A few weeks ago, Josh found out that he was going to be sent to Japan for a weeklong conference. His reaction: “Cool!” My reaction: “Alright, we’re going to Tokyo!! I mean, can I come, too, honey?!” Fortunately, the command booked him his own hotel room, and there were frequent flyer seats available on his flight. That sealed the deal - we were off for a week of fun. Well, I was off for a week of fun, and Josh was off to work. (Oh, he can’t complain, he had lots of time for fun, too!) The week flew by, and before we knew it, we were on our way home again, completely exhausted!
What did we do, you might ask… Well, I haven’t figured out how to recap a week’s worth of adventuring in one blog post, so I’m just going to go with the highlights:
On Sunday, we flew into Japan, navigated the metro system with no Japanese money and lots of bulky luggage, went to the Tokyo National Museum, got completely drenched while exploring the beautiful Ueno-koen park, and went out to dinner at an authentic Japanese restaurant with some of Josh’s co-workers.
Monday, Josh worked.
I spent the day learning my way around Tokyo. It was another rainy day, so for most of the day I explored some of the high-end shopping opportunities (although I decided not to spend our life savings!). I also bumped into a Japanese TV star - Doraemon - whose show airs every Friday night at 7pm. Too bad I didn't catch it while I was there! Later that night, Josh and I went for a marathon walk through the city…I honestly thought my feet were going to fall off. Boy, Tokyo is huge!
Tuesday saw Josh back at work and me at an art exhibit on loan from the Pompidou Center in Paris. I’ve never been one for modern art, but I tried! I also went
to the top of a 50-some story building and got a spectacular view of Tokyo. Wow…my feet started hurting again at the thought of just how much farther we could have walked the previous night! Tuesday evening was perhaps my favorite time of the whole week – we went to a sumo wrestling tournament! It was so fascinating to watch REAL sumo wrestlers. Up to that point, my only sumo experience was people wearing blow-up sumo suits at minor league baseball games to amuse the crowds. The real thing is a little different and much more interesting.
Wednesday, I decided to take a day trip by train to Nikko, a town a few hours north of Tokyo. Nikko is chock full of beautiful bridges, temples, and shrines. Its claim
to fame is the carving of the “See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil” monkeys, but there is so much more than that to see. I fairly ran through the town to try to see everything I could in one afternoon, and I managed to squeeze a lot in. Half the fun of this day was trying to navigate not only the Japanese metro system, but also the train system and the bus system. It wasn’t always pretty, but I did it! (And the train ride through the Japanese countryside was just lovely!) Wednesday night, we went to dinner at a yummy restaurant that is noted as one of the places where scenes from the movie Kill Bill 2 were filmed. I haven’t seen the whole movie (it’s really not my type!), but I have seen snippets of it, and fortunately, the snippets I had seen were the snippets that were filmed in this restaurant! After dinner, Josh and I made our way over to Tokyo Tower, which was modeled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris and is actually a little taller. We went halfway up the tower and got a beautiful nighttime view of the city. It really was spectacular!
Thursday was Josh’s final day of the conference, so as he finished up his work, I finished up my “To Do List” of tourist activities. I stopped by the Tsukiji Fish Market early that morning – not to buy fish, but to watch all of the activity. And boy, was there activity! I nearly lost my life 5 times over by people buzzing around in mo
torized carts full of slippery fish and other sea creatures. But I have to say, it was quite interesting (though rather stinky!) to watch the flurry of activity that is their daily routine. Talk about high intensity. My! After the fish market, I needed a break…so I went shopping! I headed to a neat outdoor shopping area - a covered walkway crammed with fun little trinket shops and snack stands. At the end of the walkway is a beautiful temple. From there, I took a boat trip on the Sumida River to a beautiful garden in the middle of Tokyo. It was amazing to be in such a peaceful place while looking up at endless skyscrapers in the background. Later that evening, we met up with a friend from Tokyo and went to a Japanese sushi restaurant. Up to that point, I thought I had tasted a variety of sushi. Wrong – I knew nothing about sushi. This was the real deal, and boy, was it an experience. We ate raw oysters, crunchy fish spines, and everything in between… Surprisingly, I liked everything, as long as I didn’t think about what it was!
On Friday, our last full day in Japan, Josh, our friend Graham, and I got up early and navigated the Japanese metro and bus systems all the way to Mt. Fuji. Josh was dying to climb it! I can’t say I was dying to climb it, but I can say, in retrospect, that it was an interesting way to spend the day. September is outside of climbing season for Mt. Fuji, so the weather was rather windy and chilly. I made it up about 75% of the mountain before the cold and the altitude got to me. Fortunately, there was a little mountain hut open up there where
I stopped and thawed out as Josh and Graham finished the climb. They made it to the top, looked around for a few seconds while they tried not to blow away, and then headed back down. We decided to stay at the hut for the night and climb down the mountain in the morning. We really couldn’t pass up the experience, as this was not your average sleeping establishment. You see, the hut consisted of a few different rooms, and every room was filled to the brim with individual mats and blankets on the floor. These were the beds – and the pillows seemed to be little bags of rice! Needless to say, it wasn’t the best night of sleep we’ve ever had, but it was a memorable experience.
