March 25, 2010
14th Day of Travel - Tokyo
After a long break I'm back. I've been working on photos and prepping the next set of post. Also, school is about to start for me and I'm prepping for classes! I hope to be able to try to start up a new regiment for blog posting, but don't know if I will have the time. Another thing that I would like to start up is studio photo sessions. Hopefully, something will work out!
I can't believe that it has been longer than a year since I was doing these posts. I was going over my photos and realized that I never really did finish up my trip around Japan. Kyoto is the last place that I finished up on, and then it was craziness after that. I have been doing quite a bit of other things, but I would like to go ahead and finish up these posts. Also, there will be a few photos from my SacAnime adventures that may pop up between the rest of my March 2010 Japan tour.
Waking up early today, I went to the hotel that my relatives were staying in, and told Ben that I would meet him at another station with them. Getting to the hotel was quick, and when I was there, my mom was already checking out.
She was able to get the hotel to hold the luggage for her until 15:00 hours. Her flight was going to be at 18:00 hours today. Well, with the rain lightening up we went to TSUKIJI fish market. I found out last night, that to really enjoy the fish market you have to arrive there around 05:00 hours, but unfortunately, we were a little late and arrived there around 09:00 hours.
Because we were late walking around the market really wasn’t as special as I thought it was going to be. Even Ben, who was looking forward to SUSHI and seeing all the fish, wasn’t that impressed with this place. We decided that after 45 minutes of looking around to head to the next tour site.
Therefore, I took them to TOKYO Tower. This was the place that everyone was waiting for and everyone walked excitedly to see what was going on. We saw the peak of the tower pop out from the clouds for a brief period and then rain came down again.
Arriving at the base of the tower, I went and paid so everyone could go up. Because it was raining, we only went up to the normal observatory rather than the special one. The reason being that it was covered in clouds.
So we went up 150 meters into the sky and looked down. The view was good, but being that it was a horrible day, we unfortunately were not able to see that much. Personally, the best thing to see was the look down window. This is where you were able to look down 150 meters at the ground from the observatory.
An hour later, we grabbed some coupons that are located at the observation deck for the restaurants below, and went down. For lunch we had DEMI RAISU and RAMEN. I added a cup of coffee and a waffle after words. It wasn’t the greatest, but it was inexpensive!
Looking at the time it was about 13:30 hours and we still had some time left. So, we went to the city view at SHINJUKU. This is the government building that lets you up about 150 meters for free! If you don’t have the ￥800 to go up TOKYO Tower, then this is the next best thing!
Going up the tower, we were able to see a different angle than when we were at TOKYO Tower. It was really interesting, and my mom really liked the view from here. In particular, there was this building that had windows that mirrored the road, and the cars looked like they were in the building! It was really interesting.
Staying at the building for about an hour, we needed to get going because my relatives’ flight was coming up fast. We went back to the hotel that they were staying at, and grabbed the suitcases and then made our way back to TOKYO station.
This is where we said our goodbyes. I have to admit that this was a sad moment. It is unfathomable to me that I would have met my mother in Japan. I was quite happy to see her. Unfortunately, I don’t think she had that greatest of a times here. There were just too many things against us this time. Well, maybe we can make up for it next time… if there is a next time!
So after our farewells, Ben and I went to the Imperial Palace. The reason being that it was right next to the station. Before we reached the palace though, we went to a post office. I needed to send off some cheese that my mom brought me, and I forgot to take home…
After sending it off, the rain really started to come down. We were walking around the palace garden in the rain. Now, Ben thought that we would be able to actually go inside the palace, and was sorely disappointed. We were only allowed to go up to the gate.
A few photos later and we were off on our way to the next area, SHINJUKU! Ben and I made it there on the train together, but after getting off the train Ben ran into some problems. I was out of the station quite quickly, and noticed that Ben wasn’t behind me anymore.
Ben was trapped behind some girl who was crying at the station. She slowed him down greatly. When I got back to the ticketing area, Ben was already gone. I waited there for him. This is what we agreed upon. We would meet at the entrance to the place we were going to if we ever were to get separated.
I waited a good 10-15 minutes at that spot. I thought that Ben would come back, but maybe I was wrong. We planned on getting dinner at a SIZZLERS that was here in SHINJUKU, and I knew that he could make it there on his own. The only problem was the rule that we had in place.
Well, when that 15 minutes ran up, I left. To my surprise, when I got to SIZZLERS Ben was walking to the restaurant from the other direction. He had forgotten about the rule, and tried to run to catch up with me getting himself lost. It was quite funny to me, because he must have taken some long way to get there, especially because I not only waited for him, but I also took the quickest route, and he came from the opposite way.
Well, we spoke about it over dinner. We both got steak for the first time while traveling in JAPAN! WOOHOO!!! The sad thing is after the meal, Ben said that this was the best meal that he had while in Japan. Ouch!
After the meal, we left SHINJUKU and went to SHIBUYA. I had to show him the SHIBUYA 109 building before we left TOKYO. I wanted to make sure I got him to all the areas that were famous in TOKYO before we left. We walked down a few side streets in SHINBUYA and had many offers of ‘Japanese Sex’, which really upset my friend.
So we left after the third offer to call it a night. Well, the trip is about 2/3 up at this point! WOW! It is going by so quickly! I can’t believe that it has been two weeks already! Dam… Oh, well we still have a week left!
Stay tuned! More to come!
