Our trip starts off with us immediately getting lost the moment we step foot out of Narita airport. The train system was rather intimidating at first and navigation was done in a trail and error type manner. After the first few days once we became pros, however, we still managed to get lost in other ways throughout our trip.
It took us about 3 hours to find our hostel (as opposed to the hour it would of taken if we hadn't gotten lost a bazillion times). Despite being exhausted and jet lagged, Matt and I decided to do some exploring. Here I am in Nakamise-dori, which is a nearby temple precinct's shopping area. This leads to the main temple area, which is gorgeous at night.
SENJO-JI TEMPLE. This temple enshrines a golden image of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy and has been rebuilt many times. This current temple dates back to 1950.
On our way back to our hostel we ran into Doremon outside the Ban-Dai headquarters.
...and this awesome frog.
On route to the imperial palace, Matt and I took a stroll through KIBIYA-KOEN, which is Tokyo's first western-style park.
We came across these sunbathing turtles.
IMPERIAL PALACE. This is the home of Japan's emperor and the imperial family. Unfortunately it's closed to the public for all but two days of the year, neither of which Matt and I were in the country for.
This is a reconstruction built in 1968 that replaced the original one from 1888, which was bombed and destroyed during WWII.
This is as close as we were able to get.
Starbucks not only had a delicious azuki bean flavored frappachino, they also had 'cho sized' (child sized) servings...both of which should really be introduced to the American branches.
A taxi stand in Tokyo...I love the paint job/overall design of the taxis...they even have doors that open and close all on their own!
Matt came across this place called 'Nekobukuro' on one of his many blogs.
Because many apartments will not allow pets, and some Tokyo residents feel their work schedule may not be compatible with the ownership of an animal, Nekobukuro is viewed as an alternative to pet ownership while still maintaining pet interaction.
Nekobukuro is a play on the Japanese word for cat, neko and the location Ikebukuro.
Nekobukuro, or "Cat's House" is part of the Ikebukuro Tokyu Hands store, located on the eighth floor. For the price of admission (¥600 per person, or ¥1,000 for a couple), customers can interact and play with the 20 or so cats running free around Nekobukuro at any given time.
Matt liked this cat's style.
Matt claims he's just a dog person, but he got along with the cats quite well.
Most of these cats wanted nothing to do with us and simply to be left alone.
For anyone planning to go to Japan, I highly recommend checking this place out...it is quite an experience.
Moving on from the Cat House...we headed over to the Sony Center with the hopes of seeing some cool electronics.
We didn't do or see much except play with a few things, such as these cameras.
One of many arcades where one can win all sorts of toys. These places blare the most intense, obnoxious music known to man and are occupied by groups of teenagers with all sorts of charms hanging off their bags.
These were pretty typical prizes found in the machines. Matt made it a point to win a whole bunch of them (for those of you who haven't seen them already, he has them displayed around his apt).
This one's for Omar.
On our second full day we explored various tourist sights in Yokohama, which is the second largest city to Tokyo. We first headed to the top of Landmark Tower, which is the tallest building in Japan and has the world's fastest elevator (2.5mph).
View from the 69th floor of Landmark Tower.
After going to the Landmark Tower we headed over to the Raumen Museum. Since everything was in kanji, the only thing Matt and I were really able to do was eat some Raumen.
Since I'm not a fan of museums and I love eating, that was totally fine by me.
Raumen coma.
Matt partaking in some Raumen museum activities while we were waiting for our Raumen tasting.
I just like this billboard because of the ridiculous dogs.
Matt and I arrived to Kyoto at 5am on an overnight bus from Tokyo, however, none of the hostels open their doors until 8am (no exceptions) so we literally waited outside for 3 hours with another backpacker in the same situation (I even managed to fall asleep on the sidewalk for an hour or so).
Our first day in Kansai we headed to Nara, which is Japan's first real capital and second only to Kyoto as a repository of the country's cultural legacy.
The main drag going through this small town has a large park, which is home to about 120 deer. They literally roam around in search of/aggressively taking hand-outs from tourists.
For about 150Y you can buy deer biscuits from vendors to feed the deer.
These deer were very aggressive when it came to getting their biscuits. If they saw them in your hand, they would come up and intimidate you by threatening to head-but you until you handed over the biscuit.
