The flight here was utter misery. By that I mean sleep torture. It was about 10 hours from Seattle to Tokyo and we left at 7:30 pm Pacific time, to land at 10:15 pm Tokyo time. Our goal was to try to stay awake the whole flight, and then sleep when we got here. Easier said than done.... I did stay awake, but only because I was so uncomfortable in my super-upright, non-reclining seat that I couldn't even rest my head. The first couple hours were fine but then once bedtime had come and gone it started getting rough. Sooo tired.... just want to rest my head and close my eyes.... no!!!!! No reclining, no head resting.... pure torture.
On the bright side our Delta flight had tons of music and movies and games on the seat TVs and those entertained us for hours. I learned some Japanese words and numbers, played a ridiculously hard word scramble game, and watched the Wedding Ringer (horrible.... zero laughs from me) and The Theory of Everything (lovely). I just love Eddie Redmayne.
We also got some mediocre, super processed airline meals. Actually I got lucky that even though I hadn't reserved a vegetarian meal, someone else was a no-show for theirs and I got to have it. Whew!! The veggie mystery patty with greens and carrots was actually not terrible and it came with fruit, but the salad came with fat-free vinaigrette (why!?!? Vinaigrette should not be fat free, people! Ugh straight sugar) and the bread came with some sort of margarine spread instead of butter. (again... why!?!?) Total condiment fail, Delta. Let's work on that.
I looked forward to the mid-flight ice cream treat. Why was I picturing soft serve? Wishful thinking. It was those cheap ice cream sandwiches. Who are we kidding, I ate my ice cream sandwich, wishing I had some sprinkles or chocolate chips to take it up a notch.
Ten looong, looooong hours later, we finally landed. By this time I was so tired I was ready to kung fu chop anything that might delay me from getting into bed. We made it through customs super fast, fumbled around for a bit figuring out we should take the bus to our hotel, waited in line for bus tickets, waited at the bus stop and got on the bus. By this time we discovered things run very fast, neatly and efficiently here. Lines move quickly, people stand in neat rows and wait their turn, and everything is right on time. So refreshing! I love that about Japan.
We made it to the hotel, found the lobby on the 20th floor, checked in, and found our room on the 29th floor easily up the super-fast elevators. And finally.......... SLEEP.
We woke up Saturday morning, looked out at our city views and could finally get excited, we made it!!!!
First stop, hotel breakfast. It was awesome. Everything from omelets, waffles, french toast, yogurt, cereal, juice, the usual American suspects, to miso soup, mashed potatoes, beans, tofu, salad, broiled fish, pastries, chocolate chip cookies, and my new favorite, banana juice (bananas pureed with milk and honey) which is an excellent drink with a chocolate chip cookie to start my day. Hey it's vacation, don't look at me like that.
After stuffing ourselves we ventured out to the Ginza shopping district - mostly designer boutiques but a few stores for us peasants. It was just cool to walk around and take in the sights! A lot of parts of Tokyo look like Times Square, this area included. Tall buildings and signs and billboards and more than the eye can take in. And the people watching! Possibly my favorite thing in Tokyo.
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| Possibly the most Japanese thing we saw: a huge crowd of people taking pictures of these two cats sitting on a sign. #japan #cats |
The craziest thing to me is how everyone dresses so warmly here, even on hot, humid, sunny summer days! They are all wearing pants, socks, shoes, long sleeves, jackets, or long skirts and tights (TIGHTS!!!). Not me, I am wearing shorts and displaying my tourist badge proudly. It is too hot for pants, people! They must be immune to heat here. We even saw runners in a race (I'm guessing a 5K but who knows, could have been a marathon) and all the women and some of the men we saw were in shorts over long pants and jackets running this race! We were watching them run and sweating our asses off in shorts and t-shirts, and all I could do was stare in amazement at how they must be boiling to death in all those layers.
We bought a cute umbrella for Valerie and stopped at "Sapporo Beer Hall" for beers and lunch. They had beer in a boot so Rich of course got that, and I got a beer and mango cocktail - beer and mango juice! It was so delicious and I will be recreating it at home immediately. I also had a tasty salmon carpaccio. There was no mistaking the Japanese flair at this "German" Beer Hall - if only Hofbrauhaus at home would put salmon carpaccio on the menu!
We had been walking around for a good two hours by then. We headed back to the Metro and then over to the Hibiya park and Imperial Palace grounds. SO MUCH WALKING. The Metro is way far underground and involves going up and down many, many flights of stairs/escalators. By the end of our first two days I had walked about 35,000 steps and up 70 flights of stairs, according to my fitbit.
Hibiya park was lovely and so was the Imperial Palace area, although you can't get very close to the palace. The imperial family lives there and they only open it to the public 2 days a year - December 23rd (the emperor's birthday) and January 2nd (New Year's Day. Why the 2nd and not the 1st? No idea). We had some green tea soft serve in the park and sat under a shady tree because sitting in the shade was feeling glorious at that point. They really love green tea here. I've now had green tea ice cream, iced green tea and hot green tea, and green tea KitKats (yum).
