Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Tokyo--Day Four

After a good night's sleep we were ready for another adventure. This time it was Tokyo Tower, Ueno Park, Museum of Science and Ameyoko Street.

Tokyo Tower....their version of the Eiffel Tower. Very cool although it was cloudy so we couldn't see as far as we would have liked. There was one spot in the floor that allowed you to stand on glass and look down. I wouldn't do it and Tyler was scared too. Logan and Ryland had no problems though. We gathered quite the crowd when we tried to get Tyler to go on it. He kept doing his little squeal and everyone would laugh.



In our country you'd find hot dogs and nachos at a convenience store. In Japan you'll find this.....
Ueno Park/Science Museum....there were a lot of museums in the this area and I would have liked to explore a little more but we were all tired from A LOT of walking. We did explore some of the museum which was pretty amazing. There were two buildings each with about 6-7 floors. We only did one of them. Chris and the boys did a 360 theater which is screens all over, on the top, bottom, sides, etc.

After we left we noticed a large crowd in the park and some music playing. I started to gravitate towards it but then realized that it was an outdoor soup kitchen. There were so many homeless people coming to get something to eat. It was nice though because they were being entertained by a concert.
We decided to stop and get some authentic Japanese street food. I had no idea what to order so we got pot stickers and tempura chicken. The girl behind the counter didn't have much patience for foreigners. Makes me well aware of how I treat people that don't speak my language. It's a very helpless feeling to not be able to communicate.

Then on to Ameyoko market. This is the original market place for old Tokyo, formerly known as Edo. It's where they sell everything from fish to bags to shoes. We got free samples of miso soup...pretty gross. And fruit on a stick...very good. Once again we were stared at...here comes the giant Americans!
We headed back to the hotel, rested, ate and went back out again for some night time fun. We went to Shibuya station by taxi. This is where Lost in Translation was filmed. It's the place with all the giant screens on the buildings and the intersection with the most people that cross it in the world! It was so overwhelming. We stood there for 10 minutes in awe of the place.
We walked around there for awhile. I got a chance to get some Japanese fabric from a cool store. We bought some Krispy Kreme donuts...YAY! (They cost 1600Y---roughly $16 for a dozen!) Then we headed home by taxi once again. We actually had to have someone write a note in Japanese so we could get to and from the hotel! The taxi driver took us on all of these tiny back roads. It was fun!

End of day four.

1 comments:

Rebecca said...

That's so funny. We stood in probably the exact same spot in overwhelmed awe! I kept grabbing the girls and making them hold hands afraid they'd be lost in the sea of people.