This week was pretty uneventful at work. Business as usual for the most part. I did manage to get some things taken care of during my off time though. I finally ordered my plane tickets to Malaysia for my week off in August. Buying the tickets was quite a headache. My bank card has some security settings that would not allow me to buy the tickets. I thought it was a problem with the airline at first so I called them to begin with. I had to wait until their normal business hours though, since I was trying to order them offline in the middle of the night when I noticed my card didn’t work. When I finally reached someone at the airline who could speak English, they told me that they often have trouble with American cards because of their security settings. She said I would have to call my bank and get them to clear it for me. I had to wait until the next night after work to call my bank back home during their business hours. I finally talked to them and they said they would clear my card so I would then be able to order the tickets. Finally. I bought my tickets. After spending all the time on hold waiting for people to allow me to spend my money, the tickets had went up in price by almost $100. I was a bit annoyed, but when the transaction finally went through I was very relieved…. Then I had to call my bank again this morning and wait on hold yet again because they sent me a notice alerting me of “potential fraudulent charges”, saying that they would cancel the transactions if I did not call to confirm. Now that all of that is out of the way, I can actually start planning the more entertaining details of my trip. In addition to the Malaysia tickets, I bought some tickets to go to Tokyo for the weekend. I was debating between taking the bullet train and the night bus, but when I saw that a round trip journey on a night bus was about 2/3 the price of a one way bullet train ticket my debate ended quite abruptly. I ordered tickets for my training buddy Greg as well. I spent a solid chunk of money on just transportation reservations last week. It is nice to have it all taken care of, but I think I will stick to a nice diet of instant ramen for a few weeks and let my wallet get some rest. I did manage to celebrate Independence Day as well. I went to the convenience store and bought a corndog and something American to wash it down. I even found a YouTube video of Slash playing the Star Spangled Banner and let that blare through my laptop speakers as I enjoyed my American meal. Unfortunately, in all the excitement, I ended up spilling a bunch of water on my laptop keyboard, and now it no longer works. It was a great Fourth of July. The rest of the week went well enough though. I could still use my mouse, so I was able to stream Sports Center, since I saved the website in my bookmarks. Watching TV and movies is the main thing I use my computer for anyway. The only thing I was really concerned about at all was this blog. Writing these posts on my iPhone is not much fun, so I made it part of my plan to shop for a solution to my keyboard crisis while in Tokyo. Tokyo was awesome. I knew it would be a cool place to check out, but I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. We arrived to the Tokyo bus station around 830 on Sunday morning. The trip there wasn’t too bad. I met Greg in Kyoto and caught the bus from there around 1130. I paid a little extra for some more comfortable seats, but I don’t think they were very comfortable. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that I am a bit bigger than the average Japanese person. Greg was working on only a few hours of sleep since he celebrated the 4th of July the night before. He was able to sleep most of the way. I slept on and off for maybe 3-4 hours, but it was just enough to prepare me for the day of walking around Tokyo. When we arrived we started walking down the street in the direction of our first destination in hopes of finding coffee and somewhere to charge our phones. It didn’t take us long. We stumbled upon a McDonald’s within about 5 minutes of walking. We sat there for a good while, eating and planning what we wanted to do for the day. Once our phones were charged most of the way we continued our trek to our first destination. Tsukiji is the only place I was determined to see on this trip. It is the world’s largest fish market. Every morning hundreds of fishermen and buyers come to the market to trade the day’s catch. There are buyers from all over the world. There are sushi restaurants in other countries that have a buyer there every morning to buy the freshest fish available and ship it to them to be served in their restaurant that same day. I had done some research about Tokyo before going. I saw a few statues, temples, skyscrapers, and other districts that were recommended by many travel websites, but Tsukiji is somewhere I have been wanting to check out since before I even came to Japan. Everything I read said that we needed to get there early in the morning to see the real craziness. They have a tuna auction everyday which is supposed to be complete madness. Massive tuna, the size of small cows, being bought and sold then shipped off to who knows where. Unfortunately, on this particular Sunday morning the market was actually closed for some “holiday”. I was pretty disappointed, but there were still tons of shops on the surrounding streets selling all kinds of things, from fish and vegetables, to chopsticks and tea cups. There were tons of free samples being given out, and we definitely took advantage of that. I also bought a few other snacks. They had some monster raw oysters shucked and ready to eat. They were 5-10 times the size of the oysters I am used to in Maryland depending on which one you picked. I bought a pretty big one. As soon as I picked it up I was unsure if I should eat it all at once or take a bite. I decided it would just make a mess if I tried to bite it, and I didn’t want to look like an idiot, so I scarfed it all at once. It was quite a mouthful and a little hard to eat. I would have probably gotten a lecture from my mom about cutting my food before I eat it if she had been there, but Maybe next time. My mom will probably be there next time I visit Tsukiji though. I am very excited to show her and my Aunt all the cool stuff I saw there. I went back again the next morning to see the market when it was open, but I still cant wait to go back another time. That place was awesome.
