We've made it safely back to the US but as you'll no doubt notice the trip entries aren't done. I'm working on getting them all up to date by the end of the week. At least my internet connection is faster and more stable at home than in Japan, so I should have less grief getting all the pictures uploaded.
Anyway, the next batch of pictures will no doubt be coming from our Vegas trip this weekend. We're going to see Spamalot at the Wynn!
Penultimate Shopping Day
Today we went out to Asakusa to check out the Flame d'Or and the temple.
Here's the flickr link to our shots:
Asakusa
Tsukiji Fish Market & Asakusa
Today we got up early to head over to see the famous Tsukiji Fish Market. We knew approximately where it was, but we really didn't know what to expect when we got there.
Here is the link to all our Tsukiji pictures on flickr:
Tsukiji Pictures
&mpSunshine City Mall, Aquarium, ; Zoo
Today we took the subway all the way out to Ikebukuro to go to the Sunshine City mall. It's a big shopping area. Lot's of department stores and smaller shop's along the main drag.
Movies look good...
Once we made it to the mall, Ultraman was waiting outside for us. Turns out this is an anniversary of Ultraman, so all the toy stores have tons of Ultraman figures. It seems like they changed his outfit every year because there are at least 20 of them.
Like many places in Tokyo, the mall is at the bottom of several skyscrapers. At the top of one of them is an aquarium/zoo.
Unfortunately it was dark inside so most of my fish photos came out blurry. I've put up some of the better ones.
This one had archer fish in it, which shoot a stream of water out of their mouth to knock bugs into the water where they can eat them.
My mom should remember this little guy from when we had a salt-water tank...
Turns out they also had a Spawn of Cthulhu
Outside on the roof they had a sea lion show, as well as a monkey cage, a penguin enclosure, and some walk through exhibits.
The walkthrough was populated with what I think are capybaras. They were free to wander around inside, mingling with the tourists.
And for some reason they had a lemur in a cage...
At the end of the walkthrough they had a couple of these cute little foxes:
..and also an armadillo butt...
Next to that was the penguin pool
They also had some neat pelicans. Those birds were big!
In a big tank by themselves, they had a couple of sunfish. They weren't as big as the one I saw at the Monterey Aquarium, but they were still good sized.
Debbie poses with the aquarium mascot:
After the aqaurium we went back down into the mall and over to another skyscraper to go up to its observatory level. This one even let us get on the roof, but it closed at sunset, which was about 5 minutes after we got up there.
That's Shinjuku in the distance. Tokyu Hands is near the bottom of that Chrysler Building look-alike.
After the observatory we went back down into the mall to find a restaurant where we had a good chance of being able to communicate with the staff. We wound up at a nice Chinese restaurant. The next two pictures show two places that we didn't stop at. I wonder what they serve?
After dinner we headed back out into the night, headed for the train station (with a stop at BIC camera).
Return to Harajuku
As Juan pointed out earlier, we completely missed Yoyogi-koen, so we headed back out to check out the 50's guys and hit up the shopping area.
Here's our favorite post office, just at the top of the street, up from our apartment. We'd stop here before heading out for the day because there was a convenient ATM inside.
Post office workers don't wear latex in the states (not that I've seen at least)
We went straight to the park after getting off the subway and walked pretty far into it. We saw lots of people enjoying their Sunday in the blistering heat, but where were the 50's guys?
After walking a good ways in to the park and not seeing anything that exciting we headed back out so Debbie could wade through the throngs of people in the shopping district.
Out of the park and around the corner, the Harajuku girls were out in force.
Here's the road down to all the little shops. Debbie will have a blast. I will be hot and bored.
At least we found some maid outfits for Debbie!
Needless to say, I did not go in.
We wound up going back to the same sushi joint that we went to with Tomoko and Hide and friends.
After lunch we headed back out to the park to find the 50's guys. Of course more interesting people had shown up at the bridge. Frighteningly, not all Harajuku girls are girls.
Here are some more that really are girls.
When we entered the park this time the dancers were out in force. This group looked like something out of a Japanese 'Happy Days'. They were dancing to a mix of 50's tunes set to a kind of techno beat. Very weird. But what else would you really expect from a group of people dressed in 50's outfits dancing in the middle of the park when its blazing hot outside?
Across the hedge from them these guys were competing for boombox volume.
Check out the hair on that dude!
And I'd be remiss if I didn't include a video...
Daytrip to Nikko
Today we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) out to Utsunomiya and from there a rickety train to Nikko. Nikko is a resort sort of town in the vein of Solvang, a small mountain town that's very touristy and scenic.
When we got to the Nikko station it was drizzly and overcast, which actually was a relief from the Tokyo weather. It was about 10-15 degrees cooler up there.
The bus station was very confusing so we found a stewardess (information girl) and asked her what was up. She spoke passable English and gave us an English version of a map that made things much easier. We figured out what bus ticket to buy, and she told us where to wait.
After slowly slogging up the hill through some sort of traffic jam, we got dropped off at the base of the shrine area.
The first Shinto shrine contained three awesome statues that were about 30 feet high, made of wood and covered in gold flake. Of course we weren't allowed to take pictures. If there hadn't of been anyone else there I would have though. Conveniently there was a tour guide going through the same time as us, inconveniently, his commentary was in Japanese.
The next stop was a Buddhist temple. Once again, no inside pictures.
It had a nice garden next to it. Wish we had monsoonal rain here so I could have one like that.
Everything around here was gorgeous.
This is the path up to the main shrine complex.
Once through the big torii, you get to the first gate, which is dwarfed by the giant trees.
From this courtyard you can then see the big main gate. The wooden carving on it is amazing.
Once through the gate you can see the main shrine.
They've got a nice supply of sake here :)
Under a sleeping kitten, and the start of innumerable steps to get up to Tokugawa's tomb.
The step's go up, and up, and UP!
Once you're up in the clouds, you find the final resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu, first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, that ruled Japan from 1600 to 1868.
After that we headed back down the mountan to check out the other shrines in the area. Here's the view looking down into the courtyard from the first gate.
We rounded a corner at the bottom and headed up towards the next shrine.
We exchanged camera shots with a nice Japanese couple.
I believe this is one of the oldest shrines in Japan:
Down a hill and around the corner, another big gate, and another big shrine.
All of these shrines are in the middle of an amazing looking forest.
We headed back to the bus stop and took the bus back to town.
Of course Debbie had to stop at the Hello Kitty store.
We hopped the rickety old train back to Utsunomiya. We had to stand because a load of Russian tourists got there ahead of us and took all the seats.
It was a relief to see the shinkansen come into the station. We got on after a small amount of confusion in the station, and finding the right track. The ride back to Tokyo was nice and smooth.
