Our first day in Japan. It was all so exciting that we slept in, but we forgave ourselves because it took us about 12 hours of flying, and 2 hours on a train to get to our destination.
Despite being small, our room at the Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku Hotel (which I highly recommend as a place to stay) was very comfortable. They provide you with full length Japanese sleep shirts which I just loved. (Alivia wouldn't wear hers) They also provided you with slippers, a refrigerator and all the necessary amenities. (e.g. toothbrush, conditioner, shampoo, etc.) Very nice hotel for a great price.
after we got up and showered, we walked around a bit. For some reason i was convinced that Tokyo was a small town and I soon found out that that wasn't the case. It seemed like we were getting no where and despite the landmarks be prominently placed on the map, they were quite hidden behind very large buildings. (We found this to be the place everywhere, you can see nothing from the street.) After going around in a few circles we got on the subway. This is where i fell in love with it, so easy just like the metro in paris, the metro in dc or the subway in ny.
We took the subway to Asakusa and as it turned out it was the perfect way to start our exploration of Japan. You get off the subway and the first think you see is the Thunder Gate. Beautiful and majestic, the gate is reddish orange (most of the shrines, etc. are this color) and there is a huge paper lantern in the center. When you stand underneath this lantern their is a seal at the bottom of dragons that was exquisite. once through the arch, you step into the famous Nakamisa arcade. This is a long row of shops that carry sweets, hello kitty, fans, etc. anything you would want to buy as a rememberance of your stay in Tokyo. Alivia and I each got a Momiji manju - the maple leave cake. You can see them make them right there and then they go into this conveyor belt that looks straight out of Pee Wee's Big Adventure. They go through this intricate system and then are wrapped individually. They were delicious, but we burned out tongues as we couldn't wait to eat them.
We made our way up the arcade, and there was a famous bronze incense burner. It was quite large and supposedly it cures any aliment if you have the smoke touch it. Many people stood around it, waving their hands into the smoke and guiding it to various parts of their body. Both Alivia and I stood in the smokes way too and it was very soothing.
We then continued walking up the main shrine. On our way, we were stopped several times by students on field trips. For some reason they were able to tell we were foreigners. I will never know how. They would come up to us and ask if we were americans. Then they would ask us question to practice their english. Jr. high and high school students are required to study english so some of them spoke it quite well. Unfortunately, like us, if you don't have people to talk to on an on-going basis you lose it. This happens often as english and japanese could not be further apart in alphabet, etc.
We spent a few more minutes at the shrine (unfortunately, it was under construction) We had had such a late start that there was not much more time to do anything else, so we made our way back to Shinjuku and ate at a little side restaurant. It is a very interesting system in japan for their "fast food". You go to what looks like a vending machine, put your money in and it gives you a ticket. You then sit down give the waitress your ticket and she then brings you your food. It was quite good, though not what i was expecting from the picture.
After dinner we made our way back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep as we knew we need to get more out of our days.
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