Day 1 in Tokyo

So you have to love jet lag!  I was up at around 4:30, but fought for sleep till 7.  Finally I gave in and headed out.  After another money stop, I was already a little droopy so I decided to just have a walking around random day.  I didn't want to waste any interesting stops on my drowsy day.

Headed to a couple of shrines in the neighborhood, which were all very quite.  Since I am not staying in the city center it is never super busy.

I was in desperate need of food and caffeine, so despite the heresy involved, I got food from McD's.  I know I know, not one of my finer moments.  But it was necessary!

Took the subway to the Shinjuku neighborhood, which is the fancy pants part of town.   Lots of expensive shops and women dressed to impress.  (I have lots of random observations about Japan from today, but an to tired to do a full, in depth, and interesting post so that will be tomorrow maybe.)

Then I headed to the Isetan department store, which is the equivalent of Neiman Marcus or Saxs.  The basement level of almost every department store is filled with food.  And in the case of Isetan, VERY nice food.  I walked around and taking tons of photos and buying pastry.  It will definitely require another stop, I didn't even make a dent in the options.

Took my loot and headed to one of the big downtown parks.  It is very simple in its decoration, not like a traditional Japanese park at all actually.  Rather similar to central park of the like. Walked around and stopped to enjoy a couple of goodies.  I debated doing ramen, which was obviously one of my main goals, but I was way to hot to enjoy it.  i may have to alter that plan a little, which is unfortunate.  I hadn't fully though through the soup in 90 degree weather thing!

The day rounded out with a long convoluted train ride back to my art of town, then photo sorting.  I had intentions of going out again tonight for neon sign photos, but I would be sleep walking.

So with that boring and straight forward telling of events, I am off the bed.  Tomorrow is going to involve Harijuku I believe, but we will see!

Arrival in Tokyo

For some reason it takes forever to upload photos to the blog from Japan, who knows why.  Because of that I will put photos up on Facebook for now.  This will just be the commentary!


So I did eventually land in Japan.  The flight was about 5 hours late, but they provided us with a delicious (haha) noodle and potsticker meal.  Complete with potato chips!

Once landed and through customs, it was an hour and a half subway ride into town and my designated hostel.   I had some cash issues, because the atms weren't accepting my card, so that was another hour of challenges.  Finally at about 1:30 am I was able to nod off......

Hot and Bored On the Plane....

So leg one of my flying is done.  I'm in Chicago and on the plane waiting to head to Tokyo.  We are about four hours late and still waiting.  But at least there is potential to be on the way soon now that we are actually on the plane.  So as long as I dont die of heat stroke, I will be in Japan in about 12 hours.

I will arrive at about 6pm, so day one will only consist of: finding my hostel, buying toiletries, dinner, and sleep.  

I will post again when I have had adventures worth sharing!

Ta-Da!!

So I am assuming you are here because the link on my other blog actually worked!   Which is a lucky thing, what with my wonderfull blogging skills and all.

Anyway, I am off to Asia in 48 hours and 25 minutes, which is rather daunting.  Not because of the actual traveling, but because of the monstorous to-do list that must be accomplished before I leave.   I haven't gotten anywhere near even starting to pack yet!  (And when I do pack it all has to fit in one suitcase, can you imagine!?)

When I leave Charlotte on Thursday my first destination is Japan.   I will get to Tokyo at 3 pm on Friday afternoon, which is going to make for one seriously long flight.  I am going to have five full days in Tokyo and a day in Kamakura to break things up.   I was hoping to go to Kyoto, which is still one of my favorite places, but the train price/time was not worth it on such a short trip.  So instead I am focusing my time in Japan on two main things:

Ramen....

That perfect food.  Rich broth, chewy noodles, crispy pork, spicy crunchy yummy toppings.  I will happily subsist on this.

And Pastry....

No surprise here right?  And the pastry of Tokyo can rival that of Paris, so I intend to make extensive and in-depth comparisons! :)

So I'm thinking it is going to be a very delicious and fattening few days.  Of course I will intersperse all the gorging with things like culture, art, nature, all that good stuff.  But I would be lying if I didn't admit that this is going to be all about the goodies.

My specific goal?  12 ramen shops and 7 pastry shops in 6 1/2 days.   Possible?   I have no idea, But I am going to give it a good faith effort!

And on that delicious note, I really do have to start ticking things off my ever growing to-do list.