After we toured the shops around the fish market, we spent the rest of our Sunday morning wandering around Tokyo going down random streets that looked cool, just trying to get a feel for the city. Around noon we started to get hungry and decided that we should start trying to find some of the places we had on our list. We headed to Akihabara, which is a district famous for it’s electronics shops and arcades. We walked around there for a bit and went to lunch. Continuing with the food theme of he day we had some sushi. Sushi really doesn’t get old here. I think I am going to go through sushi withdrawal when I eventually leave this country. I eat sushi about 3-4 times a week, and I start to get serious cravings if I go more than 2-3 days without any raw fish. The place we went for lunch was very good. They didn’t have any touch screens, and we didnt have any Japanese friends with us so we had to do all the ordering for ourselves. I was really happy, I was able to communicate everything I needed to. The whole trip we were without any translator. It was a big test for me. My Japanese is definitely getting much better. I am still pretty lost when it comes to anything outside of shopping or asking for directions, but I am doing alright with that. Not the best, but I am happy with my progress. After lunch we decided to head to a famous shrine in Tokyo. Asakusa shrine is one of the biggest in Japan. There is a massive pagoda and a lot of souvenir shops all around. There were an insane amount of people swarming all around since it was a Sunday. It was a bit difficult to move around, but that is what Tokyo is all about. I am just glad I am taller than most people here and can see where I am going. Asakusa was really cool. After walking around there for a bit we each grabbed a beer from one of the vendors and sat down in the shade for a few minutes to rest our legs, and do some people watching. 
After our pit stop we started heading to the Tokyo Sky Tree. It is a tall tower that offers a great view of the city from the top. It kind of reminded me of the space needle in Seattle. A tall skinny building built to be climbed and look out from. On the walk to the Sky Tree we were passing a temple and a lady outside began to talk to us in Japanese. We didnt really understand her, but she ended up convincing us to come into her temple. She just kept saying “dozo” which is a Japanese for “please” used when you want someone to take something or to come in. It feels rude to refuse a “dozo” so Greg and I obliged her, later laughing about “the power” of the word “dozo”. In the temple they explained to us how their version of Buddhism was a little different from traditional Buddhism. When I say “they explained to us” I mean a group of old ladies pointed at pictures and repeated Japanese phrases to us over and over thinking their repetition would help us understand. One of the monks helped translate for us, but the old ladies did most of the talking. It was awkward at first, they asked us to chant with them and taught us the words as, we silently tried to plot an escape plan. They just kept talking and we didn’t know what to say. They showed us a book and gave us pamphlets explaining where the temples in our cities were. It was a weird experience but we were all laughing by the end of our visit and they were really nice to us in the end. Although the detour caused us to not have enough time to climb the sky tree I still don’t regret it. It will always be a good story to tell. We did make it to sky tree though. We walked around some of the shops at the base and bought some souvenirs before heading to meet our host for the night. 
