buying Metro Tickets

Woman in Kimono

Kabuki Theatre

Imperial Palace

Imperial Palace at Gaurd Gate
I'm facing what is in the picture above. Its funny that you look one direction and see that, and look the other and see this.
Us at Imperial Palace


Michael at Government Building. See him in the window?

Me with the view

Thursday

This was our first FULL day together and we were busy busy. This was our first trip on the Metro and our ride started in Shinjuku which claims to be the busiest Metro station..IN THE WORLD!!! We wound up there about 9am and it was a big psycho to say the least. 2 million people pass through it everyday!!! Visions of blurred people just running by, blurred because it was a nonstop see of business suits. We made our way to Asakusa where we saw a temple
and a pagoda

and a cute little shopping stripHeres the entance to those places:







They were all really pretty, but we didn’t spend much time there because we felt it was a little to touristy for our tastes. So we wondered around to some back streets and into some neighborhoods which was amazing. On our way, we saw a smaller temple where there was a young couple that seemed like they were taking engagement pictures in their kimonos
There were houses with little bitty doorways, potted plants everywhere, little local shops selling everything from cloths to fish bait and tons of adorable restaurants and best of all; we were by far the only ones around that weren’t locals. It reminded me of old Japan. I feel in love with a little barber shop so took a picture. A little old lady walked by us and I think was laughing at me! I guess its not everyday someone takes a picture of the local barber shop...


From here we wondered our way to Akihabara where we went to Electronics City. This was of course, heaven for Michael, we wondered through some tiny hall ways to see TONS of capacitors, transistors, resistors, connectors, switches, cables… everything. It was an incredible site.

Then we walked the streets here that were filled with all sorts of new electronics from phones to cameras to video games. There were soooo many games for all the game systems, it makes best buy look like a teeny tiney little store that doesn't sell much of anything.

Elevators

Inside those elevators

The Game scene here is very interesting. Especially for the two of us who grew up playing video games!! No matter the age of people here they all seem to be playing them. We went into what I would describe as an arcade which was 5 stories tall and we wondered our way up to the top, they had every new and old school game you could imagine being played. The pink building is the arcade we went in. We also popped into a Slots/Pachinko building which was very similar to the arcades, but they were playing for money and it was again 5 stories tall. The slots and pachinko machines were all cartoony not what you would expect to see. Both had the crazy loud music that you see in the movies (If you haven’t seen Lost in Translation, I would recommend it. I loved the movie, but can’t wait to see it again after being here. It paints a very vivid precise picture of what Tokyo is, at least in my opinion.) Throughout the day we saw tons of the young teenage crowd walking around in their new style of clothing. Michael and I refer to it as Harajuku clothes, but I can’t even describe it. Girls wearing cloths that look like little bo peep, but in a French maid style, others with big black shoes and knee high socks that are striped black and pink. I’ll have to get some pictures of them. You also see a lot of people in their school uniforms. We got stuck in rain for the last hour of our trip so after all that we had killed about 7 hours and our feet, so we came back with the intention of going somewhere else later, but just went to eat and came back and relaxed. By the end of the day we decided that Tokyo is like a big cartoon that came to life.


Today it is still really rainy but we are about to go brave the weather...so here we go!!

Wednesday

Didn’t do just a ton today. Michael worked and I met him and Claus (Not Klaus Klaus, but a different Claus) for lunch down by TI. After lunch I made my way to The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices where there are two towers each with a 43^rd floor observatory tower. I went up for some amazing views of the city. On a clear day you can see Mt. Fuji, but it wasn’t clear so that didn’t happen. In the second tower I think I saw some famous Japanese guys. Obviously I don’t know that for sure, and if they were, I don’t know who they were. But there were two guys about our age being followed by a camera crew and some photographers and a bunch of teenage girls were laughing and running around them taking pictures, so I can only guess that they were someone special. Then I came back to the hotel and relaxed a bit, my feet were killing me and I was getting pretty sleepy. At work Michael got to go to the SONY headquarters for a meeting, but was disappointed to see that the headquarters were nothing special. Oh well.

At night we just took at easy. We both were exhausted and in pain…

Me in Elevator to the top

View
That road goes straight into our Hotel Parking lotMore View

Famous guys???

The white curvy building is our hotel

Park across the street from our Hotel.
See the blue things? (you may have to enlarge the picture) They are tents that house homeless people. They set up little cities in the parks... its compltely a safe park though, they are just living and don't bother anyone. I saw someone shaving in there the other day.