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| mmm green tea! |
imperial palace grounds
For our first dinner in Japan we obviously had to have sushi. We found a little hole in the wall place in the Roppongi district and had the most delicious eel, salmon, tuna and shrimp nigiri in spite of the smokers sitting next to us. Ugh! I can't remember the last time I ate in a restaurant that allowed smoking but it really is awful. When my food tastes like cigarettes I sure am renewed in my love for that smoking ban. We decided to finish out our first day by doing the Tokyo Pub Crawl, which is a group that goes to 3 bars and a club and seemed like a good way to meet other travelers and experience the nightlife. The theme was "geeks and nerds" so they suggested wearing glasses with tape on them or suspenders - but we obviously did not have any of those things with us. Only the party leaders were dressed up for the theme. Rich won a free beer at the first bar by knowing the answer to the trivia question - name 5 members of the Star Trek TNG crew. Nice job honey! The only true geek in the crowd. :)
We got to meet several other people visiting Tokyo, from London, Portland OR, Texas, and India, which was cool - until the one guy from India became my number one fan and stalker and wouldn't go away. (Awkward!!)
We also experienced a small earthquake while we were at the second bar. It was loud and there were colorful lights flashing everywhere so I didn't even notice it, but Rich pointed out that the floor was moving and everyone around us also noticed. Freaky! We later learned it was centered far south of Tokyo and buildings swayed, and heard that some people were trapped in elevators for up to 20 hours. So glad we were hardly affected!
By the third bar I was fading fast. The dance floor was finally starting to pick up and we got a bit of dancing in but once we sat down I couldn't keep my eyes open and we didn't make it to the last stop of the night. We turned into jet lag pumpkins and headed for the metro at 10 pm. Back to the hotel and crashing by 10:30.
Thanks to jet lag we were up and ready for day two by 5 am or so, although we kept trying to go back to sleep. We finally gave up and hit the hotel gym, which is pathetically understocked, with no weights, just cardio equipment and a pull-up bar. Apparently weight lifting is not real big here.
After a quick workout and breakfast we headed out to the Tokyo Cycling Tour, which was from 9 to 3. Yes that's right, a 6 hour bike tour, which my beloved husband signed us up for without consulting me, because he is trying to kill me. And nearly succeeded.
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| not amused |
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It was a great tour, I have to admit. We hit tons of Tokyo landmarks, a sumo stadium, bath house, sweet shop, park, Shinto shrine and Buddhist temple, and stopped for a rooftop lunch and beer at a high rise mall. We saw the Skytree (the tallest tower and second tallest manmade structure in the world!) and a festival with a bunch of these cute little anime animals dancing and taking pictures with everyone, Tokyo University, Imperial Palace grounds again... oh my god I was nearly dead by the end. Between the hot sun, the spiked cement bike seat (that's what it felt like, at least), and the boiling hot sun, I wasn't sure if Rich would make it back to the metro alive, because I might kill him.
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| sumo stadium |
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| authentic sumo wrestlers |
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| skytree |
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| a temple |
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| having the time of his life |
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people in swan paddleboats |
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| posing with our bikes. for some reason the guy taking the pic did not think we wanted the bikes in the shot? |
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| plotting my husband's demise |
When we got back to the cycling place at the end, they gave us beer, these delicious rice crackers with cheese and almonds on them, and green tea kitkats, and I scarfed all of it and decided to let him live, at least back to the hotel because I can't navigate the metro without him.
We slowly hobbled back to the metro and the hotel by around 4:30, and crashed hard. Too tired for dinner, sunburnt and feeling like we were beaten with baseball bats, we napped, showered, and were asleep by 8.
Today (day 3) seemed like a good day to go to the Tsukiji fish market for a super early sushi breakfast since we were up by 4 am anyway. We were out the door at 5, on the metro and at the market by 6. Rich got a scallop from a roadside stand where a guy was blowtorching scallops and then we found some excellent breakfast sushi along the market street. We inhaled fish, rice and tea, and then made our way back to the hotel for second breakfast there.
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| 5 am all is quiet on the metro |
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| blowtorching scallops |
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| scallop |
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| gonna eat this |
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| nomnomnomnomnomnom |
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| these must be king crabs |
Today was my favorite excursion so far. We did a Japanese cooking class with Yuka in her home with 3 other Americans. They were all fresh out of college so we were the old couple in the group. It was a lot of fun talking with them and learning to cook teriyaki chicken and salmon, which was sooo yummy. We also made miso soup, yakisoba noodles, rice and strawberry daifuku. The best part was definitely the teriyaki salmon though, and having a lovely meal with conversation we really enjoyed. I would definitely recommend Yuka's cooking class to anyone visiting Tokyo, it was such a fun experience.
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| making the teriyaki chicken |
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| final product |
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| my teriyaki salmon. soooo good |
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| making miso soup |
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| strawberry daifuku |
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| Oh yeah, and Taylor Swift learned how to make gyoza with Yuka when she was in Tokyo. Basically, I am famous now by association. |
Then we went to the Meiji Jingu (Shrine) at Yoyogi and walked around. It was absolutely gorgeous. You walk through the gate down this shady, tree-lined path to the shrine and gardens and it is so lovely. The gardens full of irises and azalea were some of the most beautiful, peaceful places I've ever seen.
I was pretty beat after that, and Rich was dying to go to the Robot Restaurant show so he went to that without me and enjoyed it. We just need to find some dinner and our third day, Tokyo Food Glutton Day, will be complete.
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| toilet at Robot Restaurant |