We got pretty confused en route to meet Shogo. The Tokyo rail system is a crazy maze of tracks. It would have been ok, but my google maps app kept getting confused, and I put too much trust in it which left me quite frustrated. Eventually we found our way after mapping it out ourselves though. We met Shogo at Koenji, the station closest to his house. We dropped off our bags at his place and changed, then he took us out to one of his favorite restaurants for some Okinawan food and drink. Shogo was an awesome guy. He is a 26 year old Japanese salary man. He was hilarious, and after we all got a few drinks in us we couldn’t stop laughing. Being the only English speakers in the place, and carrying on like typical loud Americans, we were getting curious looks from everyone there. It was a blast though. We ate some awesome food and sampled some homemade Okinawan liquor which was kind of like American moonshine, but not as good as what I have had in America 😉 After dinner we went back to Shogo’s place. Shogo had to work in the morning but Greg and I went out for a little while. Long story short, we ended up separated from each other after the last train. I ended up alone in Tokyo at 1230am with no way home but an outrageously expensive taxi ride. I wasn’t upset at all about this though. I was actually happy to have some time to wander around and explore Tokyo by myself at night. I made it my goal to walk to Tsukiji to see the fish auctions in the morning. It was about 12-15 km (4-5 miles) away. After going down a path next to a big highway for a long way I realized there was a tunnel ahead, after a few more minutes of walking, I realized that tunnel had no pedestrian path. I had to turn around. I don’t know how long I walked in total, but by about 330am I began regretting my decision to make the walk, but I was almost to Tsukiji so I continued onward. I finally made it to the fish market around 430am. It was absolute madness. There were men flying by in every direction on forklifts and motor carts full of fish. By then it was also pouring down rain, and I was exhausted. I felt really intimidated by everything that was going on there. I posted up out of the way, near a column under a pavilion and watched everything going on around me. I am still amazed at how hectic this place was. I cant explain how crazy this place was. Even though I was up against a big structural column off to the side, well out of the path of any fish cart, I still felt like I couldn’t be more in the way. After a little while I started to get a little bit of confidence and was planning where to go next to take some pictures. As soon as I was about to head down on of the little streets lined with people carving up and selling fish I was stopped by a security guard. He told me I was not allowed to go down these streets until after 9am. I was a pretty disappointed I wouldn’t be able to see the tuna auction. Reluctantly, I decided to walk around a bit within the area I was permitted. Unfortunately non of the places I was allowed to go were set up and open for business at that point so there wasn’t much to see. After walking around for a few minutes I was approached by another guard who told me I wasn’t allowed in the market at all until 9. I walked off, feigning an exit. I was pretty angry he told me to leave. I was making a serious effort to stay out of the way, and wasn’t doing anything wrong at all. I ended up slinking back into the market, mostly out of spite, and went to explore all over. I hid my backpack in some bushes so I wouldn’t stick out like a total tourist, kept the hood of my rain coat up and headed to find this tuna auction. Unfortunately, I kept getting lost within the market. I also think I was pretty early and only the hardcore big shot vendors were set up at that point but I did see a lot of fish on display. No massive cow sized tuna though. Just tons and tons of regular sized fish of every other variety. I was trying to shoot video mostly, to remain more incognito but the videos didn’t turn out very well. I was happy I got to experience the madness that is Tsukiji though. I will be back. After about an hour of walking around the market. I still had not been greeted by my security guard friends again. I was pretty content with my adventure at this point and the lack of sleep from the night before was catching up to me. I decided to head to the street we visited the day before to find some breakfast. Naturally the best breakfast solution I could think of in Tokyo at 6am on a Monday morning was sushi. I went to a sushi shop right around the corner from the fish market and had a great meal of raw fish and miso soup. It was the perfect end of my night/start to my day. As I left the sushi shop with a full belly I began to feel the exhaustion really hit me. I had to take a break. I google searched for a hostel or cheap place to get a bed and get a few hours of sleep. My search led me to a place near by. On the map the title was in Japanese but I figured it was a hostel that would have an open bunk bed i could crash in. Instead it was a Capsule hotel. Lucky the lady at the front desk spoke perfect English. I did not have any energy to to communicate in any way other than my native language. She told me they had a shower and blah blah blah, my “room” number was 517. I took a quick shower then crawled into my little capsule and passed out immediately. I paid about $15 for 3 hours. It was much more expensive than I had expected a capsule hotel to be, but. I think this one was a pretty fancy one though. I had been wanting to sleep in a capsule hotel though. Now I can check that one off my list too. 