Tuesday

I don't have much from yesterday, but here is what I've got: after I posted the post on here I walked around and walked and walked, walked through parks, big streets, small streets and just took in the scenes...and made myself very tired. Michael came back about 4:30 and we headed out to the other side of Shinjuku which is the area of Tokyo we are staying in. It was ... chaotic, insane and very overwhelming. The city scape reminded us both of "Gothom City" from batman, but crazier. This area was a challenge to the scenses. Tons of restaurants that smelt so good, loud crazy music coming from a bunch of casinos, a billion people and cars everywhere. I honestly can't even describe this place and pictures don't even start to do it justice. It was street after street of craziness, the side streets were crazy, which lead to more crazy side streets which lead to more big streets. It was hard to take many pictures, because you really couldn't stop long enough to do so. It didn't help we got there right about 530 when people were coming home from work. We pretty much just walked around here for a while and made it back to the hotel and went to bed about 9. Jet lag is still getting the best of us, but we are pushing through. We were both in pain from all the walking, my feet were killing me and my shins and hip. I think I'll take it easy today with the walking. Not sure what is on our plate for today, just play it by ear! :o) So heres some pictures from where we were walking yesterday:

Back in the Hotel Room with Tea...
I look sleepy...

Monday Night / Tuesday Morning

Just a warning...This is going to be leghthy...and a little scattered brained. Didn't have time to organize my thoughts before writing....

Yesterday was a LOOOONG day!!! Thankfully we got a good night sleep and slept till 5am so I don't think we will be too effected by the jet lag today. So our flight was good... VERY VERY long, but good. We hopped on a bus to the hotel and got to see a little country side and ease ourselves into the big city. We saw some rice fields with workers out working the fields. Michael always likes to see crops and the farms whenever we go places. "You can take the boy outta the farming, but you can't take the farming out of the boy" :) As we made it into Tokyo we were both amazed at the denseness of this place, the highways seriously were just right next to office buildings, as we drove by we could actually see people inside working. The area we are in actually reminds me a lot of New York from what I see of New York on TV and such since I've never been there. Only the buildings aren't near as tall because of the safety of earthquakes here (speaking of which, apparently there was one to the South of us today, but didn't know that till my mom said something about it)

We got to the hotel last night about 4pm-ish and grabbed a cup of coffee,washed up a bit and headed out just to walk around and get the blood circulating in our bodies again. We were both exhausted but were pushing on so we didn't go straight to bed. It is interesting, there are a TON of underground malls. We stumbled upon a ton of restaurants and decided to eat at one for dinner so we did. The place we went was a cute small little shop with probably only about 10 tables. We had to point to the "Plastic Food" in the windows to tell the lady what we wanted, and when we got it, oooo it hit the spot. We both had a rice ball and miso soup (if you have been to a Japanese restaurant its the soup they always serve at the beginning and the rice was basically fried rice) It was DELICIOUS!! Shoguns, Kabuki and the Japanese Kitchen just will never be the same again... I was proud of Michael because he finally used chopsticks. Every time we go to any Japanese's restaurant I always use my "sticks" Michael never has, his hand started to cramp by the end of the meal. I laughed because at the end of the meal he told me that perhaps he should have tried to use them when I would try to get him to use them. I had read before we arrived that slurping is not only not rude but also expected here so it was neat to be sitting in this place with only 2 other people but you could hear them slurping their noodle soup across the room. After dinner we wondered back to the hotel and started to unpack and quickly realized we HAD to go to bed.

This morning we woke up, we were both still tired, but just couldn't sleep anymore. We had about 10 hours of sleep. We both took showers and made some green tea then walked around the area our hotel is in until it was time for breakfast at 7. It was nice to walk around the quiet streets and enjoy the fresh morning air. Breakfast here at the Hilton was AMAZING!! I'm not a big fan of big chain hotels especially outside of the US, but the breakfast has made up for the enormous lack of character of the hotel. Don't get me wrong, its beautiful and upscale and classy, but sooooo original that it hurts. After breakfast we went to Starbucks across the street and walked around some more, found TI and came back so Michael could have a phone meeting with Dallas and then it was time for him to go to work, so like the good little wife I am, I walked him to work (a out a 10 minute walk if that) and wondered the long way back to the hotel where I unpacked and got this place in order because we were so tired last night, stuff was just thrown everywhere and now, I am typing this. The rest of my day will consist of probably just walking around and periodically checking back with the hotel to see if I have any messages from Michael He this he will get done pretty early so I don't want to drift off too far.

