First Day in Tokyo

Breakfast: makerel, rice, corn soup and corn iced tea which tasted like popcorn and cornflakes.

It felt like home on the ride from the airport because we saw kudzu everywhere.

Went to a very fun Virtual Reality megaplex in Shinjuku. I beat Eric at Mario Kart and skied down some slopes. Eric rode a flying wooden bicycle and shot some bad guys:

Then we went to a Sega arcade where I was super excited to play the game I had been waiting to play - the drum game!!!

Lots of claw machines

You can even claw for Red Bull

Then we visited our first Shinto shrine, the Meiji Shrine. I was geeked out because I’ve been reading a book about Japanese religions to help me sleep at night. We saw a wedding and made a wish at the shrine, which involves lots of bowing and clapping. There is a place to park your car and get it blessed. A Ferrari was awaiting its blessing. Anyway, this is a bad pic of the temple but that’s our super nice guide Ren on the right:

Then we ate the BEST RAMEN IN THE WORLD made with burnt miso. Yes they give you bibs:

Top of Roponghi Hills, which has the best views. Tokyo is vast. I can’t even do it justice here.

Famous spider sculpture

Sorry, jet lag setting in so my sentences are getting shorter. We took the monorail to Odaiba which I highly recommend. I forgot the name of this guy:

And how could I forget the Hashi dog statue at Shibuyu. It’s the dog from the sad sad Richard Gere movie and the real-life Hashi waited at Shibuyu station, which I find hard to believe since the train station in the movie didn’t look like it was in Tokyo’s version of Times Square

I’m fading after a full day. Better rest up for sumo wrestling tomorrow.

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Kanazawa, oh Kanazawa

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