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.