Gojira wa doka?
Trip Start
Feb 28, 2009
1
55
63
Trip End
Aug 06, 2009
Where I stayed
Metropolitan Hotel
Tokyo, Kanto, Japan
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Another all day travel day from Beijing to Tokyo. We found a sweet porcelain and blue glaze dragon rice wine bottle in the airport for $10 but because we had a layover in Seoul, we weren't allowed to purchase it...I'm still bummed. We were in Seoul for 3 hours because our plane was delayed an hour in Beijing. We found a Korean Cultural Center in the Airport...stellar idea...we were able to pass some time by gluing together paper to make traditional Korean socks. Its funny though, on the package it says "Traditional Korean Socks Cellphone Accessory" It was actually a really super nice airport, they had "relax lounges" and free wifi zones, so if you do have a long layover have it in Seoul. Korean Air was very nice too, lots of legroom, actual cup holders!, and free beer! We finally make it to Narita airport and make it through customs and immigration with 20 minutes to spare to figure out our Rail Passes, which took another 10 minutes to figure out and barely made the last train into the city. The attendant was quite annoyed with our butchering the word Ikebukuro and being franticly impatient. Thankfully she was able to figure out where we intended to go and we were able to get on the last train into city and off at the Metropolitan Hotel.
First thing we noticed right away about Japan/Japanese (getting off the airplane) is how polite they are....sooooooo nice and refreshing after just surviving China. Another thing we noticed in the airport: they know how to queue! And we are super stoked that we can once again use tap water to drink and brush our teeth, thats been quite awhile. Our first day in Japan began with a quest to find Godzilla. We had read other blogs and articles which were very helpful in describing the location. He is located in Ginza next to Kitchen Corner, across from Toho Building and down the street from Imperial Hotel. He was sedate after presumably an all night rager about town and allowed us to pose with him. Greg was very happy. We stumbled upon the Sony Building and went inside for a look-see at the newfangled products set at a future release. We were a little disappointed there wasn't something absolutely crazy never before seen, but it was cool to play with the HD Video Camcorders. The place was set up as an Aquarium, a future aquarium with HD TV monitors of fishies, probably the wave of the future as Japan successfully diminishes the whale and shark species. They did have an impressive 3D aquarium setup, best 3D we've seen, better than Captain Neo.
We then took the metro to the Shibuya district for a walk around and an exotic lunch at Wendys! Had to represent Ohio, couldn't resist. They have loads of crazy eateries that we haven't figured out yet. You punch in your order and pay at a vending machine and then walk inside to a very small, sometimes standing only restaurant or very small restaurant with a counter and stools. I love how the billboards, ads, and just decorations are Japanese Anime cartoons or just hilarious. Even the buses and trains are adorned with Pokemon and cute kitty cats. They also love Disney here, and we popped inside a very cool one, very whimsical, how all Disney stores should be. We walked to Harajuku, I was bummed that the Lolita Goths usually make an appearance on Sundays so we will be missing them both visits. The area had loads of cool shops, kinda like Hot Topic/Spencers but loads better. This was a full day of walking around, 11 hours, we got advice from a Westerner at the train station and took the faster JR train using our rail pass, we were a little confused about the passes. That was twice we were given or asked for help, very nice city folk. Tokyo is badass, freaking awesome.
