Tokyo

Ten months overseas and we were yet to have a proper vacation. That's the whole point, right? Gain some experience, make some money, TRAVEL. Obviously, we'd been looking forward to our vacation in Tokyo for a while. Last weekend was a long weekend for us thanks to the Buddha's Birthday holiday, so we left for the airport in a mad dash straight after work on Thursday.

I was pleased to find that the international departures terminal at Gimpo airport had quite a bit more to offer than the domestic terminal we flew out of a few years ago. Fishy soup-noodle bars are charming and all, but I like some shopping to distract me from thinking about how I'm minutes from stepping into a giant metal flying coffin.

All of our paperwork was tidily organized in a very official looking envelope. We checked in, had a drink and left right on time, which is an ideal time to leave.

After getting off the plane and going through immigration in record time, we were introduced to the Tokyo subway system. This is not a system that is itching to make a good first impression. The trains look to be straight out of the 70s (though very plush, cushiony seats are offered- credit where credit is due), there are approximately 9,000 different lines thoughtfully mapped out on the world's most unintuitive map and most shocking, many of the lines are owned by different companies. Buy your ticket and try to transfer to the line going to your destination and your ticket may or may not be valid. This problem would confound us right up until the day we left. Fast as we were getting out of the airport, we still just barely made the very last train into Shinjuku from Haneda and this was a hella-cramped train. In my two years in Asia I have never, ever been on a train like this, and as much as I love a good mosh pit, finding myself in the middle of one on a train in Japan after a day of traveling was not my idea of a good time. Oh, the pushing and shoving and ramming and pulling that went on. I may or may not have conceived a child on that ride... this is how close everyone's bodies had become.

We alighted from our train-shaped game of Twister and proceeded to wander around for about 30 minutes trying to find our hotel. The map the hotel had provided thoughtfully omitted any street names within the vicinity of our subway exit, but when we arrived we were happy to see that the place was as nice as it looked on the hotel's website and that a nice man (or woman?) named Chin had spotlessly made our room up for us.

There was a 7-Eleven next to the hotel, which we promptly visited for ramen purchases and also to see what neat gums and soda the Japanese sell. I wound up with some strangey yogurt drink that I thought was a fruit juice, a cruel trick to play on a visitor to the country, and some delicious noodle soup and taters. We had brought our laptop so we could Google up directions if needed, so we watched a quick TV show on it to wind down before bed. After the show finished and we were getting ready for bed we noticed that the computer was off, though neither of us had remembered turning it off. We were both happy to not have gone through the grueling task of clicking "shut down" so we happily went to sleep in the world's most comfortable bed.

And so we woke up the next morning and noticed that our laptop no longer turns on. Turning on is one of the most essential features of a computer and it couldn't even do that. This was not the first time it had crashed on us in recent months and the timing could have been more inconsiderate. I don't know any Japanese curse words or I would have used them, but we had better things to do than groan about a computer all day so off we went.

First stop was a trip to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. They have a 45th floor observation deck that is free to visit and the view of the city was pretty cool from there.

And for a little while, we were taller than Tokyo.

Next, we went to Ikebekuro to visit an amusement park called Namja Town. I guess "amusement park" is kind of a misleading description for a place that was basically a dimly lit fusion of carnie rides, food courts and a lot of Americana stuck on the walls, brought to you by Namco, the makers of Pac Man. But we hadn't gone there to go on the rides, we'd gone to eat magic berries. Years ago we watched an episode of some newsmagazine, let's say it was 20/20. The Japanese had found this new fruit called Miracle Fruit. It changes the way your taste buds taste. Sour and bitter foods suddenly taste sweet. It helps diabetic people eat sugarless cakes that taste like the real deal. Clearly this was the only way I was going to eat my vegetables.

So after years of curiosity we arrive at the Miracle Fruit Cafe in a spooky old theme park. Imagine our surprise when the menu was 90% curry dishes and the restaurant was completely empty. We ordered what we decided was the best sampler for us to try with our magic berries: a tray of lemons, limes, vinegar, tomato, broccoli juice and... well, I honestly don't know what anything else was for sure.

