Tokyo

We went to Tokyo for the weekend, and loved it! Joe had to go to a town called Utsunomiya for work for a few days, which is north of Tokyo. So we decided to meet in Tokyo for the weekend. After spending a frustrating hour searching for each other in the ginormous Tokyo Station, we finally found each other and had a great weekend!

This may not look like much during the day, but at night this long street comes alive! There are tons of restaurants, bars, and cafes under the train tracks... a very unique setting and fun atmosphere. We ate at a little Italian restaurant our first night just down the street from here.

We didn't have the energy to get up at 4am to see the actual famous Tokyo fish market, but we did venture over to a little market area near the fish market later in the morning. :)

Did you see the fish Joe caught!? It was a whopper!

We spent the afternoon shopping in an area called Shibuya - a popular and trendy shopping area for young people. This picture is of the famous Shibuya Crossing intersection right outside of Shibuya Station. It's known as the world's busiest street crossing, and one of the world's largest cross walks. When the traffic lights turn red, all traffic stops in every direction. So the entire intersection opens up for pediestrians to cross. Thousands of people cross within minutes, all day, everyday: morning, noon, and night.

At night we went to a neighboring district called Roppongi, known for it's nightlife. We loved all of the international food choices and decided to go on our own little pub crawl. We started out at a German pub, ordering appetizers and beer. Second, we went out for margharitas and dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Next, we found an Irish pub with my favorite Strongbow Cider! Last, we went to a sports bar which had a variety of draft beer choices. Very fun night!

The next day, we wandered the streets of an area called Ginza, which is one of Toky's upscale shopping districts. They close the streets on weekends to accommodate all of the pedestrian traffic. Our favorite part of this district was probably the Sony Building, which is essentially a Sony showroom with hands-on displays of the latest gizmos and gadgets.

We ventured into the 12 floor Abercrombie & Fitch store, famous and popular for being Asia's first store. I wasn't surprised to smell the perfume from down the street and hear the booming music, but I was very surprised to see girls dancing in mini-skirts and male models without shirts on displaying the classic "abercrombie look." I was too uncomfortable to take a picture, but copied a couple from the internet to show you what I'm talking about:

Most of the male and female models were "white," and people were lined up to take pictures with them. Prices were over double what you would pay for an item in the U.S. The lowest price we saw for jeans was $250. And even still, people were buying like crazy... if they only knew how much they were overpaying!

Overall, we had a great weekend trip to Tokyo and plan on going back soon!!!