Kyoto!

Hello from Kyoto!

We are actually just packing up to leave... it has been a very short stay. This will have to be a shorter post as we are supposed to check out of the hotel in 15 minutes.

We took the red line bullet train (shinkansen) from Tokyo to Kyoto and we were fortunate to have a shuttle bus pick us up and take us to the hotel while we were still deciding whether or not we needed two taxis to accomodate all of our luggage.

The hotel here is not quite as fancy but much more comfortable. Sadly we still are not able to afford the hotel dining... Last night we took a cab to one of the shopping districts in Kyoto and it was pretty amazing. The side streets are lined with shops and then the alleys have even more shops. We bought a few more things and saw some nice buildings. We found a cemetary (surrounded by shops, of course) and took a short break to look around. It was amazingly quiet, considering that a few metres away was a crowded market.

We'll post more pictures later

After looking around for a bit we returned to our hotel room and relaxed for a bit.

Shortly after we had another subway adventure and eventually made our way to Ginza. Here are some more pictures of that area.

Hey friend!

Having grown older and wiser since yesterday, Georgia and I decided to take the train back a little earlier so that we would not have to run like maniacs through the stations again and fall just short of our last train.

We got back to our hotel and walked around the area for a little longer. We have a great view of the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower. There is also this really cool building just across the street from our hotel with lights that rotate colour. The last thing we did before go to sleep was visit a Hawaiian hamburger joint where they cook great looking burgers for a time that is not even close to long enough. We decided to brave the burgers but neither of us managed to finish them. It was a strange system though... it was kind of like when you order Mcnuggets and they don't have any ready so you sit down and wait for them to come to you.

Anyways thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a comment or two!

Ginza!

Yesterday we decided to travel to a new district in Tokyo, Ginza.

From what we have been told it is sort of like Rodeo Drive or 5th Avenue in New York. It was an interesting place, there were many expensive items and people were consuming like crazy.

This was definately the most interesting area as far as architecture is concerned. The crowds weren't quite as overwhelming, but it was somewhat difficult navigating through so many people with an umbrella in hand.

We started the day with french bread and peanut butter (this is what we can afford at our hotel... the peanut butter is our own). Then we walked a little bit further from our hotel than we did yesterday. There was a Sega Amusement park type building and another mall, and then one more mall. People have been incredibly nice to us here

and we'd recommend this area to anyone interested in traveling to Japan.

Some more pictures of Shibuya

Shibuya!

We got our first real taste of Tokyo nightlife last night. Actually we got our first real taste of a few things...

After we finished shopping at Aqua City, a mall near our hotel, we took the train system to Shibuya. Our hotel isn't really in the heart of Tokyo, so as much as we like it here, we hadn't yet been exposed to the quintessential big city Japanese experience. However, as soon as we boarded the train, things began to change... and crowds quickly grew.

First we had to find a train station... easy! It was connected to our hotel. Next we had to get a ticket, which was relatively easy because English is available in the machines. We had one transfer to make and that was fine, but then we got to Shibuya and somehow got lost in the station and actually could not use our tickets to get to an exit. So after spinning around in circles for five minutes while freaking out we ended up just going to an information office and telling them that we didn't want to be there anymore and they let us through to the exit.

Shibuya is pretty incredible. It reminds me a bit of Times Square, although never having been there I can't really confirm that. Shibuya was our first taste of the HUGE amounts of people that you can find in Tokyo. There was one of the those crosswalks that went all different directions and completely halts traffic in every direction.

After walking around and getting a bit overwhelmed we ended up in a very busy Starbucks and collected ourselves until we were supposed to meet with Geoff and Joko. They arranged for a couple of friends of theirs to come and once we had all been introduced we made our way to a restaurant that served very unique-to-Shibuya food. Most of it was very good! Georgia really liked everything.

Following dinner Georgia, Geoff, Joko, Kevin and his girlfriend (sorry!), and I made our way to a karaoke bar to have some fun and feel embarrassed. It was a great time and I'm really glad we got to experience it. Our only complaint was that the drinks we ordered didn't show up until 5 minutes before we had to leave.

We then said goodbye to our new friends and thanked them for an excellent night on the town. We had to make sure that we hurried so we didn't miss the last train back to our hotel. Sadly, we then got lost and did in fact miss our train and had to pay about 10 times as much to take a taxi back. But we got here safe and sound and here we are the next morning with smiles on our faces! Another big day in Tokyo!

Jim

...

"Captain Santa" har har too funny!!

A pic of the outside of our hotel (doesn't do it justice)

And more...

More Pictures!!!