Getting back from a trip like this has been rather difficult. We are not only adjusting to the time change, but to a certain degree, a small lifestyle change. Smaller portions, a busy and exciting city, impecable mass transit system, amazing food - all are missed when we return here. Oh yea, and Japan doesn’t have our government, which is nice.

So here it goes, the second week of our trip…

Friday 11/9…

Off to Kyoto! Jay/Yuki booked a couple hotel rooms in Kyoto and we decided it’d be cool to head there for the weekend. Yuki was also going to meet a friend on Saturday so it worked out well. We headed to Ueno (or was it Shinjuku) station to catch a train to Kyoto. I must comment again on the sheer awesomeness Japan’s mass transit system. The train system would be a great thing to have over here, but honestly, I don’t see it working out as well in the states as it does in Japan.

We got to Kyoto around 2:30 and decided to check into the hotel then head out to a temple/shrine. After checking in, we headed out to the shrine with had a long, uphill road full of shops (and people). On the way up, we stopped at a place that sold crepe-type snacks - very good. At the top of the hill was a very impressive temple complete with overlook. We got there close to dusk so we made a note to go back there the next day.

We walked around the temple a bit more, snapped some shots then decided food was in order. We headed towards a restaurant that was said to be pretty good, but getting there wasn’t easy. People kept saying it was one way, then the other. Upon finding it, we realized it was very expensive and it was a course meal place so eating there would take hours. We ended up getting a small salad and fried tomato pieces (awesome) and heading out. We found a restaurant that served Chinese and Japanese food and you ordered smaller items so we ordered a bunch of things - again, all delicious - and got dessert as well. I opted for the mango pudding..mmmm.

Saturday 11/10…

Headed out to a diner to grab some food (not the greatest) and went back to the temple again as there was more light. Stopped off at a “Circle K” (convenience store, basically) to grab some Lets Pretz (mmm) and a few other things. The thing with Japanese convenience stores is the food is A: Good, B: Not smooshed, and C: Looks appealing - What a concept! After some snacks, we headed up to the temple we visited the prior evening but went up a different street. We discovered even more shops and less people thankfully. Yuki and Ren headed off to her friend’s place (1/2hr away via train) and we meandered the temple, did a bit more shopping and headed out to get some food.

We decided Italian food was just as good as any so we went into a department store and I ordered a pizza (not the American type - nice thin crust) and it was very satisfying. We headed back to the hotel room and there was talk of playing our Nintendo DS’s for awhile, but I basically passed out shortly after getting into the hotel room.

…more to come…

Disclaimer: I have been meaning to post about the trip as it happens’ish but this is not only a trip, but a vacation. There have been times when I had a choice between reading a Stephen King novel and blogging…and the King novel won by a long shot. Sorry for the delay folks, but here we go… (also, not surprisingly, I left a lot of stuff out as it was hard to remember every single thing we did)

Our first week in Japan was full of jetlag, relaxation, great food and tons of exposure to the very interesting Japanese culture

Friday Night 11/2…

…I actually remembered I already went over this in my last post. Woops.

Saturday 11/3…

Saturday started out great - we got some much needed sleep after our long day of travel. We awoke and surprised Yuki and Jay by our coherence and ability to blink without falling asleep. Yuki told us afternoon would be hard (4pm = 3am…) and she was pretty much spot on with that statement.

We headed out to wander Tokyo by hopping on a bus that was chock full of people. I remember wanting to say excuse me a number of times but I’d probably only get a few blank stares - maybe “Excuse me” is a more universal term, like “toilet” or “our president is brain dead”.

Our meandering brought us to a great store that sold shirts with some fantastic expressions. One shirt, which I bought has Kanji that translates (roughly) to “Because I’m a Genius” - or something to that degree. After the shirt store, we went to a (Shinto?) shrine where there was a large number of people playing drums - it was pretty incredible to watch as the performance was more or less perfect - from what I saw anyway. The shrines here are absolutely stunning. They all look like they were built a few months ago - they are all very well maintained.

EDIT: We also headed to a “100 Yen Store” (A Dollar Store, basically). Lots of floors full of all sorts of things from candy/food to housewares to crafts.

Sunday 11/4…

Same as Saturday to a certain degree. We headed out to a pretty insane electronics store: Bic Camera. This was kinda like Circuit City with just a dash of hyperactivity. There were signs/prices on nearly everything, and there were about 8 floors of stuff. Tokyo isn’t a city where you build out - you build up. As we got to certain floors, guys with megaphones were yelling at the customers about deals/advertisements…in the store! I did get to use a Canon EOS 1D-s MkIII with Canon 50mm f/1.2L attached - I almost cried.