My first impressions of Tokyo are basically that if we didn't have to go to St. Louis for a wedding right after we got back, there is a good chance I wouldn't get on the plane to come home!! (though I think its safe to say I usually feel that way no matter where I am) I thought that this would be the place that felt the most foreign to me then any other place we have been, but oddly enough, it feels the least foreign of them all by a long shot. I don't know if it is the American hotel we are staying at that is filled with a bunch of business people staying here as oppose to tourists, or all the cars that look like our cars back home where in Europe and Central America, they look tons different. You would think all the Asian people walking around would make it feel different, but oddly it doesn't. I will say we both think its a wired feeling knowing that we are the ones that look different then everyone else. Oh, and would you believe I STILL feel short here? I thought of anywhere, I would feel average height here.... I guess 5'1 is short no matter where you go. So far the people here, are SOOOOOOO nice! SO NICE and bow all the time. I knew they did bow, I just didn't realize how often!! Even yesterday we were on an elevator with a Japanese couple that were probably both about our age, when the elevator stopped we let them off before us and they bowed at us when they said thank you. It is also SOOOOOO clean here. I didn't expect it to be dirty, but even the fire hydrants sparkle because they are so clean!! (Thats not an exageration, the firehydrants, really are sparkly shiney clean!)

The weather, well its better then the 100+ degree nastiness that is Dallas. Its in the mid 70s here, cloudy but humid. I guess that's what happens when you are on a big island in the middle of the Pacific. Ok, well that's it for now. Here are some pictures: (You can click on them to see them larger)

Hotel Room
Those are Japanese style robes on the beds. Not a Hilton thing, but a Japanese thing in most of the hotels here.

More Hotel Room

View from Our Hotel Room

Walking up from I-land where we ate dinner yesterday

Me on the Window Ledge in the Room

Street Scene Close to the Hotel
This is just a little side street off the big street

Michael inside of Starbucks
(This picture is for Mary)

Day 1 - JET LAGGED!!

We are here, but wow, we are exhuasted after a 13 hour plane flight!!!
So thats all I have to say, time for bed, we are both a little dillusional. but staying up till 730 is pretty good....Took some pictures, I'll post tomorrow. Goodnight!

June Ends Tomorrow!

I feel like we are about to go through a time warp. Tomorrow night we will be busy packing and making sure we have everything ready to go for our trip. Saturday morning, we will go to the gym and fninsh packing and then we have a wedding to go to Satruday night. We will leave our house about 6:30 Sunday morning to head to the airport. After a 13 hour flight.... we will be in Tokoyo (local time it will be Monday at 1:00pm, Dallas time Sunday night 11:00pm) There is a 14 hour time difference (biggest one we will have ever had) We will be in Japan until June 19th, when we get back, we will be in Dallas for 2 days and then we hop on another plane and head to St. Louis for my cousins wedding and get back to Dallas on the 25th, at which time, June will be basically over. Its going to be busy busy!

I'm going to go ahead and say this now, I will be trying to update our blog here with daily updates of our trip. We've never taken our computers with us on a trip abroad before, but since Michael has to work a couple days, he needs to take his, and I'll take mine just to have if I need it or if for some reason am not finding much to do while he is working I can play. (Not that I am going to be bored in Tokyo!!) So if you remember, check back here while we are away. :o)

The Church Burnt Down!?!?!

I've been meaning to say something about this for a couple weeks now...
Imagine this, your a bride getting ready for your big day... There is only a month let till you say "I Do" and the church your suppose to do so in.... catches on fire. HOW HORRIBLE! We are going to a wedding on Saturday for one of Michaels really good friends from high school. A month before the wedding, yup, the church caught fire. The church was apparently saved, but damaged and wouldn't be readyfor the big day. I can't even fathom the stress that would have caused me! They found a new place just down the road to have the ceremony and I'm sure everything will be perfect on Saturday. They sent out cute little postcards with all the new information and the news on it because the invites had already been sent out. So for those of you who have planned a wedding or are planning a wedding now, just be thankful the place your suppose to get married didn't/hasn't caught fire!!!

Wicked

We are going to see the Musical "Wicked" ( http://www.wickedthemusical.com/ )
Our tickets are for..are you ready for this... Saturday APRIL 28th 2007!!! That seems like forever away. We had wanted to go when they first went on sale, but knew we wouldn't be living here anymore so didn't buy them. We realized the other day, hey we are still going to be here after all, and got the tickets. We have been wanting to see this musical for a while now and are super excited about it. We just have to wait close to a year to do so! Our seats are pretty good for having waited a while to get them. First Balcony 3rd row and not too far from the center. We checked a ton of different days but alot of the seats were really bad, we just lucked into these.

Mavs Mania

Wow, Dallas is obviously going crazy with the Mav's making it to the playoffs. Neither of us are into basketball at all, but it's kinda cool to see everyone be so excited that Dallas is in the NBA playoffs. Will we watch the games now? No!! Mostly because we will be in Japan for the majority of the games and even if we were here, it would bring bad luck to the team. We have realized, anytime we actually DO get into a sporting event, the team we are rooting for, always looses, so its just best for us to stay out of the way!!! Anyways, the air in Dallas is excited and you can't go anywhere without hearing or seeing something about the Mav's.