Whirlwind Tokyo, Day 2.

luckily, we were able to sleep a bit later this morning and headed out just in time to catch the morning ritual of the Japanese department store.

Every morning, when the department stores open at 10 AM, the entire staff lines up along the aisles to greet the incoming guests. As you walk by, each employee bows and tells you good morning as royal and heroic music plays loudly throughout the store. Sure beats fighting the crowds for a doorbuster sale at Macys or Bloomingdales.

Next, we went to Harajuku, the epicenter of Tokyo youth culture. It seems there any people over the age of 16 in this neighborhood. Many of the girls are decked out in very short layered skirts and some are in full out costumes. The main street is a narrow pedestrian walkway lined with "trendy" clothing shops and cafes, but mainly it is wall-to-wall teenagers.

We passed by a small side street where people seemed to be gawking at something--or someone as it turned out.

If you can't tell from this small picture, he was an outrageous looking guy with spiky hair, tight pants and very heavy makeup and apparently a member of a popular boy band called "Loudly Riot". We encountered two other members of the band, equally flamboyant, hidden around the area. They were having a contest to see who could get a stamp from each member of the band. I'm unclear of what the prize was, but the teen aged girls seemed to be loving it. As did Will, who got 3 stamps:

On the other side of teen central, we saw the Togo Shrine, dedicated to the general who defeated the Russian army in the Russo-Japanese war.

It was a very peaceful place--quite a contrast to its neighbor. When we arrived, there was a wedding party having a photo shoot. The bride was in a hooded white gown and the groom seemed to American (or at least not Japanese) since he had blonde hair and his mom was wearing a bright floral dress.

On the other side of the shrine was a flea market. We got lucky because the market happens the first Sunday of every month, which this just happened to be. Each vendor had all kinds of antique Japanese items including fans, teapots, instruments, cameras, jewelry, art, etc. we bought a teapot and a print that was originally a age from the book that was published 105 years ago (if I understood the vendor correctly), and a copy of the record "Let It Be" with Japanese writing.

On our way back to the train station, we finally found a real noodle place. It was somewhat touristy, but it was delicious, and by far the least challenging meal of the trip.

We had just enough time to get our bags, hop on the Narita Express train to the airport. And after the active 2 days of running around, nothing was more welcome than being able to sit for 13 hours.

What a day. We covered so much ground, but probably just barely scratched the surface.

We started with a 6:30 AM visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market-- truly one of the most unique experiences I've ever had.

We walked around to see the fresh catch of the day which included giant tuna (probably around 6 feet long), eels that were still squirming, shrimp, and every other type of seafood you could ever imagine, and some you could never imagine.

The atmosphere in the market was nothing short of frantic. Workers were moving quickly in all directions through the aisles by foot and on motorized fork lifts. As Jason said, you really had to keep your head on a swivel, or get pushed out of the way or worse, hit by a fast moving forklift.

On the outskirts of the market are several small counter-style restaurants serving sushi breakfast straight from the market. We sat down, four across, and ordered a set meal. I could only identify one or two of the pieces on my plate, but it was all so fresh and delicious.

The first of many signs with funny attempts at colloquial English:

From there, we took the subway to Asakusa where we saw the Kaminaron Gate:

All of the Japanese people taking pictures seem to be giving peace signs and doing crazy poses like this:

The gate leads to a long path with vendors selling souvenirs and cool sunglasses:

And the Sensoji Temple, a Buddhist temple dedicated to Goddess Kannon:

There was a fountain and a well filled with incense--each are meant to have healing powers. People were putting the water and smoke on the areas that were hurt or needed healing (including Jason):

After touring the temple, it was just time for the Kabuki-za Theater's matinee performance. Once we arrived at the theater, we waited in the line for a few minutes, but then the show was completely sold out. So instead, we walked over to the Imperial Palace.

The park leading up to the palace was very lush, green and peaceful. It was very hard to get a real glimpse of the palace, but from what we could see, it was beautiful and serene.

The next stop was lunch. We attempted to find a noodle shop listed in the guide book. This proved to be a serious challenge. Although many restaurants have English names, those names are not written anywhere in English characters on the outside of the restaurant. Not that we expected everyone (or anyone) to speak English, but the language barrier was a problem when looking for a specific place, like a restaurant.

