Monday, February 2, 2009

Japan Day 1

Look at me, getting this blog up just a week after our trip!! (If you saw exactly how many photos I had to sort through to bring you this post you would be excited for me, too!) Just to reiterate Sam's earlier entry, we had an a-mazing time on our trip!

So, here we are on the train to our hostel from the airport. The subway system in Tokyo is much more confusing than Seoul, but we literally had NO problem getting to Asukusa Smile!


Mkay, y'all, I'm not gonna lie. Our room was tee-niny. I would have had Sam stand in the room while I took this, but then the picture would have just been a photo of Sam's chest... let's just say I took this standing in the hall, and that suitcase is pressed all the way up against the wall. However, other than the small-ness of the room we really enjoyed our hostel. The showers were hot and clean, the lobby/lounge was nice, and the location was actually pretty good!


After we checked into the hostel we hit the road pretty immediately and headed out to Harajuku. It was packed on a Saturday night, and we had a lot of fun people watching. I couldn't stop staring at everyone who was dressed so differently from each other! I mean, I love Seoul's style, but things are pretty mono-chromatic here and everyone pretty much sticks to the same general style, but in Tokyo there was so much color and variation!
After passing like the 12th crepe stand we gave in. We went for the strawberry/chocolate/ice cream/whipped cream variation there.
I apparently loved it so much I had to make crazy eyes while eating it.
But Sam loved it enough to wear a tiny bit on his lip. Needless to say it was de-licious! (This picture also demonstrates that Sam is still really tall and I'm still short.)

The crepe served as a nice appetizer and as we walked we discussed what we should have for dinner. In the course of conversation we wondered whether Tokyo had different western chains than Seoul. Sam actually said, "Oh man, if they have Wendy's or Taco Bell I would probably have to eat there!" Well, wouldn't you know what we saw when we turned the corner! So, yes, we ate Wendy's for our first night in Tokyo. Feel free to judge.
Then we just continued to wander and wander and wander. Lonely Planet gave typically crappy directions, but we were having a good time just soaking in a new city so it didn't perturb us too much.



We were pretty beat by this point, and new that we were going to have an early date with the snow monkeys the next morning, so we headed back to our bunks for a good night's sleep... thanks to our ear plugs :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ohhhh man, love those crazy small hostel rooms. glad you gave in on the crepes ... one can only hold out for so long!