Japan Part 1

Joseph and I left for our trip on Saturday July 31st and returned on Friday August 6th. In between was a real life version of the movie Planes Trains and Automobiles, because I feel that over the course of the week we used pretty much every form of transportation availible. We left early saturday and took the ferry to Busan, we had a late flight so we didn't have to leave Geoje till about 10am, it was still a bit early for us, since we usually don't have to go to work until 1:30. That is really going to have to change once we get back to the states, but here is the first picture of us on our trip, riding in the non-air conditioned portion of the ferry boat since we got there a bit late to make the trip.

We also were kinda ticked off because we had to move seats since this woman seen below (with two hats for some reason) was drunkenly passed out in one of our seats, and it was right next to the window, which would have have been nice. She never woke up the entire trip and when the ride was over, one of the boats staff was trying to wake her up and she would only come to for a minute or so before passing out again.... so then one of her "friends" walked over and slapped the living crap out of her face... needless to say she finally got up, but that was certainly an interesting spectacle to start off our trip...

two hats?!?!?! and drunk at 10 in the morning... wow.


Another view of the ferry cabin

At one point I went out onto the deck for some air since it can get really stuffy in the upstairs area. We were pulling into Busan Harbor.

Our next mode of transportation was Airplane, we enjoyed a short ride to an island off the coast of Japan called Fukuoka, and then another flight to Tokyo. They served us Kimchi triangles and water on the flight, but it was so short I barely had time to fill out my customs forms and finish before we were landing.

Our next flight was much more exciting, we totally saw a Sumo wrestler on the flight, here I tried to take a picture without him noticing....

Once we arrived in Tokyo we searched around for a currency exchange, what we didn't expect was that it would close at 7pm which put us in a critical situation as our second flight did not come in until 10pm and all we had on us was won, which is basically useless in Japan..... Not cool Tokyo! We ended up going over our budget and Joseph took out 100 from his account so we could have enough yen to get to our hotel that night and back to the airport to exchange our money the next day. We hailed a taxi and somehow got to our hotel because I am certain our cabbie had no clue how to get there. We crashed in the smallest hotel room known to man and awoke the next day with the mission to find lunch and then find our way back to the airport using public transportation because the taxi fees in Tokyo are insane. We took a ten minute ride for about 400 yen which is $40 US.... Again tokyo... not cool.

We did however meet a very kind sweet old japanese man who helped us on our journey back to the airport. He was taking the metro (subway/train) and helped us buy our tickets and made sure we got off at the right stops. We could not thank him enough. We made it to the airport and got our Yen and that is when the fun started.

Here is Joseph posing next to a vedning machine in the Metro station, you put in your money, pick what you want and the chef behind the window takes your ticket and makes you a full lunch. Japanese food is delcious too by the way... Not nearly as spicy as Korean food. I hate to admit it but I actually liked the food in Japan much better than the Korean fare, maybe I was just ready for some not so spicy dishes...

Ginza is the Ritzy area with lots of brand name stores and lots of opportunities to spend money, We didn't buy too much this time, but we did have fun exploring the area and finding the Sony Building. We could not take pictures inside but we got to view many new electronic items that will soon be for sale in America.... and the new "walkmans' are totally awesome.

The 4 chrome intersection.

We happened by a shopping center and there was a huge concert going on, so many people all singing along to a very poppy song.

Japan has more vending machines per square foot than anywhere I have seen in my life, you can get drinks, food, beer, and cigarrettes at any place you go.

We went to the Tsukiji fish market to see the fish being sold and to try some shashimi.

Joseph and the restaurant sign.

Giant fish head the had for show.... it was bigger than my head. and creepy.... very creepy.

We ended up sharing some green tea and this version of shashimi with 7 different types of raw fish. We liked all of them except the yellow blobby stuff on the left , it was sea urchin and way nasty.

Me laughing at the guy behind the counter making fun of me eating a big blog of wasabi.

Joseph eating fish eggs... they popped in your mouth, but were tasty with rice.

We ordered the Kaisendon.

Here is the Metro going by, it was confusing, because at times it was like a monorail, then a train, and other times a subway.... and the fact that the 15 lines were not all owned by the government made things difficult at times.

Joseph right before he got his butt handed to him by a japanese teenager who challenged him to a game of Tekken 6. Tekken means fight in Japanese. There were video game arcaded all over the place, so we had to stop at least twice a day so joseph could play his favorite game... it was also a nice place to cool down, grab a drink (from a vending machine of course) and plan our next move.

Imperial Palace.

Bridge at the Imperial Palace.

Random sunflower garder we found on our back back to the city.

We were constantly noticing that Tokyo didn't always feel Japanese, if I didn't know better I would have sworn we were in Chicago or some big city at times...

More gardens....

There is a bird in the background I swear.

Another view.

Check out the turtles on the rock

After walking around in the heat we stopped at Shake paradise.

I got a banana shake with honey and Joseph got pineapple. It was really nice on a hot day.

The obligatory stop at the Hello Kitty store.

Awesome back street that had about 15 restaurants we wanted to try. We were walking right next to the metro at times.

Joseph enjoying his Burger in a bag.

They don't like to get their fingers dirty and you can't eat a burger with chopsticks so you had to use a bag.

I really wanted the pink Kimono, but we would have been flat broke if I had actually bought it. They are so beautiful though.

This is the omorikiagan stop where we left and returned each day since it was right next to our hotel.

Intersection at Shibuya.

We were a big excited for REAL pizza.

Being goofy in the hat store.

Joseph finally got a nice white hat (not this one) but similar.

The arcades had crazy crane games....this one had candy in it.

This one had ice cream, but what was funny is there was an ice cream vending machine right next to this machine and you probably would waste more money getting it from the crane machine than the regular one.... those tricksters.

Instead of going for crane game food we stopped at marion crepes and grabbed delicious crepes to tide us over till dinner. This is the blue berry one, but we also got a Banana, custard and chocolate one... To die for.

SOOOO Good.

We got lost for a bit, and this was actually somebodys private home... but it was so pretty we had to get a picture. I love the garden out front.

Buildings

more buildings.

Just like the Gwen Stefani Song.

We stopped for a ginger ale float.... it was so hot, we were drinking water constantly.

Crazy Bling Bling teen fashion in Harajuku.

For dinner we went to a sushi place and grabbed our food off a conveyor belt. It looks like it is going really fast in the picture, but it was much slower in real life. We ordered lots of the salmon, it was cheap and so delicious.

Finished. We had watermelon for desert.

Tokyo at Night.

This was only snippets from the first few days, there is still more to come.