After much walking, and no clue if we were going in the right direction, Hannah looked into the window of a small non-descript building and exclaimed "people are eating noodles in here!". So we went in, pointed to something on the menu and hoped for the best. We ended up with a plate of vegetable tempura and plain soba noodles--cold. It was good, but nothing terribly exciting. The four men at the table next to ours seemed to have made a better choice with an exotic smelling soup which they slurped at high volume.

Once we had refueled, we made our way to Akihabara, Electric City. Now this neighborhood is exactly like you might picture Japan. Electronics stores abound, hordes of people crowd the sidewalks and girls dressed as anime characters, school girls and french maids are all over the place. what a scene!

Seeking something a bit more relaxing, we hopped on the subway to Shinjuku where we took the elevator up to the observation deck on the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. It isnt until you are at the top of the tallest building in the city, until you realize the size and density of Tokyo. Unfortunately, it was quite foggy, so the view of Mt. Fuji was obscured.

When we came back down and passed the visitor's center, we saw a table with this sign:

So we did as it said:

We went next door to the Grand Hyatt to see about having a drink at the hotel bar from Lost in Translation, but apparently t-shirts and sneakers don't fit their dress code. Which turned out to be fine since we were all completely exhausted.

We headed back to the hotel, walking through the blocked off streets in Ginza:

to rest, shower and get ready for our Kaseiki dinner.

After a few hours rest, we hopped into a taxi to take us to Maru, a restaurant we had reserved before the trip. The meal was Kaiseki style, which is a traditional Japanese meal of many small course. Each course is beautifully presented and carefully selected based on season. I had high expectations based on a blog post I had read about this place and this style of eating.

We started with a small carafe of sake, which was very sweet. As the courses began to arrive, it became very clear that this meal was not for the faint of heart. We were the only non-Japanese people in the restaurant and the waitress had very few words to describe what we were being served. while it was all beautiful, it was a serious adventure trying to identify each piece on the plate. Some were good, but many were quite strong for our American palate. Other courses looked delicious, but tasted horrible--for example, a creamy custard that looked like a dessert, but actually contained a very fishy type of fish.

The things we could identify that tasted good included tomatoes in vinegar, pickled vegetables,sahshimi and grilled barracuda.

Once we made it through two long hours of courses (and our neighbors at the next table chain smoking about 2 packs of cigarettes), the waitress finally brought a big container of steamed white rice. I have never been so happy to see such a plain food. It was expertly cooked and delicious, but also a real reprieve from all of the pungent and unidentifiable foods.

Overall, I'm glad we experienced this style of meal and I am sure we tasted things we never otherwise would have (raw squid sashimi!). So even though it wasn't my favorite meal to taste, it sure was memorable.

From the restaurant, we headed otu in search of a karaoke bar. we walked down to Shinjuku and then took the subway to Ropponggi, a popular neighborhood for ex-pats in Japan. The subways stop running promptly at midnight and you must catch the last train or you will be stuck, so there was a high energy in the train station.

Once we made it to Roppongi, we found a karaoke bar, but the four of us were all so exhausted from 12 hours of sightseeing and a 3 hour dinner experience we decided it wasn't worth it to stay, especially because it was only private room karaoke, so we could have been anywhere singing to each other.

We jumped in a taxi and even though everyone was half asleep, the radio started playing PeterCetera's "Glory of Love" and next thing you know all four of us are singing along. So, in the end we got our Japanese karaoke experience.

So here we are in Tokyo.

After arriving at Narita airport (which is an hour outside of the city), we took the train into town. The train station reminded me of Penn Station at rush hour, but once we took the escalator out of the station, I was expecting to be met with a crush of people. Instead, we came out on a quiet street of a business district with a few taxis and a handful of commuters. After a short taxi ride, and a difficult communication with a taxi driver, we arrived at the Hotel Monterrey Ginza where we freshened up from the flight and headed out in search of dinner.

Everything I read about Tokyo said that if New York is the city that never sleeps, Tokyo is ten times as energetic and awake. This may be true, but that doesn't mean its easy to find dinner past 9 PM. After walking around for no less than an hour, we came across a sushi bar with 4 open seats.

Luckily, the sushi chef spoke a little English, and the menu had some pictures, so we were in luck. We ordered three maki rolls (tuna, salmon, and salmon skin) and asked the chef for three of his choice (prawn, eel, and a special roll that the chef couldn't describe in English, but it had some sort of delicious fish and avocado). It was all very fresh and delicious and also a bargain--$30 for all six rolls.

From there we went straight back to the hotel and crashed for the night.