Tokyo

As you have probably seen on facebook, last weekend I went to Tokyo by myself and had an amazing time! The trip was full of randomness and a lot of me not knowing what the hell was going on, but luckily my infectious smile spread throughout Tokyo and they all loved me (or so I will like to think!! Why I will think this I do not know, since the most interaction I had with anyone was in stores where they basically asked me if i needed help, to which i stood blankly until they went away JK!).

Anyways, I boarded the Sakura bus (about 20$ to Tokyo) in Aizu Wakamatsu at 845 Saturday morning after a full out sprint to the train station in Bandai thinking I was going to be late but made it there with a bunch of time to spare. I saw a couple of my students at the station and was a little embarrassed by my winded state! Well from this point until arriving to Tokyo was extremely uneventful. I sat next to some old woman who might have been mute/deaf/or something else because sometimes she would talk, sometimes she would grunt and sometimes she would flail while talking to the woman across the aisle who I assume may have been her daughter... A rather uneventful time, until you start climbing the multi story highways, and start to feel slightly overwhelmed by the megalopolis that you know is right around the corner.

Getting off the bus, I realised it was raining but figured it was nothing for my trusty rain coat couldn't handle and headed down to the underground to Tokyo station to catch a subway to my hotel. Still no problems! Can you believe it! I got to my station in Shinjuku and exited only to realise it was no longer raining, but was TYPHOONING right over my head! I'm pretty sure my "waterproof" jacket was designed for rain, and not typhoons, so I got a little bit wet while walking well past my hotel, only to realise it was 6 streets back... oh well, the rain was - er - refreshing?

Got to the hotel finally and found out that check in wasn't until 4 PM, and they strictly followed this rule so they sent me out, into the typhoon, to fend for myself! Ahh well, with my trusty rain coat, 3 umbrellas (2 of them were a sacrifice to the typhoon) and my phrase book I was off to pound the streets of Tokyo in search of whatever the city has to offer (and it has everything). Something weird I noticed while in the typhoon is that every time you enter a store you have to put your umbrella in a bag, and then proceed to throw it out once you leave the store! Very wasteful if you ask me. The rain was really discouraging, and I found myself really not in the mood for anything other than chilling in my hotel room, watching shows I had downloaded... So after my dinner at WENDYS (God best hamburger I have had in 3 months) I headed back to the room and chilled.

The typhoon finally cleared up a bit for the night time, so I headed out again to see Tokyo at night. It is a completely different place at night than in the day. There are BRIGHT light, crowded, drunken streets, hostess bars, all you can drink bars, and lights! (I mentioned it twice on purpose because there are so freakin many!) Stayed out for a bit and then came back, gave a drunk dial and headed to bed.

One thing I noticed while walking around the streets is the cars in Tokyo are quite different than up here in Aizu! In Aizu you see plenty of very small cars and hatchbacks while in Tokyo you see Mercedes, BMW 7-series, Maybachs, and other luxury cars! A very different driving atmosphere than up here!

Sunday was my day to do some sight seeing and shopping. I woke up pretty early and took the subway over to Asakusa, Tokyo's oldest and biggest shrine. The street leading up to it is FULL of tourist shops that were all busy, making me think that the Japanese are the world's favorite tourists! I then looked around the area since it was only 12 PM and found a pretty nice park along the river, right across from the giant sperm! :p

After that I headed to the Imperial Palace. It's kinda a cool place, but everything is behind a giant brick wall so you can only see the giant gates inside. It is open 2 days a year - the emperor's bday and new years day but both times I will be out of the country :( There was also a really huge park right in front of the palace, but it was PURELY for looking at and had a barrier the whole way around it!

Well the rest of the day involved walking around Harajuku and Shibuya looking for some stuff to buy. Frankly, I was overwhelmed with it all and only managed to buy 2 tshirts, which are going to be way too small for us! Meh, they're still cool and can make good decoration or something.

So to summarize, Tokyo is awesome! I loved it, and cant wait to go back soon! My next trip will be to Osaka at the end of November for a long overdue reunion with Amy Baker and the rest of the Toronto Jets. I'm very excited about that!