I'll admit that the male deer made me a bit nervous with their horns...even if they were small.
Matt, however, was quite comfortable around them...
...make that very comfortable.
It was as if he was King of the Nara Deer Kingdom.
We saw so many temples and it was hard to keep track of the smaller ones...I honestly don't remember which temple or shrine this was, but the pictures are still worth sharing!
Every once in a while, Matt would take a nice picture, such as this one.
...but the majority of them were like this...(does that pose look familiar to anyone??)
kiss kiss
One of the two Nio gaurdians inside Nandai-mon, an enormous gate you pass through to get to Todai-Ji (soon to be shown). These statues were originally carved in the 13th century and are considered some of the finest wooden statues in all of the world.
Matt and me in front of Todai-Ji. This temple is Nara's main attraction due to it's vast Daibutsu-den Hall that houses an enormous bronze Buddha.
Todai-ji Daibutsu-den (Hall of the Great Buddha) is the largest wooden building in the world. The Great Buddha was originally cast in 746 and is an image of the cosmic Buddha believed to precede all worlds and their respective historical Buddhas.
Eeek! Does anyone else find this really creepy?? I have no idea what this carving represents.
Kitties in the kitsch
A stack of prayer cards. At all the temples and shrines you could find think blank pieces of wood that you could write a wish or prayer on.
This picture was taken at the top of Kyoto station, which is known for it architecture.
Wherever there's a long banister, Matt will slide down it.
Lots of different flavored Mochi...red wine, cream cheese, avocado, and rose to name a few. We didn't get a chance to try them all unfortunately.
This is a public toilet in Kyoto station. Not only did it have a heated seat, but you could even control the sound of the flushing!
This kind of stuff the Japanese get so right...totally makes sense! Why we don't have this stuff all over America is beyond me.
Frogs!
Yep. Lost again.
hmmm...I wonder why we could never find our way.
The terrace on top of Kyoto station provided a view of the city and nice place to soak up the sun.
Apparently it's a happy place as well.
Conveyor-belt sushi.
Matt getting the perfect shot.
Note what is written on the prayer card in the bottom right hand of this picture: "Please let me be admitted into Stanford University!" ... then scribbled quickly as an afterthought... "And let my family have happiness and safety." ...nice
The two women in this picture were taking their sweet time crossing the pond because they were both in totally impractical high heels and trying not to fall into the water...Matt on the other hand demonstrated that even though flat bottom sneakers might not be as elegant, they're a hell of a lot more practical.
...me hamming it up...
Women dressed in traditional Japanese kimonos...apparently these things can take over an hour to put on correctly.
Turtles basking in the sun.
Sake.
People would write wishes on strips of paper and tie them to this tree (and hope that they'd come true obviously).
Every now and then we'd actually see spiritual members of the temples. Usually these places were simply riddled with tourists such as ourselves.
I must say, the Japanese have gotten it right with so many things, and the cute factor is definitely one of them.
This one's for Ann and Tim.
Matt and I spent a solid half hour feeding these fish and hoping the bird would do something cool. Nothing happened.
Showdown between Matt and the sacred statues.
I dragged Matt up a Mountain riddled with enclaves of temples, shrines, and statues on a hot day. It got to the point where he'd just wait for me while I explored each tier because we'd done so much hiking and he was no longer amused. We ended up getting ridiculously lost on the way down and ended up in some Japanese suburb with absolutely NO English. Sorry Matt!
"Come on Matt! It's culture!" ... not amused.
This dog is from Manhattan.
Even MacDonalds has normal portion sizes in Japan...again, this should be brought to the American branches. They also have a teriaki burger and an Ebi (shrimp tempura) fillet sandwich. And look at the cute little soda!
This is a great example of how awesome Matt's gorilla tripod is...this thing enabled us to get some great shots throughout our trips. For example, we could take pictures of ourselves without having to asking anyone, which is what Matt's setting up to do here.
Bullet trains! To put in perspective how fast these trains run...it took us 8 hours to get from Tokyo to Kyoto on an overnight bus in the absence of traffic. This train got us from Kyoto to Tokyo in 4 hours.
Tsukiji Fish Market
hello fishies
Endless cute Japanese kitsch. Love it!
