Day 21 – Kamakura

Today Alex, John and I made ou way to Ikebukaro to meet the Koreans because they were going to show us around Kamakura. We payed about 1500 Yen for an all day train pass to Kamakura which allowed us to transfer trains all we needed to within that line. We covered about 4 different towns out in that area and had a really great time. After we emptied most of the sweet shops sample trays. We visited a Shinto and a Buddhism shrine and took lots of pictures. Kamakura was a really great place to visit because it was well outside of Tokyo and had that traditional feel to it. We explored this one island that was well amused in the surf culture... though obviously we were here during the wrong time of year it was still great to see the beaches here. We were out there for about 8 hours and then headed back to Tokyo because everyone was exhausted. It was a really great time and I will never forget the fun we had there!!

Day 20 – Ueno

We caught Alex early in the morning to do something... We hopped a train and headed to Ueno and made just started to wander around. After checking out Ueno and all that it had to offer we made our way to Akihabara for everyone to do some more shopping and had a great time exploring some of the crazy gadget back ally shops. Then we headed back to Ikebukaro to try and see the Aquarium but it ended up being outrageously expensive so we checkout some of the crazy “American” themed shops and stopped for dinner. John and Alex made did some shopping and I happily tagged along. Alex headed back to his dorm and John and I walked back to Takadanobaba and headed to bed.  

3 day update

Day 17 – The Imperial Palace

This day was really fun. We headed out John, Alex, Alex, Tugbe and myself to go check out the imperial palace. Once we got to the stop we walked around for like an hour trying to find some place reasonable to eat. After that we headed to the palace gates which is a massive courtyard surrounding it which is about a 2 mile loop. Alex Hill spilt off at the train station and headed back to do homework. We walked that and ended up in the Yasukuni shrine (controversial war shrine) and visited the museum held within. After which John and Alex headed back home and me and Tugbe just decided to wander around. After a while I realized getting around Tokyo is really quite easy because there are maps posted everywhere. We ended up walking from the imperial palace all the way back to Takadanobaba and had a blast stopping in places and just mindlessly walking. (and walking around with wooden crates... don't ask). We walked for about 4 hours just talking and laughing. All and all it was a really great night.

Day 18 – More walking

Sunday is the day that all the fashion kids wander into Harajuku to show off their latest stuff... naturally this spot becomes a hot spot for annoying tourists... but I thought I would try my luck with looking the least like a tourist. I walked around and checked all the crazy cool fashion shops. I even found a bazaar or all really old Japanese icons. (tools, swords, coins, scrolls, paintings, do-dads and in one case rusted out samurai armor that was at least 200 years old.) After which I headed to Ikebukaro to just walk around some more and check out the area. After that I hopped the train to Yoyogi to visit the Meji Shrine and the “scenic” Yoyogi park. What I didnt realize is that walking all the way though the park would put me back into Harajuku... so I poked around there some more then headed back to meet John and go to Alex's dorm to give him some of his stuff he left with us and get some dinner. Me and John made some international calls home and then headed back to sleep.

Day 19 – Krazy Korean Dinner

Today was mostly sitting around until later when we met the Koreans and about 19 other Japanese kids from Rikkyo University to have dinner at a Korean style restaurant in Shin-Okubo. It was definitely a different kind of dinning experience but it was really delicious. There was one grill thing at the end of the table (there was 3 big tables to accommodate all of us) and after the food was ready they would throw it into a big center plate and everyone would pick and choose the different sides that would go on there food and pull from a communal plate. There were really no individual plates and if there was something that you wanted to put sauce onto you had to hold a piece of letuce in one hand throw everything on it then eat the everything at once. It was really quite fun. After wards we walked to Shinjuku to go do Puri Kura and then to McDonalds for 100 Yen ice cream. After that everyone made there way home but me John and Tesa decided to walk back to Takadanobaba where after she hopped the train there and went back to her dorm. It was a nice short walk and we mostly grilled her on questions about Australia... I have no idea why she doesn't hate us haha.   

Day 16 – Back to Tokyo Tower

Today we headed to Asakari to a huge Shinto shrine that was WAY too over crowed with a festival going on such that it was literally impossible to get any pictures but we got to wonder around a little when we were not getting squashed by the crowds. After that we decided to go back to Tokyo Tower. On our third trip to Tokyo Tower we actually made it up the tower and got to check out the city at night... it was really quite amazing to see how far the city really goes for. It was also really amazing to see the silhouette of Mt. Fuji in the distance... Today was still a little tiring because we didn't fall asleep until like 3 am the night before because of new years... but we had lots of fun and saw lots of great stuff.  

Day 15 – Recovering

This day was mostly sleeping in from the night before... then I started wondering around and ended up in Akihabara (it's like that place calls to me) and I found an awesome sale... where almost everything was 75% off it was quite great to see the shops set out with all their crazy good sales... That was basically the day...  

Day 14 - New Years

We had a really awesome new years with all of our good friends here. We headed to the huge temple we visited the day before because there is a big countdown to the new year at Tokyo Tower. We picked up some snacks and camped out in our spot and go to watch the count down outside of the Tokyo Tower. The temple near by had a huge display with enormous bells and drums but it was hard to get a picture of it because of the huge amount of people there. After the countdown we stayed around the area for about an hour and half to take some pictures and to shout Happy New Year!!! in Japanese to some very surprised groups... some took it well and were excited... others were shocked that some crazy gaijin were shouting and carrying on. After that we had planned to head back to Alex's dorm for a gathering of people to celebrate but we got a call from them saying that the train back to his dorm was running infrequently so we decided have the party in our room. Something like 13 people crammed into our tiny room... it was fun but a little cramped... everyone had a good time though... so no complaints here. We shared some Krispy Kreme doughnuts with everyone which was well received... considering there are only two Krispy Kreme doughnut shops in Tokyo luckily we camped out in Shinjuku earlier to get 2 dozen. Everyone left the next day around 7am and then John and I got to sleep.

Day 13 – Hi Ho to nichome we go~

Alex was feeling better and had decided to take us around. We decided to head to Tokyo tower. We had lots of cool chances for pictures on the way there but when we made it to go inside we were met by a HUGE crowd trying to see it before the new year. We decided not to wait and instead head to Roppongi... the ritzy part of the city where all the rich gaijin live... It was funny to think that to us this was more of a sight seeing tour though their neighborhoods then I'm sure they are familiar. We did catch a few gaijin giving us dirty looks as we wondered though... we were easily discernible because we were the only ones not sporting any form of famous designer ware. We walked though some of the shops and it felt similar to being in America... in fact I remember the gut wrenching feeling I got when we walked into a book store filled with “artzy” gaijin sitting there pondering in which way they could best create their next masterpiece. It was a very infuriating to see that this part of town had succumbed to the same type of segregative bullshit that the US is so famous for. We left that place pretty quickly and didn't bother looking back. So we headed to Shinjuku and wandered around there for a bit and had some dinner. Alex showed us around some of the spots of Nichome he knew and we headed back home for the night.