Tokyo - Post # 1

So, I just got back from Tokyo for spring break! I'm going to try to keep this to two separate posts because there is so much to tell. The next one will be all about Disney. First of all, I went on this trip with two friends: Ally and Logan. We left on the 26th and were able to spend 2 1/2 days sightseeing around Tokyo and 2 days at Disney.

Day 1:

Our Shinkensen (bullet train) left at 11:30 am from Sendai and arrived at 1:00 pm in Tokyo. The first thing we had to do was figure out how to switch to the regular subway which was super confusing!! We finally figured it out then we just had to go one stop to get to our station. When we got off at our station we had to find our way to the hotel. Below are the google directions to our hostel. Needless to say we cracked up at those and they were no help. Luckily our confirmation email had better directions. After we checked in we went down to Shibuya. This is the district that has the HUGE crossing in Tokyo. Below is a picture that does not do it justice! We wandered around, ate at Sbarro's (we managed to eat zero Japanese food this whole trip hahaha), got starbucks, shopped, etc. It was a successful day!

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Day 2:

The 27th we slept in and got a late start to the day. Once we got going we went down to the Sensoji Temple (Picture below with Logan). This reminded me a lot of China with all the street markets and food vendors. We walked around there for a long time and then we went into a Pachinko place (japanese gambling) and wasted a few dollars just so we could do it once.

After that we went over to Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower is pretty much the exact shape of the Eiffel tower but taller and uglier. We didn't go to the top because the line was so long but there were tons of shops inside that we walked around and browsed. We also got a snack at McDonalds.

After Tokyo Tower we went to a district called Roppongi. This is basically a big tourist area with lots of American restaurants. Logan really wanted to eat at Hard Rock Cafe. So we walked for an hour trying to find it (I was frustrated because I was freezing and tired) and we never found it. We ended up eating at this Italian place and when we walked out we were facing Hard Rock Cafe. How we missed that we don't know. So we stopped in and it was like the craziest Hard Rock ever! Music was blaring and Japanese people were dancing... these are not normal sites here.

Below is a picture in front of a Tex Mex restaurant (the sign also says Gringos). Logan is from Seattle but she is obsessed with Texas! Weird, since Ally and I aren't. We made it a point to take pictures in front of places like this a lot and we ate 3 meals at Tex Mex restaurants haha. They don't really have that in Sendai.

Day 3:

We slept in again and this day ended up being somewhat of a bust! We started out going down to Harajuku St which was CRAZY!!! It was so crowded! The fashion in Harajuku (which is literally one street) is kind of hard to explain. Lots of teased hair, party dresses with big tulle, fish net stockings, but then there is also the girls that dress like Little Bo Peep, the goths, etc. It is seriously odd. No pictures to show (people kept catching me trying to take their pictures). We then tried to go to a Kabuki theater and it was closed. So then we tried to go to the Imperial Palace and we couldn't find that. So after we had walked around FOREVER and were freezing we ended up just going in early so we could rest before Disney the next day.

Last two random pictures. Below is a picture of Ally and her travel books. Ally really did a great job of finding places to go and knowing what we were doing. However, we gave her a really hard time for being super Tourist with all her books. There were a lot more pictures like this, but this one shows how annoyed she was with us and wouldn't even look at the camera.

The other picture is a picture of Logan with the "Texas" burger. All things Texas for Logan!