Tokyo! - Day 1

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of traveling to Tokyo, Japan for the weekend (in case you weren't aware) with Liz and Zach. Liz and I left Dongbaek on the airport bus at around 7:00 a.m. and arrived at the Seoul airport around 9 am as traffic was pretty bad. We checked in with no problems, cleared immigration, and made it to our gate for our 11:05 am flight without any problems. Zach flew on Friday because he was able to get on an earlier flight for free because his dad works for United!

Here we are on Liz's third ever plane ride! (Her first and second were on her way to move to Korea for a year! Isn't she the bravest?)

Upon arrival in Japan, clearance of immigration and customs, we followed Zach's instructions to buy a calling card, call his friend Yuko Ono on her cell phone, and let them know when we would be arriving at Shinjuku station to meet them. Zach had e-mailed us upon his arrival in Tokyo letting us know that he wouldn't be meeting us at the airport and gave us instructions on how to get to Shinjuku station, where he would meet us. We did so, boarded our train and got comfortable for our 1.5 hour train ride into Tokyo.

Here are some of our fellow passengers. The swine flu masks are hilarious to me. I want to pull them down, cough, in their face and say: "You live in one of the most densely populated cities in the world! The mask won't save you!" But, they wouldn't understand me because they don't speak English, so I don't say anything I just laugh inside.

We met Zach and Yuko at Shinjuku station by a stroke of luck/utter genius common sense. You see, when we called Yuko's cell phone, she didn't answer so we left a message saying we were boarding the 3:15 fast train and would meet them at the platform at 4:40. Zach told us in his e-mail that the fast train left once in hour at quarter after and was 1:25 minutes long. Turns out, we bought cheaper tickets on the slower train, but it left at 2:45. We arrived at Shinjuku station at 4:30, and had no idea where to go because we took a different train than we had been instructed by Zach's e-mail. As I searched dutifully for it, I realized I had left my notebook with Yuko's phone number and the calling card by the payphone at the airport. Basically, we were both on the verge of panic, but had to go to the bathroom really badly. So, we found the nearest toilet, but it was the squatter kind so I refused and walked back out into the main lobby to think up a plan. I wanted to come up with one and pretend to be calm before Liz returned from the bathroom. Then, like a flash of lightening my eyes fell on one of the 18 million signs that directed passengers to the 18 million subway lines that met at this station. The one that caught my attention had an arrow pointing up an escalator and the words next to it said: Airport Express Bus. We followed the arrows until we found the terminal that we should have been on in the first place. We also found Zach, just as the train he told us to be on rolled in! It was PERFECT!!!! We saved $20 on train tickets and had no problems finding him! I keep thinking about what would have happened if I hadn't refused to use the squatters...

Yuko and Zach took us straight to our capsule hotel on Akebonobashi. It was two stops up on the subway so it only took us about 10 minutes to get there. We stayed at the Ace Inn Shinjuku. We paid for two nights, received our keys, and made our way up to our "rooms." My bed number was 608 and Liz's was 614 (Zach stayed with Yuko in her itty bitty apartment). We had NO idea what to expect. This is what we saw.

The rooms:

Me in cozy 608:

These are the sinks we used to brush our teeth, etc. There were surprisingly clean showers on the first floor we could use for 100 yen (about $1) for ten minutes. Behind these sinks, were about 6 bathroom stalls with normal western toilets! Well, almost normal. Japan has lots of fancy buttons on their toilets. Many come equipped with heated seats, and automatic bidets and dryers. Kind of shocks you a bit at first!

Here are the lockers. Each bed is assigned one. Your room numbers correspond with the locker number. We shoved all of our stuff in, and made our way back downstairs to Zach and Yuko. We had no idea where we were going, but hoped dinner was in store!

We headed for Asakusa, where we pretended to not be as hungry as we were as we made our way to Nakamise-Dori, which is the road leading to Senso-ji Temple. Today, it is lined with touristy sounvenir shops, but it is symbolic of the food and travel item shops that lined the street when people of long ago and not so long ago would make pilgrimmages to the temple. Here we are at the beginning of the road: Liz, Molly, Zach (Jack)

Here is the north-facing side of the first gate to the temple (Hozoman). It was absolutely beautiful. This gate has been rebuilt a few times because of destructions from wars and fires, but is now built to be fire-proof, so all of the relics and the important documents from the temple are stored in the upper story of this gate.

Once through the gate, to the immediate right was a five-storied pagoda. I don't know much more about it, except that it looked really cool and it's five-storied pagoda.

In the foreground of this photo is a large stove of sorts that burns incense all the time. The smoke from the incense is to help heal and strengthen wherever you shoo the smoke. Yuko said if you had a headache, or wanted to be smarter, you'd waft the smoke to your head. She also mentioned that she wafts the smoke to her breasts regularly, and they haven't grown yet. In the background is the south-facing side of the Hozoman. The actual temple was under construction and was all boarded up so we didn't get to see it. Normally, this might have bothered me, but I was STARVING!

Yuko grew up in Asakusa so we went to one of her favorite restaurants. I have no idea what the name of it was, or if it even had one, but here is what it looked like on the outside:

Liz Teacher and Molly Teacher are all smiles despite their growling stomachs:

Jack Teacher poored us some sake, which warmed our empty stomachs right up. I prefer it to Korean soju, I think, as it has a bit more of a wine flavor to it. They also serve it warmed or cold, which is fun to mix things up.

Our meal consisted of a few different trays, mostly varieties of chicken. We also ordered some eel and rice, and some pasta. It was delicious and I gobbled it too fast to actually pay attention to what any of it was. Sorry.

Next, we headed to Roppongi. Roppongi is an area of town that is known for it's nightlife. We passed a karaoke bar and I snapped a shot to show you how tall it was! Karaoke is a Japanese word. "Kara" means empty and "oke" means orchestra. The "karaoke bars" in Japan and Korea (they are called noribongs here) are actually just karaoke rooms that you rent out with your friends. Each room as a karaoke machine that keeps score. The building's also have a bar where you can buy refreshments, beer and snacks if you'd like. We skipped it in Japan, because we had just been to one in Korea on Wednesday and were still trying to get our voices back. Here's the one we passed:

Yuko wanted us to go to Roppongi because it was her favorite view of Tokyo Tower. I loved it, too. I was shooting pics of it the whole time we were there. Roppongi was SO BUSY! Here's one of them:

We strolled around Roppongi, ignoring cat calls from foreigners and then made our way to Tokyo Midtown. It had this really interesting piece of architecture so I snapped a shot as we all stopped to rest our feet for a bit.

Then, we went our separate ways home. Liz and I made it back with no problems and a subway map. We were exhausted and were to meet Zach and Yuko at 10 am the next day, so we scurried home and crashed in our little bedrooms. It's funny how traveling wears you out so much!

Tokyo! - Day 2 coming soon!