T-T-T-Tokyo!!!! Part 1

NOTE: I for some reason can't seem to get the pictures to upload via blogger or picasa right now, so if the sizes are weird, sorry! I had to size them myself. I will replace them if it ever starts working here.

So, Tokyo was absolutely FANTASTIC! For the first couple days I was there, I actually had this shocking thought that I might actually be able to live there. That changed quickly, when I realized that the area in which I was staying and that I had previously been visiting were just especially calm and tranquil.

Anyhow, unfortunately my camera has been having some issues ever since I dropped it in Etretat, so all of my pictures are BLURRY! Luckily, Mahalia took some great pictures!

So, the first night, we went to this cute little restaurant recommended by the hotel, which was luckily non-smoking. There was a very scary dead fish staring at us from the bar right in front of us.

After much discussion with the incredibly nice barman(in a weird mixture of English, French, and Japanese), we finally determined that I could eat the edamame and the Japanese pumpkin, which actually looked like green squash to me. It was SO delicious, and possibly the most delicious thing I ate while in Tokyo.

Afterwards, we went to the hotel bar (non-smoking YAY!), where we had to take off our shoes, and I drank mango juice and sat down on my knees all traditionally. :-) There was one of those traditional Japanese heaters under the table (I forget what they're called), and it was sort-of awesome.

Day 1, when we finally got out of the hotel, after a brief stop at something that seemed to be a graveyard,



the first thing we did was, guess what!, eat. We went and discovered the Loving Hut of Tokyo. Loving Hut is one of my absolute FAVORITE vegan restaurants of Paris, so I was psyched to discover one in Tokyo, even if the menu was totally different.



I was mega psyched because I got to eat my first vegan bento box.



It was sort of super awesome, especially since I'm sure it probably won't happen again unless I return to Loving Hut.

After eating, we hopped on the metro and discovered something I thought was very weird: there was a blood donor station IN the metro. Weird!



Anyhow, we went off in search of the Japanese Sword Museum, which ended up being a small museum showcasing Japanese swords. It was sort of amazing. I got to read a pamphlet on how to take care of Japanese swords and how to appreciate them. I appreciated, and I wish I could show you guys pictures, but that wasn't allowed.

Afterwards, we went off in search of cherry blossom trees, but in the place, we found the Meiji Temple/Shrine. It was this huge beautiful building (well, area, really) in the middle of this amazing forest.



It was possibly the coolest thing I saw the entire time we were in Tokyo.



I think we got lucky, too, because there was a wedding going on while we were there, so we got to see a Japanese bride and groom in traditional garb. Super cool (to the power of infinity).

The exit of the temple ended up being at the Harajuku metro station, so we walked down the big street through Omote Sando, which is basically like the Champs-Elysees of Tokyo.


Then we hopped on the metro

and headed on over to Ginza. I think we were lucky that we ended up there at night, as lit up it was beautiful, but I think during the day it would have been concrete and too much.



We saw the major area where there are, like, 6 ways to cross all at once; it's sort of ridiculous - it's full of cars one second then totally empty and then totally full of people.
{{picture of crossroads}}
Sorry, my picture didn't really turn out so well.
We also got to see the major Kabuki theatre. I think that I would have really liked to see a Kabuki play, though it might have been hard given that I wouldn't have understood anything.



This post is already pretty long, and that's only day 1. So days 2 and 3 will be in a separate post (or two). So that's all for now, folks! Check back soon for Tokyo Days 2 and 3!