Guess what? Not even miracle fruit can save the taste of a test tube full of freshly squeezed broccoli juice. Other than that, it was pretty cool. I ate my lemons and limes like candy. A test tube of vinegar tasted great- MORE PLEASE- except there's no way to truly fool your body that you've drank a pint of vinegar. It tasted delightful, but it burned going down and parts of my face that I didn't even know I had puckered up. We bought 5 more berries to bring home and experiment with. We'll let you know how it works out.

Don't let these sightseeing photos fool you- we spent 75% of our time shopping. It was fun! Tokyo has loads of neat shops filled with different things I'd never seen before. The costume selection is out of this world: I came home with a new chicken head mask and an elephant nose. ANYWAY. After Namjatown, we found ourselves at a store called Hands Tokyu. There's a Hands shop in Taipei too and it sucks, but this one in Tokyo was amazing, and on the top floor there was a room full of cats to pet if you were willing to fork over 5 bucks. And we were. It was funny to sit back and watch the cats position themselves around the room in the darkest, most unsociable places possible... and this was a pretty open concept room. Oh, cats, you love to hate us.

When the mood of the room felt sufficiently bored, one of the employees walked around and gave us 4 treats each to give to the cats, which certainly perked both them and us up.

After petting trapped animals for our own selfish purposes, we traveled to Shubiya and saw the the Hachiko monument outside of the station. Hachiko was a dog who lived with his master by the station, and long after his master died he always stayed by the station waiting for him to return. Hachiko's story was recently made into a direct-to-DVD movie (though it was released theatrically in Asia, as all good American POS movies are).

Outside of Shubiya Station is also the world's busiest intersection. It was even featured on an Amazing Race challenge once. I'm betting Amazing Race didn't film their challenge on a Friday afternoon because it wasn't too busy when we were there. Cool to see nonetheless, and conveniently located next to a lot of COOL SHOPPING, so you know where the next few hours went.

In the evening we went to Harajuku to do some sightseeing and some SHOPPING. Actually, to be honest... we went shopping in Harajuku every night of our vacation. Gwen Stefani was onto something there for a while back in 2005, because- yeah, Harajuku is awesome. And you know how you always hear that Japan is sooooo expensive? It's not, really. I thought the prices of most things were way lower than Korea, for example. I'm sure rent is ridiculous, but everyday products seemed pretty reasonable.

And please note, there is absolutely no smorking allowed in Harajuku. Actually, you can't smoke on any street in Japan. It's a beautiful rule. No talking on your cell phone on the subway, either. Imagine trying to get that law passed in Korea. There's be mayhem.

Something that I loved about Tokyo was that they thought to include trees in their city planning. There are trees along the sidewalks everywhere. And places that seem huge and busy can be quaint and artsy just one street down. There's loads of cobblestone sidestreets with artsy shops and cafes that reminded us of old Quebec. It was weird and unexpected, but welcome. We had pleasant drinks at a patio on one such quaint street. Did I mention that it was 29 degrees out on this day (Friday)? So sweet.

On Saturday we'd booked tickets to see some sumo wrestling in Ryogoku, and we were greeted at the match by a fuzzy sumo character friend. It's a rule in Asia: there can be no event without a cutesy mascot, and this is a rule that I love.

Lower-ranked sumos wrestle first and the matches go on all day. Since most people don't show up until the big matches in the late afternoon, there were lots of front row seats free for us to sit in. "Seats" is misleading... we sat on mats on the floor in a fenced off square just a few feet from the ring. It was awesome... for an hour or so until we were kicked out when the people who actually paid for those mats wanted to sit on them for some reason. An usher dusted off our mats vigorously before the paying guests sat on the obviously soiled seats.

Sumo in Japan, Wal-Mart size M in Canada.

