Tokyo

Ok so first of all, I went back to my old entries and added some links to photos!!

So in Tokyo, we stayed in the Oak Hotel near the Inaricho and Ueno Stations.

i ate raw fish :D

Friday, our first full day in Tokyo, we went to the Ueno Zoo. It was a very nice day and we took it kind of slow compared to our other days traveling. I was somewhat disappointed by the sign at the entrance explaining that the last of their giant pandas had recently died but soon we were inside and right away we saw red pandas and lots of birds of prey so I was quite content. The Ueno Zoo had a very impressive collection of animals. We saw giraffes, elephants, hippos, rhinos, lions, tigers and bears...  and I'm pretty sure it was my first time seeing a kangaroo. In my opinion, this zoo was right up there with the National Zoo in Washington. I can't wait to go to San Diego someday to see how it compares to them.

In Japan, especially Tokyo, they have some weird themed bars and restaurants and we wanted to check one out. Our first choice on Friday night was called Lockup, a bar where the booths are jail cells!! We couldn't get reservations tho so we tried a Gothic themed restaurant called Christon Cafe but there was a 50 minute wait so we made reservations for the the next night.

When Gregg went to Teikyo Post University in Waterbury many years ago he met a guy from Tokyo named Shogo. They lived together for a few years in Waterbury and then Shogo returned to Tokyo. Gregg has seen him a few times since he's been in Japan but I haven't seen him in many years. After dinner, we made plans to go to the bar/restaurant that Shogo owns. I was very excited, even though we couldn't always understand each other, I always thought Shogo was awesome when he lived with Gregg. Shogo's bar is called Tokyo Kazan (Tokyo Volcano) (http://r.gnavi.co.jp/b611500/) and it was a very nice place. We also met one of Gregg's very good friends, Andy, at Tokyo Kazan. I got to talking with Andy, the usual questions, how do you like Japan? what food do you like the best? etc. and so Andy told me he liked sashimi best and then Shogo heard us talking. His wife brought us a giant plate of raw fish. They were pressuring me to try some stuff but I finally did it only because I didn't want to offend Shogo or his wife. I ate some raw sea bream because they said it was the best and for some reason it made me feel better to eat something I wasn't familiar with. They were eating raw tuna and whole shrimp and roe (fish eggs)!! So gross. I have to say, the sea bream wasn't too too bad but psychologically I just don't think I could eat it again. The next thing I knew Andy had another piece of something raw and pink in front of my mouth so I had to eat that too but I just swallowed that one and tried not to think about it. The next round I had some sushi which was good. I think it was cooked crab but it may have been raw and I think it had mayo in it (they like mayo here) and it kind of just tasted like a tuna fish sandwich. It was a night of firsts for me because next we sang karaoke!! Just me, Gregg and Andy because at that time Shogo and his wife were tending to some big customers. Time flew and when we left Tokyo Kazan it was already 2am! Gregg, Andy and I decided to go to the infamous Tokyo nightclub area of Roppongi, just to experience it. We found a nice pub style club called Motown House 2 (http://www.motownhouse.com/english_f/mtown2_f/map2.htm)

It was cool, they played alot of really good music and we sang and danced for a few hours. When we went outside it was light out!!! We had stayed up all night. We ate some Turkish food and got on a train where we parted ways with Andy.

On Saturday 7/26/08, we didn't do much of anything. We slept in from the night before. It was kind of a wasted day but it made sense to stay up all night in Tokyo. We went to Christon Cafe in the Shinjuku area at 8pm like we had planned the night before. The food was good and cheap. I had a salad and pizza.

After dinner on Saturday we met up with Shogo (he closed the bar to hang out with us) and another one of Gregg's friends, Dustin. We met in an really neat little area called, Golden Gai. There were tons of tiny bars packed in together. Each one only held about ten people. There was room to sit and that was it. We started at one called the 60's bar and then went to Albatross which was the one we originally planned to go to but it was full when we first tried. It was a fun night but I was still kind of tired from the night before. Dustin and Shogo went home to their wives and we went back to the Oak Hotel.

On Sunday, we had just enough time to see one thing and Gregg let me pick and I picked Tokyo National Museum because I wanted to see a specific piece of art. I kind of breezed through the galleries because I was set on seeing "36 Views of Mount Fuji" by Hokusai which is a very famous Japanese wood block print. Eventually we asked and they told us it wasn't on display so that was kind of a drag....

Then we took an hour or so flight from Tokyo to Takamatsu (the city near Gregg's town) because it was actually cheaper than the bullet train all the way back and a waaay shorter trip than the bus.

Tokyo was pretty cool but I was not prepared for how ugly the architecture was going to be. I should say the modern architecture but most of it is modern. Gregg was saying that they don't really have any laws to preserve historic architecture which is sad. There was a recommended architecture walk that I wish we did instead of the Tokyo National Museum so I could have seen a few buildings that placed weight on form over function. Oh well!!

We're now back at Gregg's apartment and I'll update this again soon!!

xo

photos of Shibuya & Ueno Zoo-

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=63310&l=2469b&id=632006220

photos from our crazy night out:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=63376&l=a228b&id=632006220