Matt was trying to get a rise out of people on the trains by wearing his recently purchased Super Mario pillow hat on his head...nobody even glanced in his direction or cracked the slightest smile. The only attention he managed to get was from a 5 year old girl when she started crying and then from her mother who was the first and only one to laugh about the whole thing.
At the pod hotel. For $22/night you could rent a pod, complete with a pillow, blanket, pair of pajamas, bathrobe, small tv, and alarm clock radio.
View from inside my pod. It was actually quite cozy.
Cheap housing (i.e. hostels) was tough to come by in Tokyo unless you made a reservation well in advance, so we ended up staying at the pod hotel for three nights. We didn't think it would be so bad until we realized that more than half of the guests smoked in doors and that the management kicked EVERYONE out between the hours of 10am-2pm. This is Matt brushing his teeth in the streets b/c he was literally awakened by a cleaning woman at 10am sharp (after a night of heavy drinking) who promptly kicked him out before he had a chance to wash up or get changed.
This is a famous street performer named Maria Cross who Matt happened to get a great shot of without even realizing who he was taking a picture of. We didn't find out who he/she was until about a month after our trip and we were looking at 'youtube' videos of Japan. If you're interested, here's one of his/her videos: http://youtube.com/watch?v=TmDzWDpwvD0&feature=related We didn't get to see him/her in action unfortunately.
One of the items on Matt's "Things To Do In Life" list is to eat Fugu (blowfish).
He was able to cross that item (safely) off the list while we were in Tokyo.
We had a three course meal that consisted of Fugu skin, Fugu sashimi, and Fugu tempura.
It was good, but nothing all that special as far as flavor goes. It's more glamorous than tasty in my opinion. Now we can say we ate blowfish and lived to tell the tale.
Haha! A cat on leash tied to a bike in Tokyo while the owner ran into the store for something. I wish I could of seen the person riding around with the cat in the front basket.
Not much to be said about this photo...I just like it.
Sometimes it was pretty obvious we were Americans.
We met up with some other travelers at the pod hotel we were staying at in Tokyo and the group of us went out for a night on the town. On the far left is Sarah (American) who has lived in Japan for the past two years teaching English; to Matt's left is Diana (Irish) who also lived in Japan and taught English; and on the far right of the photo is Brian (America) who is a U.S. Naval officer taking a vacation from Annapolis. Both Sarah and Diana are fluent in Japanese, which really helped us get around.
After we left the first bar, we stumbled upon these teeny tiny dogs.
The owner was cool and let us pick them up. I fell in love with the one I'm holding in this picture.
This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. Look how confused the poor little dog is! SO CUTE! I tried so hard to buy it (no joke) but Matt wouldn't let me.
Moving on from the dogs, we continued the night with intense Karaoke (can't go to Tokyo without doing Karaoke!!).
This Karakoe bar not only rented individual karaoke rooms, they also rented costumes.
We sang until 5am.
Thank goodness we had these two with us, because the song selection controller was all in kanji, which these two could read (pretty cool if you ask me).
I was not a fan of Tokyo, so I dragged Matt out to Nikko, a small mountain town, to do some more cultural sightseeing (to his dismay) for a few days.
This temple was riddled with Japanese school groups.
Of course Matt took a group shot of one of them.
Matcha soft serve was everywhere in Japan. I love matcha (green tea powder) and I love soft serve...perfect combo!! Since we don't have this in the states, I made it a point to eat it every day of our trip...and that is not an embellishment.
hello!
The Nikko Philharmonic.
Can't go to Tokyo without experiencing the video arcade culture.
Matt left his mark in Tokyo. For those of you that don't know him, that pirate sticker is a picture of his face he printed out and sticks all around cities as Boston, NYC, and now Tokyo... coming soon to a city near you.
By the end of our trip we were so exhausted from jumping around from hostel to hostel and sleeping in smoky pod hotels that Matt decided to go all out and put us up in the Tokyo Park Hyatt Hotel...think "Lost in Translation" with Bill Murray.
The novelty of Japanese style sleeping accommodations wore off after the second night of sleeping on the floor and I was soooooo happy to sleep on a western mattress again.
Despite having a room with two beds and the absence of wedding bands, the Park Hyatt staff still addressed me as "Mrs. Russell."
The view from our hotel room.
Lost in translation.
Matt was able to get some great shots from our hotel room.
We splurged and got room service for our last meal in Japan.
That concludes our trip. Domo arigato Japan!
