Asia Part II: Tokyo
I've finally crossed a huge item off my bucket list: Visit Tokyo! After our Beijing adventure, we jetted off to our second destination, the beautiful country of Japan. We spent nearly a week in Tokyo, and I must say we spent about half the time confused and the other half of the time in complete and utter awe.
When we got to Haneda airport late Monday night, we took one of the subways (later, we learned that there are multiple subway and transportation systems) to Tokyo Station (later, we learned that this is the biggest, most complicated station ever) near our hotel. Once we got out of the station and onto the street (a feat in and of itself), we were lost. I randomly asked a Japanese woman who barely spoke English if she knew where our hotel was, and she spent the next 40 minutes talking to others in Japanese about the directions until she literally walked us to our hotel. No joke, she was the kindest person EVER and we were shocked at how she didn't even hesitate to completely inconvenience herself to get us to our hotel!
The streets of Tokyo were so clean, safe, and vibrant. The trash cans and basically everything in the hotel were so cute and miniature, and there wasn't much English anywhere we went. We spent over an hour on the first day trying to figure out the subway/metro/rail system, but once we figured it out we were golden! Although I must say, I have never seen such a complicated metro/subway map in my life. We explored so many cool parts of Tokyo and did so much walking. Every single square inch of space is used so effectively and it is just the coolest city to experience. I also couldn't believe how polite everyone was.
We spent the first three nights in the heart of the city, and the last three nights in a resort by the sea outside the city. It felt like two trips in one! It was amazing to venture through the city and totally immerse ourselves in it all, and then it was just as amazing to relax at the pool and completely chill out at the resort towards the end.
I am still trying to comprehend all that Tokyo had to offer and am convinced that a hundred trips to Tokyo wouldn't be enough to see it all. I LOVE Tokyo!
UENO, SHIBUYA & ASAKUSA
Our first day in Tokyo was really rainy and cold, but the weather didn't get our spirits down! We started by taking a train up to Ueno where we spotted a rainy cherry blossom tree (yay!) and then ventured to Asakusa to see the huge red lantern and explore some of the back alleys. I was SO excited to stumble upon one of my favorite treats in Asia - chocolate waffles! I had them all the time when I lived in Singapore and visited Hawaii, and it was just as delicious as I remember. We also explored Shibuya Crossing (the busiest intersection in the world, supposedly) and the many gaming and shopping areas that they have there. It was so neat!
ROPPONGI HILLS, AKIHABARA & SHINJUKU
We spent the next few sunny but chilly days going to the Google office in Roppongi, exploring "Electric City" in Akihabara, and being blown away by the monstrosity of buildings and shopping at Shinjuku. The office was so cool and the best part was surprising a few of my friends! They were SO shocked and it was so wonderful to see them in person again. The office also had the coolest views of Tokyo. Electric City was full of teenagers, more gaming centers, and a ton of anime characters and stores. There was also an insane amount of electronics - literally anything and everything you could ever imagine from the smallest plug to the latest iPhone. We stumbled upon Meiji Shrine too, which was really beautiful. The day before, we went on a 1.5 hour-long hunt to find this vegan Ramen restaurant at Tokyo Station, but finally gave up after not being able to find it. I was pretty bummed, but lucky for me, Derek somehow found a small place that had vegetarian ramen and it was SO DELICIOUS! I am so happy to say that I ate ramen in Tokyo :-P
IMPERIAL PALACE & ODAIBA
Before heading out to Odaiba for the last portion of our trip, we made our way to Imperial Palace to check out the scenery. I tried to get creative with our photo poses here too but not sure how successful I was :-) Afterwards, we took the subway and train out to Odaiba, where we stayed for the rest of our trip and totally, completely RELAXED! We did absolutely nothing but sleep, work out, lay by the indoor pool, read in the infinity pool, and go on long walks around the island. I love having down time like that, and it was the perfect place to do it. One of my favorite things was going for a long run around the island one of the mornings - it was so refreshing and I loved seeing Tokyo from a different perspective. I was also ecstatic when I found a place that made acai bowls - I had been craving one so badly! It was also really neat to be in a hot tub while outdoors in the cold. Looking back, the view of the Tokyo skyline is one I'll never forget. This trip meant so much to me and will forever be one of my favorite trips with my favorite person. Xoxo
