Tokyo: Day Two

We lugged ourselves out of bed for day two of Tokyo--tired, but excited--and headed straight to Asakusa. We decided to wait for breakfast, but by the time we arrived in Asakusa it was nearly lunch time. There was a nice restaurant where Chad ate omuraisu, which is similar to how is sounds: an omelet with rice inside. I had a lovely obentou.

Next, we headed down the crowded streets to Asakusa Temple, one of the oldest temples in Tokyo.

Seeing the temple was well worth having to wade through the crowd. Pictures below include the gate to the shrine, Chad wafting away evil spirits with incense smoke, a pagoda, and some of the decorative work found inside the temple.

This was painted on the ceiling in the temple:

The gate to the shrine is called the "Thunder Gate," and it is guarded by the god of wind on the right, and the god of thunder on the left.

Before leaving Asakusa, we made two very important stops. First:

Taiyaki glory.

And second:

Afternoon Sangrias.

From Asakusa, we decided to leave Tokyo and go to Yokohama, Japan's second largest city. When we arrived, Chad was taken over by excitement and suddenly became part of Dragon Ball Z.

Then he got to use a big boy rocking chair!

Yokohama is famous for being one of the first ports in Japan to be opened to foreign trade, but it's also famous for its China town. You can bet that as soon as Chad recovered from his fireball throwing and rocking chair fun we headed toward the luring streets of Japan's largest China town.

Discovering Yokohama China Town

After an expensive dinner in the China Town (yeah, what? I thought Chinese food was cheap!), we went back to Shinjuku. Night had fallen, but we weren't finished yet!

Above you can see what happens when you enter a SMAP izakaya, and below you can see Shinjuku's awesome night lights and the side of a Tokyo cab.

Almost time for bed, but not without one final question:

Day Three coming soon!

Finally!

Well, we finally got our internet and its nice to talk to people after what seems like months. Training is going well, though very tiring. We have a hour and a half commute to our training school (one way) as well as demonstrations at least once a day that we need to prepare. Our apartment is pretty sweet and is about twice as big as I feared it was going to be. We have cooked a bit at home, but have also been going to a lot of ramen shops, udon shops and other neat restaurants (everything is delicious!). We also checked out a kaiten sushi restaurant in which sushi comes around on conveyor belts and you just grab whatever you want to try. The sushi comes on different plates, and each color costs a different price (usually between 100 and 500 yen). At the end, they count your plates and you pay.

We were able to check out a short taiko drumming presentation the other day on our way to work which was really neat. Though they were amateurs, they were extremely good. It appeared to be some competition that lasted all day, so we were kind of bummed that we had to go to training. We went to our first izakaya (the Japanese equivalent to a pub or a bar) on Thursday and that was also quite the experience. I was quite uncomfortable the entire time because the tables are made for short Japanese legs which I do not have (one of the waitresses commented "Oh, nagai ashi!," which means, "Long legs!," when she saw me trying to fit). Luckily they had some amazing chicken wings. Yokkaichi (where we are living) is pretty sweet too, though people are NOT used to gaijin (foreigners) at all. As they drive/walk/bike by they stare like we are doing something outrageous. Today when we were walking back from getting groceries two girls ran into Caitlyn on their bike because they were kind of staring at me. It was funny.

Now I am going to attempt to post some pictures of our apartment and things around Yokkaichi.

5 minutes later: Awesome I just deleted all of the pictures. Well, we should have some up soon.

Toodaloo,
Chad and Caitlyn