Saturday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn, clambered down the mountain, ran from taxi to bus to train to make it to the airport, and collapsed in near disbelief when we arrived at the airport and thought about how we had woken up several hours ago near the top of Mt. Fuji. What a difference a few hours and modern transportation makes!
All in all, we had a fun-filled, very memorable week in Japan. When do we get to go back?!
What did we do, you might ask… Well, I haven’t figured out how to recap a week’s worth of adventuring in one blog post, so I’m just going to go with the highlights:
On Sunday, we flew into Japan, navigated the metro system with no Japanese money and lots of bulky luggage, went to the Tokyo National Museum, got completely drenched while exploring the beautiful Ueno-koen park, and went out to dinner at an authentic Japanese restaurant with some of Josh’s co-workers.
Monday, Josh worked.
I spent the day learning my way around Tokyo. It was another rainy day, so for most of the day I explored some of the high-end shopping opportunities (although I decided not to spend our life savings!). I also bumped into a Japanese TV star - Doraemon - whose show airs every Friday night at 7pm. Too bad I didn't catch it while I was there! Later that night, Josh and I went for a marathon walk through the city…I honestly thought my feet were going to fall off. Boy, Tokyo is huge!Tuesday saw Josh back at work and me at an art exhibit on loan from the Pompidou Center in Paris. I’ve never been one for modern art, but I tried! I also went
to the top of a 50-some story building and got a spectacular view of Tokyo. Wow…my feet started hurting again at the thought of just how much farther we could have walked the previous night! Tuesday evening was perhaps my favorite time of the whole week – we went to a sumo wrestling tournament! It was so fascinating to watch REAL sumo wrestlers. Up to that point, my only sumo experience was people wearing blow-up sumo suits at minor league baseball games to amuse the crowds. The real thing is a little different and much more interesting.Wednesday, I decided to take a day trip by train to Nikko, a town a few hours north of Tokyo. Nikko is chock full of beautiful bridges, temples, and shrines. Its claim
to fame is the carving of the “See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil” monkeys, but there is so much more than that to see. I fairly ran through the town to try to see everything I could in one afternoon, and I managed to squeeze a lot in. Half the fun of this day was trying to navigate not only the Japanese metro system, but also the train system and the bus system. It wasn’t always pretty, but I did it! (And the train ride through the Japanese countryside was just lovely!) Wednesday night, we went to dinner at a yummy restaurant that is noted as one of the places where scenes from the movie Kill Bill 2 were filmed. I haven’t seen the whole movie (it’s really not my type!), but I have seen snippets of it, and fortunately, the snippets I had seen were the snippets that were filmed in this restaurant! After dinner, Josh and I made our way over to Tokyo Tower, which was modeled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris and is actually a little taller. We went halfway up the tower and got a beautiful nighttime view of the city. It really was spectacular!Thursday was Josh’s final day of the conference, so as he finished up his work, I finished up my “To Do List” of tourist activities. I stopped by the Tsukiji Fish Market early that morning – not to buy fish, but to watch all of the activity. And boy, was there activity! I nearly lost my life 5 times over by people buzzing around in mo
torized carts full of slippery fish and other sea creatures. But I have to say, it was quite interesting (though rather stinky!) to watch the flurry of activity that is their daily routine. Talk about high intensity. My! After the fish market, I needed a break…so I went shopping! I headed to a neat outdoor shopping area - a covered walkway crammed with fun little trinket shops and snack stands. At the end of the walkway is a beautiful temple. From there, I took a boat trip on the Sumida River to a beautiful garden in the middle of Tokyo. It was amazing to be in such a peaceful place while looking up at endless skyscrapers in the background. Later that evening, we met up with a friend from Tokyo and went to a Japanese sushi restaurant. Up to that point, I thought I had tasted a variety of sushi. Wrong – I knew nothing about sushi. This was the real deal, and boy, was it an experience. We ate raw oysters, crunchy fish spines, and everything in between… Surprisingly, I liked everything, as long as I didn’t think about what it was!On Friday, our last full day in Japan, Josh, our friend Graham, and I got up early and navigated the Japanese metro and bus systems all the way to Mt. Fuji. Josh was dying to climb it! I can’t say I was dying to climb it, but I can say, in retrospect, that it was an interesting way to spend the day. September is outside of climbing season for Mt. Fuji, so the weather was rather windy and chilly. I made it up about 75% of the mountain before the cold and the altitude got to me. Fortunately, there was a little mountain hut open up there where
I stopped and thawed out as Josh and Graham finished the climb. They made it to the top, looked around for a few seconds while they tried not to blow away, and then headed back down. We decided to stay at the hut for the night and climb down the mountain in the morning. We really couldn’t pass up the experience, as this was not your average sleeping establishment. You see, the hut consisted of a few different rooms, and every room was filled to the brim with individual mats and blankets on the floor. These were the beds – and the pillows seemed to be little bags of rice! Needless to say, it wasn’t the best night of sleep we’ve ever had, but it was a memorable experience.Saturday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn, clambered down the mountain, ran from taxi to bus to train to make it to the airport, and collapsed in near disbelief when we arrived at the airport and thought about how we had woken up several hours ago near the top of Mt. Fuji. What a difference a few hours and modern transportation makes!
All in all, we had a fun-filled, very memorable week in Japan. When do we get to go back?!
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