Tokyo!

Captain's Log,

Not much has happened between the last entry and going to Tokyo, mostly been hanging out with the girlfriend.

Anywho, we took a night bus to Tokyo (just Mayo and I), and arrived in downtown Shinjuku. Upon getting off the bus, I was greeted by a building that resembled a giant phallus. I laughed and took it as an omen that I would love this trip.

We get to our hotel around 9:00 am and are told we can't check into our room until 3:00. Since we were just on a bus all night with no shower, I am not pleased with this news.

We make the best of it and just move on. We first went to Akhabara, which was cool. Mostly shopping, particularly electronics and porn. We went into a 6-floor sex shop, which I akin to Dante's Inferno, in that each floor was like a circle of Hell.

We walked from Akihabara to Ueno, which was also cool. We spent most of our time in the Museum of Natural History. I love dinosaurs.
By the time we left, it was 2:00, and we were starving, so we go and get lunch, then head to Asakusa.

Asakusa was cool, bought some omiyage there, and it was starting to get dark so we went back to the hotel to shower, eat dinner, and whatnot.

Next day involved getting up at 6:00 to go to Tsukiji, which has this awesome giant fish market. We went there and looked at the shops, I had some of the best tuna and crab I've ever had in my life, and the best part is that it was caught that morning, so it's also the freshest I will ever have as well.

After all of this, we went to Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, and others to go shopping. I really liked Harajuku. I was just irked because there's a certain style of jacket I'm looking for, but when I manage to find one I actually like, it's either too expensive or doesn't fit. Woe is me.

After shopping and having dinner in Shinjuku (including hot-light Krispy Kreme!), we go to Tokyo Tower, which was cool, but a bit of a rip-off. Afterwards, we were exhausted, but kept getting delayed. One of the most notable delays was the train, because somewhere on the Tokyo loop, someone has thrown their-self into the train. Yummy.

We got to sleep in the next day. So we head out around 10:30-11ish. We mostly revisited areas, shopping and looking at things we missed. Then at night we went to Odaiba for dinner, more shopping, and to be date-y.

We got steak for dinner. It was amazing. After that we wandered around the island and rode a giant (overpriced) ferris wheel. It was fun.

The next day involved us checking out and going to Yokohama, we stashed our suitcases in lockers, and did some more shopping, and went to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu (giant Buddha statue).

We took a shinkansen back to Osaka, which was cool, and it SNOWED!! Yay! Didn't stick, but oh well.

The intensive period starts up tomorrow, it will be 15 hours a week of nothing but Japanese classes. I am going to die. Wish me luck.