I'm not much of a sports fan, but I really think I could get into sumo wrestling. It was really fun to watch! First, the referee chants the names of the two sumos who will wrestle. Then the sumos throw some rice, stare each other off, towel down (the rice-throwing has made them sweaty) and then they try to push each other out of the ring. After several minutes of pomp and circumstance, the wrestling takes about 4 seconds. It's great for my attention span. Fun fun fun. There were even some foreigner sumos and we had to wonder how they wound up there. Were they overweight English teachers who realized they were really destined for rice throwing and ring-pushing-outing? It's funny where life can take you sometimes.

After the wrestling we went to the Imperial Palace which had rudely closed just minutes before our arrival. Here's what it looks like from the outside, but since I usually wilt with boredom at places like this I wasn't too fussed about it being closed.

We'd seen dozens of these places around so we decided to have supper at what appears to be Tokyo's localized version of fast food: a beef and rice bowl restaurant. As was typical with most food purchases, we selected our meal from a vending machine, gave the chef our food voucher and our food arrived soon after. It was good, and only cost a couple of bucks. Mel's came with a *bonus* raw egg which she wasn't quite sure what to do with. I asked one of the employees and he suggested that she crack it over her beef and rice and mix it in. Duh.

Guess where we went after supper? Na na naaaaaaa :)

After a few hours in Harajuku we wandered around Shinjuku for a while. We shopped, people-watched, and found the red-light district.

With the laptop dead I was inspired to figure out how to work the satellite at our hotel and was pleased to discover a few hundred channels to flick through. Our feet were aching so we got some drinks, sat on our sofa (maybe the first time in a YEAR that I've sat on a sofa!) and watched some music videos. I love music videos and I think I might love Japanese music. It's not as poppy and disgusting as Korean music, although I have to admit a soft spot for 2PM and Super Junior. Anyway, the videos were cool and "Bump Of Chicken" might just be my favorite new artist.

We were really lucky to have two very hot days, but on our last day it poured. Oh well, two out of three ain't bad. We checked out of our hotel, dropped our bags off at the train station and went to Roppongi, where I'd read there was some decent shopping and sight seeing. This is a lie. There is next to nothing of interest in Roppongi, at least not on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Nice view of Tokyo Tower, though.

However, I will always be grateful to Roppongi for the most delicious doncast meal I have ever had. Doncast is a pork cutlet, and it's pretty popular in Korea, though it is a Japanese food. We had doncast about every 3 days at the first school I worked at in Korea and I grew to despise it pretty quickly. Bad school lunches can ruin any good food though, and since I've been back in Korea I've had some really good doncast at different restaurants and I've really grown to like it. I was determined to try an authentic Japanese doncast. And this cutlet was amazing. In stead of being a breaded pork chop or breaded processed pork, it was 4 or 5 layers of thinly slice pork belly breaded in a flaky crust. It was battered samgyupsal!! The greasiest breakfast I've ever had, and the best meal in a long time. Amazing. Give this place a Michelin Star.

After lunch we went to Yoyogi Park and saw the Meiji Shrine. Korea named a chocolate bar after it, so it had to be worth seeing. Even though it was raining, Yoyogi Park was really nice to walk through. It's nice that the city has left the trees in this area intact. Trees are good.

We went to Harajuku one last time (LOVE) and then headed back to Shinjuku Station to collect our bags and get on the rapid train to Narita airport. The train was nice (as it should be for $35) and broadcast information about our flights and which terminal to go to.

There's lots of things to do to kill time at Narita airport, but it's a big place and it takes time to get through security and find your gate. We were 2 hours early and only had 30 minutes to eat and look around. Our flight was smooth and we got home right on time. It was nice to be back in Korea, though it's always weird to travel "home" to a place that isn't REALLY "home". Anyway, we took the new subway line straight from the airport to our apartment (for only $4- take that Tokyo) and then it finally sank in: oh crap, we have to work tomorrow!

Tokyo was awesome and we're already daydreaming about our next trip. Oh, and remember when our laptop died? He'd been failing for quite some time so guess what we got Monday night?