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The wonderful thing about Tokyo is that it is a world away from everything I know and yet it is strangely familiar. We are here for 8nights on a whirlwind tour and we are settling in to the rhythm. Our traditional Japanese Ryokan has welcomed us with a small room with a tatami mat floor on which you fold out your futon nightly. The jacuzzi bath for two is a lovely way to end a day of walking your feet into the ground.
We are maximizing our time and the subway here. There are so many trains and it is easy to get around here. We made our way to Ueno park on our first day, a well loved place by Tokyo, with a zoo, shrines, and museums. We visited the national museum here to enjoy a great collection of western art including Monet's famous water lilies, our favorite.
Next, a cultural visit to Akihabra where all the youngsters hang out and geek out on Japanese anime and manga. Our primary reason to visit here was to see the freaks, and experience a cafe. We did indeed. Here you can go to a themed cafe with maids, cats and ninja's. Our choice was a Ninja cafe, and the servers were dressed up as ninja's. This I realized after is a weird form of companionship that I don't really understand. But nonetheless our drinks were served by ninja's, which Chris thinks was awesome! Akihabra has many weird and wonderful stores for geeks filled with gadgets and electronics as well as hobby stores. This explains the picture of naked creepy dolls! I did visit yodabashi camera which has every known camera in the universe. And everyone in Tokyo was there too as it was a Sunday. We are getting used to dodging people on streets, trains, and practically everywhere we go, like a ninja!
Next stop, the Tokyo Sky Tree building which is the tallest building we think in the world...maybe. Here, Christmas is in full swing and we visited a Christmas themed German market at the base of the sky tree. While waiting for the million lights to come on around us we joined the other Japanese families in a festive beverage and gave our feet a rest. There is something marvelous about sitting and enjoying the atmosphere after a long day of walking.
We have enjoyed plenty of favorite foods like Udon noodle soup, tempura crispy vegetables, curry katsu don(pork) and of course the bakeries which have divine goodies. Every vending machine we pass has plenty of fun beverage options to enjoy also.
As we get over the jet lag and get used to the culture shock, we both realize how lucky we are to enjoy the time together in this foreign and familiar place. Tomorrow we venture by day to Nikko World Heritage site.
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