michael lost in translation...: One Week in Tokyo, part 1

My first visit to Tokyo in June was overwhelming, but I honestly didn't know if I was going to make it back alive from my most recent visit. There are many pictures and stories, so I will be breaking up the trip into several blog posts.

After arriving in Tokyo bright and early via the night bus, Will, Tyler, and I headed for the Imperial Gardens, which was within walking distance from Tokyo Station. We waited at the gate until it opened. The gardens were beautiful but it was stiflingly hot.

After we were finished exploring the Imperial Gardens, we went to Ueno and looked around the shopping district for a while. Will was missing American food, so we tracked down a TGIFridays restaurant. It was quite a reverse culture shock being in this restaurant in Japan. By appearances, it was just like an ordinary American restaurant. The portion sizes here were American sized and the waitress and hosts all spoke English to us. Even though I was hungry, I could not finish my chicken sandwich because it was so large. I guess I have adapted to the Japanese portions more than I thought I had. Afterwards, we all regreted going to this restaurant because the greasy food made us a little sick to our stomachs.

After eating we shopped some more and then went to meet Will's friends who were flying in from Texas to visit for the week. We stayed in a hotel in Akasaka, which was a really nice part of town. The hotel was really nice and there were lots of foreigners staying there.

This is the instructions on how to properly use the Japanese toilet/bidet.

This is the hotel lobby

The next day Will and his friends were off to Kyoto, and Tyler and I stayed behind to explore Tokyo further. We stayed at a hostel in Asakasabashi which was nice and we met some Canadians who were teaching English in Korea but were here for vacation.

I met up with Kevin, a friend from UNCA who graduated and moved back to Tokyo in January. He took me to Roppongi, where we saw a huge shopping mall and a TV headquarters, where I got this picture of him with Doraemon, a really popular TV character in Japan that has been around for ages. We went to his house to kill some time and watched some Family Guy episodes that I had missed out on. It was fun hanging out with someone from back home in Japan, and he speaks such good English compared to everyone else that I have met. Tyler didn't believe him that he was actually from Japan.

We all went to Odaiba at night to ride the ferris wheel, which is a really large one that overlooks the city. I got some nice pictures from the top. It was a pretty amusing ride because Will's friends played Lady Gaga on their iPhones once we reached the top.