After the super hyper electronics store, we headed to an arcade that had a slew of machines. One game we played was basically like Guitar Hero except with drums - pretty cool (and much more realistic that hitting buttons on a “guitar”). There were also these machines that had a claw in them so you could get prizes…but really nice prizes. Alas, the claws could hold about 2oz and the hands of the claws had about as much strength as a piece of tissue paper. In the basement of the arcade there were a slew of machines with all sorts of fighting games - some linked together (think of battleship - not fighting side by side, but opposite from each other). Tekken 5, Virtua Fighter 5 and Soul Caliber 3 were a few of the games there - there were a few mech-type fighting games as well.

Our next stop was a store with a bunch of stationary/crafts. I was pretty out of it at this point due to jet lag, but the overall theme continued: about 6+ floors chock full of stuff. It was more crafts than anything else.

We finished up the day shopping for food for dinner. We hit up a sushi place that had some very interesting rolls - one rolled using egg instead of nori/seaweed - delicious! I also got a roll with pork in it. Mighty tasty as well. I’ll have to tell the folks at California Rollin about using pork in their rolls.

Monday/Tuesday 11/5-6…

Monday and Tuesday Jay and Yuki had to work. Jay took off Wed-Fri and Yuki took of Fri for a trip to Kyoto (post coming..stay tuned). So, we were left to navigate the city by ourselves. Jay and Yuki drew us some awesome maps which we followed very closely. As we were both still jet lagging, we relaxed more than anything else these days. Monday we headed out to Starbucks for lunch and Tuesday we hit up an awesome udon (sp?) noodle place. For dinner on Monday (or was it Tuesday?) we went to a very good (and incredibly small) restaurant. Now, by small I don’t mean cramped…I mean micro-sized. The “bar” area consisted of 4-6 stools with about 3″ of clearance behind them. The upstairs consisted of a very small room for the four of us - very small. But again, awesome food.

Wednesday 11/7…

Jay was off and Ren (their son) was off to day care. The two of us and Jay headed off to Ueno (sp?) for lunch and shopping. We went to an Italian restaurant of all places (the Italian food here is actually really good - and the pastries are freaking incredible). Ueno was nice as it wasn’t as crowded as Shinjuku (where Jay and Yuki live) and it was chock full of shops in one long stretch. We also found another arcade that had only the claw/prize machines. In the basement of the arcade were a number of machines where you could take pictures (like a photobooth) and then put about a million different clipart things on them - the results we came up with were pretty funny.

Ueno is where I also discovered something magical - Japanese “soft cream” (ice cream that kicks ass).  I had a Vanilla/Matcha mix - fan-freaking-tastic.  I made it my mission to get a cone of this stuff almost every time I saw a sign for it.

Thursday 11/8…

Off to Mito! We decided to exchange our “JR Railpass Vouchers” for our actual railpass - basically, it’s a pass that saves you a good chunk of change if you are a visitor in Japan. We boarded a “Hikari Superexpress” - a bullet train of sorts, but not the fastest, Nozomi train.  Our rail pass wouldn’t allow us to board that rocket.  Still, the train ride was very fast and very smooth considering we were flying through the countryside on two steel rails - twas like buttah.

Mito was very nice.  It was like Tokyo, minus about a billion people, a billion buildings (leaving roughly…a billion), all resulting in a decreased heart rate.  We brought Ren, who promptly passed out in his stroller when we began our walk around a man made lake chock full of swans, ducks and a few other birds.  The walk was very pleasant and at the half way made another wonderful discovery - Let’s Pretz!  A fantastic cracker-esque snack in the shape of a stick.  According to the Kanji, I had “salad flavor” - which rocked.  Again, I made it my mission to get a box everytime I saw the opportunity.  3 boxes and counting!

When Ren woke up, we were near a huge, retired locomotive.  It was a playground of sorts though not compared to what were saw at the top of the hill.  It was basically a wooden playground that wrapped around in a U-shape that was more of an obstacle course - brilliant.  At the end of the course was a slide - a huge slide.  We went down about 4 times each.  Once Ren discovered how fun it was, we could barely get him to walk away from it.

We continued to walk around more in the third largest park in Japan (huge) until about 5pm when we decided to get dinner.  And did we get dinner.  Jay took us to possibly my favorite restaurant of the trip to date.  It was a Ramen place that was run, at least from what I could tell, by one guy who made some of the best broth and best noodles I’ve had.  We stuffed ourselves on huge noodle bowls then headed to the station for our train.

More to come - Stay Tuned! 

We headed out of Rochester at 9:38am EST, headed out of Chicago at 3:00 CST and landed at Narita International Airport at 6:00 Japan time (13 hours ahead of EST). I won`t bother doing the math but..the flight was long, trust me.

After snagging our luggage, going　through customs and buying our bus tickets, we hopped on a bus headed for Shinjuku station where C`s brother was waiting　for us. It was a long trip, but wow - what a city Tokyo is! I will attempt to write a post with all my observations when there is more time. For now, we are headed out to walk around town.