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!

Honeymoon Essentials - Part 2

While it's my personal belief that everyone needs a travel tripod, the next two honeymoon "must-haves" are a little more specific, depending on what type of post-wedding trip you take.

For honeymoons involving walking, hiking, or any other sort of strenuous pedestrian activity - you're going to want good, reliable shoes.

My impression from Japan is that everyone has cute shoes. Cute sandals, cute heels, cute boots - you name it. Well, except for the rampant Croc fascination. I don't know much about fashion, but the rubbery fashion statement really confuses me.

Anyway, I brought a pair of cute sandals with me, hoping to blend in with the locals. Did I wear them? Zen Zen! (Not at all.) Instead, I spent the entire duration of our trip in these "beauties":

Yes, old brown Rainbows so worn in there's a permanent shadow where my foot belongs. But they were comfortable - six years of tried and true comfortable. No blisters, no foot pain other than the dull ache of walking way-too-much - that equals no problem. Sure, they aren't cute and trendy, but they certainly allowed me to trek around happily. And Japan requires a lot of walking. Walking to train stations, walking to temples, up mountains to castles, walking in the middle of some seedy pachinko alley because someone didn't read the map correctly...

Just to give some perspective - on a typical work day I walk about 7,000 steps. Our longest walking day (according to my Pokewalker) in Japan was about 35,000 steps. A lot of walking.

So bring your most comfortable shoes, regardless of how they look! Your feet will thank you.

And finally - advice for those planning on international honeymoons: bring familiar medicine.

I really should have known better, especially after discussing how Sak gets sick anytime he travels. Luckily he staved off the illnesses until after the wedding, and I consider it a relatively good thing that he only had two vomit incidents in Japan. Better than everyday, right?

I came to Japan with a massive Hawaiian sunburn and a blister on my foot from a cute, non-Rainbow sandal. Nearing the end of our first honeymoon week, Sak developed a massive cold sore under his bottom two front teeth. He also made friends with a snot-infection and a cough. A little bit of dizziness, too - but that could have been from dehydration and severe heat. Now maybe it was my foreign blood, but mosquitoes decided they loved me, and I had more than ten bug bites on each leg before the end of the trip. It probably didn't help that we spent a lot of time around standing water in moats/ponds near castles and temples.
My leg, after just one day in Japan:

So, what did I have on me to remedy any of the above ailments?
One small bottle of Advil. That's it.

Screw an out-of-town bag - we needed an out-of-country bag.

Several convenience and drug stores later, we ended up with the following:
Yeah, other than the band-aids, I have no idea what we actually bought either. The "aloe vera" was the consistency of water (but it smelled like aloe vera, so I guess it was okay). The "cold sore medicine" (small tube) we bought because it had a drawing of a guy with a red bump inside his mouth. And the "bug bite medicine", had a drawing of a mosquito on it. I'm thinking maybe it was repellent, because it certainly didn't make the itchy go away.

Later we bought this, thinking they might be sore throat lozenges since Sak read the word "nodo" (throat) on it:
But maybe it was just candy, because it didn't do much for Sak's cough.
Poor Sak.

My point is - if you can't really read the language, and you can't really ask for help, and you don't have international health insurance and an English speaking doctor - bring your familiar medicine with you. I think Sak would have been better a lot sooner had we some good 'ole cold & cough syrup.

So in summary, reliable shoes and reliable medicine - go! Add it to the honeymoon pack list!

Honeymoon Essentials - Part 1

While I still have absolutely no idea how I'm going to summarize our trip to Japan in just a few posts (for the 'bee anyway..you a-listers here get every.single.detail. sorry!) - I do have a very clear understanding of what was and was not necessary on the honeymoon. Jackets, for instance, were definitely a waste of precious luggage space - given temperatures were practically always in the humid 90's - 100's. I feel sticky just thinking about it.

Anyway, we found that if there's one absolutely-must-have item for any honeymoon, minimoon, or whatevermoon - it would be this:
The travel tripod.

If my mother hadn't bought us this handy little device, all of our pictures would have looked like this:
If you notice on the left, our big fat heads are covering the big gold shrine we're supposedly trying to take a picture in front of!

Or they might all look like this:
Yes, Sak went on vacation by himself. Wifu? What wifu?

Luckily though, with the tripod and the ten-second timer on our camera, we were able to get a little less face, a little more scenery, and a little more coupley-ness.

I know you could always just ask someone else to take your picture for you ("Sumimasennnn - cheeesuuu?"), but there might be places you'll go where there's no one around:

Or you might be doing something strange or embarrassing that you don't want anyone else to see:


Of course, someone might always ruin your shot since the tripod is so little:

So make sure you throw up the peace/victory sign to let everyone around you know that you're taking a picture!
Convinced yet? Definitely add a travel tripod to your pack list. It takes up much less room than completely useless jackets!

Sew in Love

Aloha! Shiny-new-husband Sak and I have finally returned from the only vacation we can afford to have for the next couple years, ha! Or rephrased, we are happily married and back from an unforgettable honeymoon!

Although I'm still battling the brutal fog of international time travel, there's a stack of pending thank you cards calling my name, and an enticing Google Reader with more than a thousand unread articles - I wanted to pop in and say thank you for all your kind words in my last post. Sak and I really enjoyed reading them together.

Unfortunately I don't actually remember everything from the wedding since it was such a blur. Hopefully as we go through recaps together I'll remember! I know I married Sak. That was the important part. And I was smiling all night, crooked teeth and all! And even though my dress ended up really muddy, it didn't fall apart! Victory is ours!

Married life is still so surreal though. Have I really been gone a month? It feels like time really did fly out the window. Sak still fiddles with the foreign piece of metal around his finger, unused to the feel of a ring. I still giggle when I call him husband. We are still learning not to fight over a shared blanket. We still smile the same, sappy smile of newlyweds - like two people that know a great secret that the rest of the world does not. It takes more than a month to get used to the change, it seems.

But enough reflection! I'm off to sort through 25 gigs worth of Japan pictures. And while we wait for the wedding pictures to roll in, here's a sampling of great shots from the ever-talented Barbara of Terra Photography. She kindly had a nice patch of teasers ready and waiting for us upon our return - such a great "welcome home" surprise!




Now, tell me - what's the quickest way to get over jet lag? I feel like a zombie!