First Full Day in Tokyo!

Today was my first full day in Tokyo. When we got in last night, everything was pretty dark, so it was so neat to see this city during the day--one that makes NYC look like a playground. Jennifer and I were met this morning by two young female English Teachers from Senshu University High School. They were our "tour guides."

Let me start by saying that if you thought any of the US subway systems were hard to navigate, you have GOT to come to Tokyo. I took a picture of the map (I'll try to upload some pictures at school tomorrow if I get a chance), and there are like 25 different colors of lines on it, with stops and switches all over the place. Just the Tokyo Train Station itself has 23 platforms, so that should give you an idea of how many trains are contstantly coming in and out of the station. We will be shown tomorrow how to use the train system to get to school, but after that Jennifer and I are on our own! Oh boy! There's a prayer request! Let's just say that I have more faith in Jennifer's navigation talents than my own, haha.

So we got on the train at Hatagaya station, switched 3 times, and got off at a spot where they are building Japan's tallest tower, called Sky Tree. It is supposed to be 409 meters high. I have no idea how tall that is in feet (there's a math problem for you!), but it's crazy tall. They've been working on it for two years, and have two more left until it is completed. We did some walking around there afterwards. By the way, almost EVERYONE walks or bikes everywhere here. There are very few cars, and the ones that there are drive like madmen on wicked narrow roads. The train system is the most "reliable" form of transportation, as one of our tour guides put it, because it is very punctual. If you drive, you run the risk of hitting traffic or an accident.

After walking around Sky Tree, our guides asked us where we wanted to go for lunch. We told them "anything authentically Japanese." We found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant (literally), and it was SOOOO good! We were the only customers in there the entire time, and it was owned by an older husband and wife. In the middle of every table was a hot griddle. Apparently when you order, they bring you the ingredients and YOU need to do the cooking! (what a great idea!) However, since we were the only customers and the man wanted to make sure he made a good impression on us Americans, he did all of the cooking for us. We had all sorts of things, including a cabbage and cheese pancake (similar to a potato pancake), fish eggs (kinda slimy, but interesting), shrimp, catfish, scallops, and much more. They are really big here on their sauces, so that was neat to try. The man took our picture and asked if he could put it on his restaurant's website. So my face is floating around somewhere on Japanese Internet--oh boy!

After this, we headed back to the train station and switched trains 2 more times until we got off and headed towards big yellow tour buses. We went on a 3 hour bus tour all around Tokyo, and boy was it neat!!! (Except for the fact that our "English" headphones weren't working, but our guides translated everything the tour leader was saying). We first went to the Imperial Palace, where the Emperor lives. Everything looks so differently here. Even the pine trees (well, they call them pine trees) look NOTHING like our pine trees back home. They are much less leafy, and the branches kind of curve upwards. It's hard to explain with words. And there are vending machines EVERYWHERE!!! We walked to a statue of a warrior on a horse, took some more randome pictures, and got back on the bus. Next we headed to Tokyo Tower, which is a very high tower that overlooks Tokyo 360 degrees. Everything is so colorful and technological here. Even the elevator had these disco-type lights on the ceiling. And boy, do they pack you into an elevator here! Mom, if you're reading this, you'd have a meltdown with your claustrophobia (not sure how to spell that word). It took us up to the highest tower, and we got out and were able to take a lot of neat pictures of the city at dusk. Downstairs there was a market, so we were able to look around there. Walking around, I literally felt like I was transported into a Japanese anime TV show. At every stand was Hello Kitty, Pokemon, and tons of other famous anime show stuff to buy.

We got back on the bus, and it was night time by now. The bus drove us through Tokyo's "Shopping District." This is like NYC's 5th Avenue, only taken up a couple notches. Think of it as elite Milan meets Tokyo. Needless to say, this self-proclaimed cheapskate will be looking at that district, but not actually shopping there. Haha!

After the bus tour we took the train back to Shinjuko Station (a couple stations down from Hatagaya). Shinjuko Station has a 9 floor mall on top of it. We took the once-again cramped elevator to the 9th floor, where we had another authentic Japanese meal, except this time in a more modern, trendy restaurant. I had fried chicken with this tartar kind of sauce. It also came with masi soup, pickles, sticky rice, beans with seaweed, and my least favorite: tofu. Nope, I could never be a vegetarian, that's for sure. For dessert we had a buckwheat crepe with strawberries, blueberries, ice cream, and pudding. It was delicious! I'm all about trying new foods. Of all of the foods I had today, the only one I could honestly say I didn't like was the tofu, although fish eggs wasn't exactly my favorite either. But at least I can say I had it!!! I hope that if my students are reading this they are realizing the importance of trying something before we judge it.

So I'm back at the hotel now (with very limited wireless--it keeps going in and out). Soon I'll be heading up to try to get to bed. Oh, and my first night's sleep wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I slept from 10-3, was wide awake from 3-5, then fell back alseep from 5-8. Tonight I hope it will be better.

Tomorrow's a very busy day at school. I'm eager to see how Japanese school compares to American. Tuesday we are able to tour an elementary school, which I'm looking forward to. I'll try to update my blog if I have the time at school tomorrow.

Please keep your prayers coming! Thank you for following me on this journey!!!