I woke up around 10 to a phone full of text messages from Greg wondering where I was. I had texted him the night before that I was going to walk to the fish market. When I finally saw his texts he was already at the market. I went to grab a coffee and then to meet him. It took me a while to find him. Much like myself Greg was not too worried about the traditional boundaries of tourists at the fish market. He was determined to find the boat docks. I found him laying down among a stack of big wooden boxes which I can only assume contained fish at some point. There was a fisherman sitting on a bucket not too far away enjoying a bowl of ramen for his breakfast. The man barely seemed to notice Greg and I as we filled each other in on what had happened over the last 10 hours. He was pretty tired too. He made it back to Shogo’s very late and then had to wake up at 7 when Shogo left for work. It was still raining pretty good so we went to grab a coffee and plan the rest of our day.
We decided we would go to the Imperial Palace and some other districts around Tokyo before. Neither of us were moving nearly as efficiently as the day before. It took us a little while to get where we were going but we made it. The Imperial Palace was cool. We couldn’t go past the gate, but we could see the moat and some of the Palace. It was on top of a hill though, and close to a big business district. So we were able to get a good view of some of the city’s biggest skyscrapers. 
After the Imperial Palace we got some ramen for lunch and then headed to Harajuku, a famous shopping district that was supposed to have a very youthful and modern vibe. As soon as we stepped out of the train station in Harajuku we saw “Condomania” a store dedicated to just condoms. I guess it is a good thing to have a store like this, but it was a bit of a new concept for us so we went in to take pictures. There were a lot of other stores in Harajuku, selling mostly clothes. We shopped around a little bit but didn’t end up buying anything. Besides the fish market, Harajuku was my favorite place we visited. I really liked the overall vibe of the area, and there were a lot of cool cafes and restaurants there too. It was very crowded and busy, but for some reason it felt much more relaxed than anywhere else we went to. After we went to Shinjuku. We walked there since it was only one station away, and we wanted to see more. Shinjuku wasn’t too exciting. i think it was mostly because we were so wore out by then. There were a lot of big buildings and shopping malls, but we didn’t go into any of them. There was a lot going on in the streets though. People where everywhere coming in and out of shops and restaurants. 
We had to head back to Shogo’s to get Greg’s bag before catching the bus so we decided to head that way after only a short time in Shinjuku. Shinjuku station is the busiest train station in the world. Around 4 MILLION people use Shinjuku station per day! It has over 35 platforms, 200 exits as well as bus lots, and a whole lot of stores and restaurants. It was crazy…We got lost a few times before finding our way. Finally, we made it to Shogo’s to get Greg’s bag. We chilled with him for a few minutes, thanked him for hosting us, and made our way back across town to catch the bus home. I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep on the bus on the way home. I slept pretty well actually. We made it back to Kyoto at 730. Greg went home and I went to Starbucks to get a coffee and a snack, before finishing the last hour of my journey back to my apartment in Nara. I know it is Wednesday. Sorry it took me so long to write this. I wrote some last night but then got too tired to finish. I am pretty tired of writing now too. As you can tell I had a great time in Tokyo. I will definitely go back. I doubt it will be as crazy as this trip but I hope it is. I definitely recommend visiting Tokyo if you ever can. It is a really amazing city. I hope everyone has a good week. Thanks for reading…. By the way. I bought a wireless keyboard to use with my computer. It is a little annoying to type on since it is set up in the Japanese style, but it isn’t to bad. It was much cheaper than a new computer and now I can use my TV as a monitor by connecting with my HDMI cable and control it remotely. Not a bad set up. With that. I bid you good day. 🙂
Awesome!!