Newlyweds in Nippon: Tokyo Part 1

Japan...Oh Japan.

After 20 days, I feel like I could write 50 posts on our honeymoon. But this is a wedding blog and not a deranged-fangirl blog, so I'll *try* and keep it to a minimum.

Now, here's basically how this trip happened. Sak planned everything. He did all the reading, all the talking, all the guessing, and all the map-directioning. I, his wifu, stood faithfully by repeating the same litany of Japanese words I had picked up.

Sugoii! (Unreal!)
Atsuiii...(It's hot)
Itaiii...(It hurts)
Onaka ga peko peko! (Grumbly stomach...or something)

That, and the repetition of a commonly aired commercial I happened to get stuck in my head...

No wonder Sak refuses to teach me any Japanese. I'm downright annoying. Ah well.

Anyway, we left in the early AMs the morning after our wedding. Not a good idea. I think we should have waited at least a little longer, because we were dead tired. But oh well! We donned our honeymoon shirts and off we went.
Well, let me tell you. Did our matching shirts lead to any free upgrades? Nope. But we did get complimentary SECURITY FRISKINGS, complete with total bag check. UGH. The staff said it was just a random sample, but Sak's dad is convinced it's because we looked like commies. *Sigh*
Eight hours later and after two tries at landing we finally got down to Narita airport. I got in trouble trying to take a picture of their customs mascot (there is a mascot for EVERYTHING in Japan) but we eventually made it to the outskirts of Tokyo to our hotel in Shinigawa Seaside. I quickly became fascinated with the toilet bidet, and played with the buttons for an embarrassing amount of time.

The magical mirror that stays un-fogged in one spot was pretty cool too!

For dinner, we balked at the prices of nearly everything, and Sak went into "85-Yen-to-a-dollar-shock" and remained a constant cheap-o for a good week. Not that grocery store food in Japan is bad. Where else can you get a big fat sushi roll for less than 200 yen?

Anyway, whirlwind pictures of Tokyo - commence!

Ueno

You might wonder why we went all the way to Japan just to go to a zoo. Especially a zoo that doesn't have it's famous panda anymore.

Poor panda.

Well, I don't really know. We like animals a lot. And even though this particular zoo had fairly sad and small enclosures for their "wildlife", I still appreciate the animals and hope most of them came from conservation efforts. Plus, there were animals I'd never seen before - like the American Bison!

Also, the garden outside the zoo had a fantastic pond blooming with lotus! I'd never seen one in real life before, but they are huge! You'd probably only need one of them to make a bouquet.


Harajuku

Mitte! It's Miss and Mr. Glasses!
They woke up extra early to play tour guide to us jet-lagged honeymooners. They took us to Meiji shrine, and we had a great time reading hopes and prayers left by visitors. Some were rather interesting!

We also walked down Harajuku street, where Miss Glasses taught us ignorant Californians the finer art of Japanese purikura. The picture machines actually enlarge your eyes to make them cuter, which still boggles my mind!

(Photo taken by Miss Glasses)

And Mr. Glasses took us to Kiddy Land. With a name like that, you know we would love it. Sak got a pair of Shinkansen chopsticks and I got some Pokemon stuff. Did you know Mr. Glasses has caught all the Pokemon? I clearly cannot hold a candle to the Pokemon master.

Akihabara

We ended up spending one and a half days in the electric town of "Akiba" (the place where all the electronics, anime, and gamer fans hang out), and I feel like we barely scratched the surface. We could have easily spent the whole week here alone. We bought an audio guide for navigation several months back, and it helped us really get a flavor for what the town was (radio and electronics hobbyists):

An electronic component flea market!

...to what it has become (maid cafes, games, etc.):

The famous Gundam Cafe, where girls in Gundam cosplay serve you!

Rows and rows of videogame soundtrack CDs!

I also became quite obsessed with "gachapon" machines, which are about four times more expensive then America's "quarter machines" (but oh-so-much-better). I came home with tons of anime paraphenalia in capsule balls.


And of course, the infamous Japanese vending machine. There's one on every corner, literally! Most sell drinks, but this one in Akiba sells hot skewers of meat (yakitori)! in a can!


In short, although headache-inducing loud at times, Akihabara was one of our favorite places. It really is like an everyday anime convention. Someday we'll have to go back to explore it more in-depth!