Weekend in Tokyo

It was an amazing trip to Tokyo which was really different from the confines of Toronto. 
When I first arrived, it was about a 1.5hr trip to the Shibuya which was where I thought I was staying at the time.  I think they gave me the wrong subway stn, where I found out that there was an express that they didn't tell me about when I asked them how to get to Shibuya!
I found a tourist booth along the train system and finally was able to look for a hostel.  I decided I might as well live the experience of a capsule hotel (which is pretty much a hotel coffin). It was quite an experience as they gave me a fairly  'Japanese' capsule hotel since all I saw were a ton of Japanese businessmen and one token white boy.  I talked to the white boy from San Fran since he was the only one to speak english and I didn't know how to checkin, so that night, we went for some authentic Ramen and it was awesome! Best Mr. Noodles i've had in my life! We also hit up a bar after, where we challenge ourselves to outdrink all the asians. Everyone was ordering this tall tube of beer which is approximately 2L, so I wanted to see if I could outpace the 2 Japanese sharing it....so essentially drinking at double the pace, and of course, we took them out and finished way before them!
For most meals during my trip, I went to Japanese fast food. The meals ranged from sushi, ramen, to rice topped with some meat.  A lot of places are vending machine based, which was awesome, since I would never have the communication barrier and order the wrong thing. Most of the time, i'd just wait till someone goes to the vending machine and just order what he ordered afterwards. It seemed like the safest thing to do. Half the time, they had pictures anyways, but a lot of the time, I didn't know what the meat was.

First Night - The Capsule hotel
This place was different than any other place i've stayed. You booked your room at a vending machine and you got a small locker where you could store your stuff which had a towel and a robe for you to wear around. You weren't allowed to wear shoes around, so hopefully the floor was somewhat clean.   I took the bottom bunk, which I felt bad about after since a drunk businessman could've used the bottom (just in case he can't make it to the top due to the intoxication =P )
*You wonder why the drink so much in Japan (seems like every night).  Apparently  most  businessmen can't refuse drinks from a boss at all, so they end up getting drunk, and its cheaper for them to stay in the capsule rather  than commute back home at night. 

Akihabara - Electronics District
I took the JR train to Akihabara the next morning which is Tokyo's electronics district. They had a ton of stuff, a lot of arcades and just any kind of electronics you could think of.  There were so many phones, mp3 players, TVs, that were so sophisticated. I guess we'll be seeing this stuff in Canada a few years later.   Overall a great area, but I didn't buy anything since I started to realize that whatever I got, i'd have to carry with me for weeks in Thailand (and it's way cheaper over there).

Ueno
I stopped in Ueno to look around not knowing exactly what was there.  There was this huge park and the Ueno Zoo which I walked around for most of the day, looking at some temples in the park.  Actually, now that I think about it, I don't even know if it's called Ueno park. I just saw it in a travel guide and assumed this was the park! There was so much walking though. I think by the end of this trip, i'm gonna look either really skinny, or really ripped =)
I almost got hit by a car on the way to the park too. Since I was so used to jaywalking in Toronto, the walk/stop signs mean nothing to me.  Note to self: the red walk sign means "dont go"....green means "go" haha. I never made that mistake again for the rest of the trip.

Shibuya
I walked around Shibuya for part of the day. This seemed to be a place where a lot of Japanese shopping was held. There was this place called Shibuya 109. When I saw the map, all 109 stores were for women, so I had no idea where else to go, so I just walked around trying to find places to go. 
I walked by the intersection across from Shibuya stn.  It was crazy, as when the pedestrian light turns green, everyone walks from all directions...they have a lot of streets like that.  This one in particular is supposed to be the busiest intersection in the world  and its just amazing to see so many people walking in one spot of the city.
There was this hill in Shibuya which had most of Tokyo's love hotels. I was told that people take various women there for sex. It's not as ghetto as the hooker hotels, but it's one step up.  It seems like it's generally accepted there, so people would take their woman (either girlfriend, one night stand, mistress) to this place for the night (since they most likely live at home with their parents or live pretty far away from this area...hmmm sounds a lot like Calgary!). 

Shinjuku
I got back from Ueno after walking for about 12-14 hours straight and proceeded to my hotel to sleep before my friend Young from Korea met up that night. We stayed at the Shinjuku Prince Hotel, which was supposed to be a 4.5 star hotel, I guess compared to Cdn standards would be a 2.5-3 star hotel. The rooms were small, with 2 single beds (and barely enough for the 2 single beds and a TV).  We were right beside the red light district, so we had easy access to those guys on the street trying to sell you sex and whatever else you wanted. There were a lot of small shops, bars and restaurants. 

Roppongi
We met up with some of Young's counterpart coworkers in Tokyo who he communicates with at Morgan Stanley. It was nice since they were able to tell us of places to go. We met up a Roppongi hills,which has some pretty cool and modern buildings and a good view of Tokyo Tower. They took us to this  restaurant  called Gonpachi, which was crazy expensive (about $100 CDN for our meal), but I saved a lot of money, since we were their 'guests', they paid for the whole thing!  I kinda felt bad after, but it was still a great place to eat and saved me money still since I was thinking about splurging on the $200 Kobe beef meal on Byron's advice.  It was also the best sushi that i've ever had.  They were telling us that this is where the Japanese president took GW. Bush to on his visit to Tokyo (I wasn't that excited about it)...but then later on, we were told that it was the basis for the movie "Kill Bill vol.1". Remember, the scene where Uma Thurman was fighting the Akuza gang in that wooden 2 storey warehouse thing?  They made a replica of this place and had the fight in there.

Harajuku
Harajuku was a bunch of high end shopping places with again, a ton of people. No, I didn't see the Harajuku girls from Gwen Stefani's band..=(
I finally made my one purchase for the trip and bought a new pair of shoes after finding this Puma store which took forever to find. Apparently it was one of two concept stores in the world, but did't look like it to me.  Young and I just sat out in the café and relaxed after a long day of walking, had a few beers, and a small meal.

Mad rush to the airport!
I decided to leave 3 hours before my flight (takes 1.5 hrs to get to the airport) just to be safe, but it ended up taking forever. I walked from my hotel to Shinjuku station and couldn't find the Airport Limuosine which was supposed to be there somewhere. It also didn't help that I couldn't find the JR entrance for the station so I walked around the whole station and finally found it.  I took the airport express which didn't leave until an hour later...then I knew I was in trouble. I'd be arriving at the airport for my Bangkok flight for 45 mins before my flight. I was in a mad rush. I was getting worried and had to plan out exactly what documents I needed ready. Once it arrived, I sprinted to the checkin, customs, and security with my huge backpack! I was so tired during and after I made my flight since my feet were so sore already from all that walking! 
They didn't seem like in a rush to get me through customs, which I thought at the time was wierd, but the lines flow through fast here (compared to some of the angry US customs officers that you see).  So I got through the lineup fast since, got all my gels and liquids taken away (so now i'm in search for new stuff in Bangkok).  Flight was great and now i'm in Thailand starting another 2 weeks where another friend is meeting up with me in a few days......