Tokyo, Japan

We arrived in Tokyo at 7 am on Tuesday, September 23, ready for another 4 days of exploring this huge city.  We fueled up on some Starbucks coffee (we have great coffee in Cambodia, but the fact that Starbucks tastes the same all across the world is comforting when you are living abroad for a year) and hit the pavement in search of our hostel.  After about 15 or so minutes of confusion in the non-English friendly train station, we finally figured out our route and heading towards our neighborhood for the week, Asakusa.  We were exhausted when we arrived, and decided to stay close to the hostel so when check-in time arrived, we'd be close and able to rest before dinner.  Luckily, we stayed in a great, touristy area that provided a full afternoon of exploration.  First up, we visited Tokyo's oldest and most significant temple, the Senso-ji Temple which is a Buddhist temple.  It was beautiful and bustling, tons and tons of visitors were snapping pictures, paying for offerings, and burning incense.  We walked around for about a half an hour, just taking in the sights, sounds, and people before heading out to find a place to eat.  



Senso-ji Temple



People burning incense.

After lunch, we headed toward the Tokyo Sky Tree which is the tallest structure in Japan as of 2010.  It's a broadcasting tower, restaurant and observatory.  We inquired about going to the top, but were told it would be a 2 hour wait.  As I'm not one for heights, I wasn't super disappointed we decided to forgo to the sights at the top in order to explore some more of the area.  It wasn't a complete waste to walk over the Sky Tree as we found an amazing park with a HUGE slide.  Rather than let the kids have all the fun, Victoria and I both climbed the tall stairs to the top of a big steamboat-look-alike structure and gave the slide a try.  It was pretty fun!  And we got to take some cool pictures in this reflective mirror that captures the Sky Tree right behind the park.  Such a cool, artistic space in the middle of Tokyo.  Just another example of those great treasures you find when exploring on foot!



Art Park Fun 



Tokyo Sky Tree.  It's huge!

We wrapped up day one of Tokyo with some incredible food...soba noodles.  Japanese food is incredible.  It is the best thing about Japan probably.  Literally everything we ate was delicious.  We spent most lunches at 7-11s or other types of grab-and-go places just picking things off the shelf that looked yummy.  Most of the time, we weren't exactly sure what we were buying, but 9 times out of 10, we were super happy with what we ended up with!  Okay, back to the soba noodles.  We ate at this amazing, traditional Japanese soba noodle place that's been around for about 50 years.  It's very traditional in the sense that you take your shoes off at the door then sit on the floor.  We went all out on our first night in the big city, eating huge bowls of noodles, split a giant beer and a large pitcher of sake between the two of us.  We may or may not have felt a little giggly when we left :) But when in Japan....right? It was such a fun experience; there was even a geisha eating a few tables away.  We chatted, stopping every few minutes to comment on how DELICIOUS the food was, and lingered and planned the rest of the week.  It was such a fun experience.  Definitely a great start to the Tokyo leg of the trip.  



Sake and delicious Japanese beer.



My dinner companion.

Cold soba noodles with fresh seaweed.  YUM.

Day two in Tokyo was spent at the sumo wrestling tournament.  The sumo experience might have been my favorite Tokyo experience; thus, it deserves a post of its own.  We spent the day off and on at the sumo tournament, so in between we took in a few sites around the city.  Primarily, we spent most of that free time wandering around the tree space at the Royal Palace and gardens.  Living in Phnom Penh, one can feel a little deprived of fresh air and green grass so we knew while we were in Japan, we wanted to take in a lot of natural places...gardens, parks, etc.  We walked around the park for a while then took our shoes off and walked barefoot through the giant lawn.  We even laid down in the grass for a bit.  After returning to the sumo tournament for the evening matches, we left and decided to explore the Akihabara district which is essentially the electronics district of Tokyo. It's bright lights and lots of stores with tvs, cameras, speakers, etc.  We walked around (not super impressed might I add), then ducked into a tiny sushi joint that was packed.  This was the best decision we made on the entire trip.  We ate at this place twice and made quite the impression on our cute, little Japanese sushi chefs.  Although there was an language barrier, the chefs made us all kinds of new things and gave us their recommendations.  We ate our WEIGHT in sushi and spent about $10 each.  It was the best sushi of my entire life.  They also served miso soup with fresh seaweed which was incredible.  It was rainy and chilly that night so holding that warm bowl of soup was perfect.  It was so cozy and intimate inside the restaurant, and it was definitely one of the best parts of the entire trip.




Some of the sushi we enjoyed.



The sushi was fresh from the Tsukiji fish market. Yummmm



Working on our sushi.



Egg sushi, avocado sushi, and squid sushi. 

On Thursday, we dedicated a day to explore DISNEY TOKYO!  We were pretty exhausted from hustling around cities on public transportation so we decided a full day in one place sounded kinda nice.  I'm so glad we dedicated a day to Disney Sea; experiencing Disney in an Asian culture is fascinating.  EVERYONE was decked out in Disney/Mickey.  People had to have spent hundreds of dollars on merchandise; people had the ears, t-shirts, hoodies, Mickey gloves, and giant plastic characters that were actually popcorn tubs.  It was hilarious.  We stuck out because of our LACK of Disney apparel.  It was also interesting that there were wayyyy more adults than kids at the park.  Disney Sea was pretty amazing.  I didn't do a good job of taking pictures that day, but we did manage to snag a picture with some Minnie ears.  We got there at around 10 am and left at around 9:30 pm.  It was a long day, but super fun, random, and hilarious.  A day well spent.

On our last day, we just walked and walked in some electric and fun neighborhoods.  We started in Harajuku which is where the young ins' in Japan go for their crazy, cartoonish fashion.  We walked and people watched and shopped.  We found a few things and enjoyed just looking in the stores.  Japanese fashion is really edgy and crazy. I absolutely love people watching and Tokyo is one of the best places to do that!  We then headed over to Shibuya crossing which is the business intersection in Tokyo.  We sat up in a Starbucks that overlooked the crossing and watched the lights changed for about 30 minutes.  Every time the lights change, a couple hundred people walk across the street in all directions.  It is incredible!  I know this sounds super lame, but it was so fun to watch.  There is no one there, then there are A MILLION PEOPLE, then they are all gone on their separate ways.  Finally, we ended back up at our favorite sushi restaurant to chow down on one last glorious meal of sushi.



Harajuku Fashion



Crazy clothes in Harajuku



Shibuya Crossing

Overall, Victoria and I loved Japan.  I felt like we did so much but only saw the tip of the iceberg.  I would love to return to Japan one day.  It's one of my favorite countries that I've visited!